RARE 1838 ORIGINAL LITHO EX “THREE EXPEDITIONS AUSTRALIA” MAJOR TL MITCHELL #26

$99

Condition:: Used

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Surveyor-general Major Thomas Livingston Mitchell is credited with opening the plains of Central and Western Victoria to settlement by pastoralists and farmers. In his book of 1838 (Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia) he called this land ‘Australia Felix’. ‘The land is...open and available in its present state for all purposes of civilised man. We traversed it in two directions with heavy carts, meeting no other obstruction than the softness of the rich soil; and, in returning over flowery plains and green hills fanned by the breeze of early spring, I named this region Australia Felix, the better to distinguish it from the parched deserts of the interior country...flocks might be put out upon its hills or the plough at once set to work in the plains’. Mitchell had made it! After 2 expeditions that had been comparative failures, contributing little to the picture of land resources of the British colony, he had succeeded in finding great new pastures and his name would resonate in the halls of pomp and power in Britain and in the annals of exploration.

Extremely difficult to buy !!!! On offer is an original lithograph bookplate engraving from the 1838 1st edition book by Major T L Mitchell “Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia”. Paper size is 21.5cms x 13cms. Lightly hinged to acid free white backing. Minor marks & light foxing.

The engraving is entitled CHAEROPUS ECAUDATUS It is Plate No 38.

Will be posted flat & not rolled to avoid creasing.

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