Reference: Lewin, John William. Prodromus Entomology. Natural History of Lepidopterous Insects of New South Wales. Collected, engraved and faithfully painted after nature, by John William Lewin. Quarto, with 18 handcoloured engraved plates, later nineteenth-century green half-morocco and cloth sides, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, London, Printed for the Author and Published from the hand of his brother, Thomas Lewin, 1805. Very rare: first edition of the first book by the first professional artist to settle on the Australian frontier. John William Lewin was trained by his father, the prominent natural history artist William Lewin, author of Birds of Great Britain. Accordingly, when J.W. Lewin decided to visit New South Wales to further his career as a naturalist and natural history artist, he was able to secure the patronage of several important people, among whom were Lady Arden, the Duke of Portland, and the naturalist Dru Drury, who supplied him with equipment and engaged him to supply insect specimens from New South Wales. Lewin arrived in the colony in 1800 and immediately set out on expeditions to build a collection of specimens. He received support from Governor King, who in 1801 allowed him to accompany James Grant to Bass Strait and then to the Hunter River on the Lady Nelson, as well as giving him passage on a government voyage to Tahiti. In 1804 Governor King granted him a farm near Parramatta, where he worked on the plates for his two major works on the insects and birds of New South Wales. This first edition was published in four states. The present copy is part of the ‘most deluxe’ state with the text printed on large paper and the plates on fine “imperial” paper, fully coloured with coloured grounds. No more than forty copies were issued of this deluxe first state. Ferguson, 411; Richards , 111; Wantrup, p. 277.
Information from The Denis Joachim Collection auction catalogue, Mossgreen Auctions, Melbourne, 19 June 2016.
Publishing details: London, 1805, [there is also a second edition, 19 hand-coloured engraved plates (several plates watermarked "J. Whatman, Turkey Mill, 1827"), There is also the edition: London Printed for J. H. Bohte, Foreign Bookseller to His Majesty 4 York St Covent Gardens 1822
Location: 1000