Diggers shipping from Melbourne / The Shipping Agents are netting handsome.

A$1,900 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

[Melbourne : James J. Blundell, between 1852 and 1855]. Illustrated letter paper, 182 x 115 mm, bifolium with lithographed letterhead reproducing one of the plates from S.T. Gill s Sketches of the Victoria gold diggings and diggers as they are (Melbourne : Macartney Galbraith, August 1852); lithographed image, including captions, 90 x 90 mm; the rear blank side has a light hinge mark, but this is an exceptionally fine example. This illustrated letter paper reproduces a slightly modified version of goldfields artist S.T. Gill s Diggers shipping from Melbourne : the detail in the notices on the wall in the shipping office is omitted, and the lithograph includes a second, calligraphic caption which does not appear in the original version. According to Shar Jones, at least forty-six vignettes were lithographed for letterheads with wry explanatory captions. (DAAO) A rare piece of printed ephemera from the early Victorian gold rush era. We can locate no other example of this particular letter paper in Australian collections. References : DEUTSCHER, Chris. Painters and engravers from the gold-fields. Focusing on Victoria: the 1850s onwards. Melbourne : Deutscher Fine Art, 1983, p. 44 BOWDEN, K. M. Samuel Thomas Gill : artist. Maryborough, 1971, p. 121

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.