Davidson Collection Sale Brings History to All Australian
A landmark sale from a celebrated private collection belonging to Mr. Rodney D. Davidson, A.O., O.B.E. gave the National Library of Australia the chance to buy important pieces of Australia’s history.
Held in March 2005, the sale released part of an Australiana collection that was put together over a fifty-year period. Including Pacific voyages and travels, the collection has been described by the Australian Book Auction catalogue as ‘unrivalled since the great libraries formed in the Golden Age of Australiana collecting in the late 1800s and early 1900s’.
The 350 member audience came from Australia and around the world. More than 150 registered bidders represented collectors, antiquarian book dealers and institutions. They were all ready to buy books, pamphlets, journals, newspapers and maps recording the revelation of Australia and settlement to the time of Governor Bligh.
The record-breaking 203 lots (190 sold) realised over A$5.77 million, more than doubling the previous Australian record set at the David L. Bremer collection in 1988. Three of the five highest auction prices for an Australian book were set here as well as ten world record prices.
Against this strong competition, the Library was successful in its bidding for some significant acquisitions.
The Library’s success included five titles eligible for or listed in Ferguson’s Bibliography of Australia; three titles eligible for or listed in Beddie’s Bibliography of Captain James Cook; various titles by pickpocket convict George Barrington; and a Thevenot map.
Between them they included five titles which had no known holdings in Australia (apart from Davidson’s copies) as well as three unrecorded variants.
Here is a small selection of these treasures.
An Authentic and Interresting [sic] Narrative of the Late Expedition to Botany Bay … / written by an Officer just returned in the Prince of Wales transport …
London : Printed for W, Bailey, H. Lemoine and J. Parsons, 1789.
43 p .: ill. ; 21 cm (4to)
This only known copy of a chapbook account is considered the greatest of rarities. An unrecorded variant of Ferguson 42, it is the first and earliest issue of the first work to record the foundation of Australia. The Library wanted to add to its trio of variants at Ferguson 42–44. It now has the complete set of four.
Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean on Discovery Performed in the Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1789 … faithfully narrated from the original.
London : Printed for E. Newbery, 1781.
[2], xl, xlvi [i.e. vii], 388 [i.e. 396]p., [6] leaves of plates (2 folded) : ill. (1 folded), folded map, port ; 21 cm. (8vo)
This surreptitious and anonymous publication anticipates the authorised account that has been attributed to John Rickman. It is a rare, unrecorded variant of Beddie 1607, the earliest state of the first edition, identified as Forbes 33, state AA in his Hawaiian National Bibliography, 1780–1900.
It includes the uncancelled leaf D4 (p. xxxix-xl) and the cancelled leaves (p. xxxix–xlvi) with its extensively rewritten and expanded text detailing the history of English attempts to find the North-West Passage.
There are no known copies anywhere else in the world.
A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in His Majesty’s Ship the Endeavour, faithfully transcribed from the papers of the late Sydney Parkinson …
London : Printed for Stanfield Parkinson, the editor, and sold by Messrs Richardson and Urquhart ...; Evans ...; Hooper...; Murray …; Leacroft …; and Riley …, 1773.
[ii], xxiii, 4, 212, [2] p., 27 leaves of plates : ill., map, ports. ; 34 cm. (4to)
This is an unofficial account of Cook’s first voyage. This first edition contains the extremely rare variant with the Gomeldon addition (4 p.), which prints a letter—written on Batavia—from Sydney Parkinson to his cousin Jane Gomeldon, together with her letter in reply, and her poem addressed to him. The purpose of these additional pages appears to be to justify Stanfield Parkinson’s dispute with Joseph Banks: Stanfield Parkinson’s deceased brother Sydney had promised shells and drawings to Jane Gomeldon and Banks had not given them to her.
It is an unrecorded variant of Beddie, 712 with no known Australian copies in public institutions.
Collection abrégée des voyages anciens et modernes autour du monde : avec des extraits des autres voyageurs les plus célébrés et les plus récents …/ rédigée par F. B*******L.
Paris : De l’Imprimerie de Fr. Dufart, père, 1808–09
12 v. : ill., 5 maps, ports. ; 21 cm.
Compiled by François Bancarel, this is a very scarce and important collection of voyages, notably of the Pacific. There are no known holdings in Australia. It is recorded in Ferguson’s Addenda as 457a.
These treasures relating to the discovery and birth of Australia are now available to everyone. For the Library, achievements like this demonstrate the real meaning of success.
Wanda Horky
Australian Collection Development
National Library of Australia



