This auction catalogue of ‘about three thousand books’ divided into 236 lots was held over three days in John Blackman’s rooms in King Street, Sydney in June 1836. The ‘much esteemed works’ advertised on the title page are suggestive of the popularity of works such as Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies (1815) and Alexander Barclay’s A Practical View of the Present State of Slavery in the West Indies (1826). The catalogue consists of a range of works from educational books on grammar and spelling to travel narratives, such as William Bligh’s A Voyage to the South Sea (1792).
The catalogue comprises several titles written and/or edited by the Scottish novelist Leitch Ritchie, including London Nights’ Entertainments, Friendship’s Offering, and Winter’s Wreath, and The Library of Romance. A notable inclusion in the catalogue is the novel Louisa Egerton: A Tale of Real Life (1830) by Mary Leman Grimstone, purportedly written during her travels to and stay in Van Diemen’s Land and therefore considered one of the first Australian novels. Other significant titles include 9 volumes of Walter Scott’s Tales of a Grandfather (1831), Lord Byron’s English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Charlotte Smith’s The Old Manor House (1793) and Matthew Gregory Lewis’ The Monk (1796).
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