The Royal South Australian Almanack and General Directory for 1854
Adelaide, printed and published at the 'Register' and 'Observer' Office, 1854.
Duodecimo, [xii], 244, 42 (Directory), 36 (advertisements) pages with the hand-coloured plate featuring nine 'Signals used at the West Terrace Flagstaff'.
Flush-cut quarter cloth and printed card covers (repeating the title page details on the front, with advertisements on the rear); covers rubbed, marked and lightly tidemarked, with some simple arithmetic on the front cover and front free endpaper; extremities of the covers lightly worn; minimal expert restoration to the foot of the front joint; title written in ink on the spine; minor signs of age and use; essentially a very good copy with the contemporary ownership details of Joseph Grivell, 1854, on the flyleaf (and indistinctly on the front cover). His name does not appear in the directory, suggesting he lived outside Adelaide (see below).
In the preface, dated 10 January 1854, the compiler apologises for the lateness of the appearance of the almanack, the delay being 'occasioned by the extreme difficulty in obtaining compositors' - presumably all off to the diggings. He also apologises for the 'total omission of the Country Directory' for various reasons, so the 42-page directory covers only Adelaide and suburbs. Most of the balance of the book is given over to the usual statistics, regulations and lists of assorted office-bearers. However, the farmers' and gardeners' calendar runs to 18 pages, and there is a lengthy and important contribution by E.W. Andrews: 'Navigation of the Murray. Being extracts from a journal kept on board the "Lady Augusta" during Captain Cadell's exploratory voyage from the Goolwa to Ganawarra' (51 pages). Fellow-passengers James Allen and Arthur Kinloch published their independent accounts of this pioneering trip in book form in late 1853. In any event, Andrews' account was reasonably hot off the press; his last journal entry was dated 15 October 1853, less than three months before this almanack, delayed in publication, appeared. Ferguson 9829f.
Item #80666
Price (AUD):
$1,500.00