The S.A. White Collection [a seven-volume facsimile edition comprising Diggles' 'The Ornithology of Australia', and selected plates and text from Gould's 'The Birds of Australia - Supplement, Parts 4 and 5', and Mathews' 'The Birds of Australia']

Adelaide: State Publishing, 1989. Hardcover. Fine. Adelaide, State Publishing, 1989 to 1992 (facsimile editions, first thus)/ 1866-1870, 1869, and 1910-1927, respectively. Seven volumes (folio, large folio, and large quarto, respectively), comprising Diggles in three volumes (with a total of 126 colour plates, the full compliment); Gould in one volume (with 24 colour plates); and Mathews in three volumes (with a total of 105 colour plates). Each volume contains a different illustrated introduction by Rob Linn relating to White and his ornithological work. Half grey leather and cloth, lettered in silver; a fine set, unopened in the publisher's individual cartons, as issued. Each volume is number 411 of 500 copies of a facsimile edition of works originally owned and used by Samuel Albert White (1870-1954), 'ornithologist and conservationist ... His most arduous and important work as a naturalist occurred when he collaborated with Gregory Mathews on "The Birds of Australia" (London, 1910-27). To this end, White mounted major collecting expeditions, often accompanied by his wife. He travelled with camels to Alice Springs and beyond (1913), with a government team to the Musgrave and Everard ranges (1914), and with the South Australian Museum expedition to Cooper Creek (1916); he also went to the Nullarbor Plains (1917-18), with Sir Edgeworth David and Professor Walter Howchin to the Finke River (1921), and in 1922 led the great adventure from Adelaide to Darwin and back, using three Dort motor cars supplied and serviced by Adelaide mechanics Cyril and Murray Aunger. White's outstanding achievement lay in completing an ornithological survey of the whole of South Australia and much of the Northern Territory. He was the first European to see several species and regarded the Princess Alexandra parrot as the world's most beautiful bird. A keen conservationist, he was a central figure in the declaration of national parks in the State and was a noted spokesman on insects, birds and botany. He had cultivated the friendship of the Aborigines of Central Australia and defended them publicly' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). The main value of this series is that it reproduces 'The Ornithology of Australia' by Sylvester Diggles in its entirety. The original edition, issued in 21 parts each containing six plates, is very rare indeed, and this fine facsimile edition on its own is worth more than the price we are asking for the series (published at just under $3500 over thirty years ago now). [7 items].