Provenance
Looking at the history of ownership of one particular copy of a book can take one on a fascinating journey back through history, if the evidence is there to allow the provenance to be traced.
In the copy that forms the basis for this exhibition, the original owner, Harold Selwyn Smith, has boldly emblazoned his name together with the date 1879 on the endpaper. Smith lived in Christchurch at this time and it appears very likely that he was personally acquainted with the author of the work.
Considering that the copy is complete with all the original binding and endpapers, it is a little bewildering that there is no evidence of other subsequent owners, until it was added to the stock of one of Australia's foremost rare book dealers from which the present owner purchased it on 8th February 2005.
Thus we find Messrs Berkelouw (Antiquarian Bookdealers since 1812) in Berrima, New South Wales, have annotated the back of the frontispiece with their stock number and the price in Australian dollars.
In the copy that forms the basis for this exhibition, the original owner, Harold Selwyn Smith, has boldly emblazoned his name together with the date 1879 on the endpaper. Smith lived in Christchurch at this time and it appears very likely that he was personally acquainted with the author of the work.
Considering that the copy is complete with all the original binding and endpapers, it is a little bewildering that there is no evidence of other subsequent owners, until it was added to the stock of one of Australia's foremost rare book dealers from which the present owner purchased it on 8th February 2005.
Thus we find Messrs Berkelouw (Antiquarian Bookdealers since 1812) in Berrima, New South Wales, have annotated the back of the frontispiece with their stock number and the price in Australian dollars.