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Davidson Collection Sale Part 2 Brings More History to All Australians

The second sale from the celebrated private collection belonging to Rodney D. Davidson gave the National Library an opportunity to buy more important pieces of Australia’s history.

Held in February 2006, the sale released the second of four parts of an Australiana collection acquired over 50 years. This part of the collection covers Australia before the discovery of gold, from 1810 to 1850. It includes foundation documents relating to the early settlement of Melbourne and three iconic works on interior exploration, each estimated at half a million dollars or more. This was a record-breaking sale with 202 lots (188 sold) totalling $4 499 840. The highest auction price for an Australian book was set at this sale, and four of the top five auction prices for Australian books have been for items sold at both Davidson Collection sales.

The Library was successful in acquiring nine significant acquisitions which included eight titles eligible for, or listed in, Ferguson’s Bibliography of Australia, and one title on the Canadian exiles transported to Van Diemen’s Land.

Two of the titles are unrecorded with no known holdings in Australia: a famous broadside and an item regarded as one of the greatest Australian rarities. The latter is A Journey from Sydney to the Australian Alps Undertaken in the Months of January, February and March 1834 by John Lhotsky. It is made up of eight parts of a projected twenty that were never completed. This is known to be one of the most complete copies (118 pages) and is the author’s presentation copy. The broadside, printed on 15 November 1850, is titled Commemoration of the Boon of the Separation of the Province of Victoria from the Colony of New South Wales. It celebrated the separation of Victoria from New South Wales by being printed on the back of a cart on its way to Princes Bridge. It provides a history of the crucial role of the Port Phillip press in the separation of the two colonies. These treasures of Australian history are now available to all Australians.

Wanda Horky