PHILLIP, Arthur. The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay; with an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson & Norfolk Island... London: John Stockdale, 1789 (MDCCLXXXIX).

4to. Full later tan calf. Gilt margins to covers. Spine with gilt and blind tooling, lettered in gilt on red morocco panel. Dentelles tooled in blind. [iv], 6, [i], viii, [xii], x, 298, lxxiv pp. 55 plates (33 with colouring — see note below); 7 folding maps. First edition. Ferguson 59.

Full title: The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay; with an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson & Norfolk Island; Compiled from Authentic Papers, which have been Obtained from the Several Departments to which are added, the Journals of Lieutenants Shortland, Watts, Ball, & Captain Marshall; with an Account of their New Discoveries.

On 26 January 1788, Arthur Phillip sailed the First Fleet into Port Jackson, planted a flag on the shore of what would become Sydney Cove, and took formal possession of the territory in the name of the Crown. Eight months later, a ship carrying despatches and journals left the Colony for England. From that material, together with accounts drawn from other officers and compiled under Phillip's authority, John Stockdale produced this volume in 1789, within a year of the landing. It is the first of five accounts collectively known as the First Fleet Journals, the foundational documentary record of Australian colonial settlement.

The work is of extraordinary bibliographic and historical significance. It contains the first published map of Sydney Cove and the first plan of Port Jackson, both surveyed by Lieutenant John Hunter, who would later serve as the second Governor of New South Wales. It also contains some of the earliest published illustrations of the Australian continent's natural history drawn by the artists who accompanied the fleet. These images established the visual language through which British readers first encountered the continent. The substantial appendix at the rear, listing the names of convicts transported with the First Fleet, was frequently removed by subscribers who considered the association with transported criminals unseemly; its presence here indicates a copy that has come down to us complete and uncensored.

The work was published in two states: a deluxe issue with the plates printed on hand-laid paper and with original hand-colouring from the press, and a trade issue with plates printed on wove paper in black and white. The coloured plates in this copy are not printed on laid paper and show some differences from the original deluxe colouring, indicating that the colour was applied after publication rather than at the press. The practice of subsequently colouring trade copies was not uncommon in the period; the result is a copy that sits between the two published states but carries the visual richness of a coloured copy. This distinction is disclosed in good faith and is reflected in the pricing.

Very good. Bound in a fine later binding, leather smooth and supple, gilt lettering and tooling bright. A trace of rubbing to corners. Contents complete in excellent condition. Some mild toning and spotting throughout. Tissue guards present on the majority of plates; faint impressions from adjacent leaves on some guards and plates.

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Catalogue Number: HH000143