A Walk in Sydney Streets on the Shady Side. 20 Sketches.. by WHITELOCKE, Nelson Bulstrode Paget - 1885

Sydney: The Author, 1885. Some scattered spotting, expertly rebacked, edges bumped but a good copy.. Folio, lithographic dedication, title and envoi, and 20 lithographs; original publisher's half morocco.

One of the rarer nineteenth-century illustrated Australian books in a handsome Sydney binding by W.E. Smith. A journalist, Whitelocke was born in London in 1861. It is not clear when he arrived in Australia but he entered journalism in the 1880s and was editor of the Barrier Miner and the National Advocate; he also wrote for the Sydney Mail and other papers. His social sympathies and his often satirically observant eye are obvious from this series of Mayhewesque images of Sydney city life.

As Whitelocke himself comments in the advertisement to the work, the idea was prompted by a Sydney Morning Herald review of his 24 original sketches from the works of Charles Dickens (1882): the editors applauded the sketches, but openly wondered why the artist did not stay closer to home, as 'Sydney streets afford more subjects for a book of sketches than any work of Dickens'. Whitelocke acknowledged the value of such a project, and the resulting lithographs show that he was evidently drawn to the everyday bustle of the city, producing a fascinating series of social documents. His concern is with everyday life, whether it is an image of a Chinese vegetable seller, news-boys, orators in the park or street musicians (playing a harp, no less). There is a moralising tone to much of the letterpress, which belies the evident empathy and compassion of the images.

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