The New South Wales Calendar and General Post Office Directory, 1833 (Sir Thomas Phillips copy) RAYMOND, James (compiler)

[Sydney] : [Stephens &? Stokes], [1832 or 1833]. Octavo, original publisher's plum cloth with title label to spine (faded, edges lightly worn), lower joint a little cracked, shelf mark to upper pastedown, folding frontispiece map of Sydney Town; title-page with vignette engraving of the General Post Office (mild offsetting); pp. xxi, [blank], 330, [68]; folding statistical tables, engraved folding plate with hand colouring (Code of Signals), engraved folding table (Telegraph Signals), engraved map and two engraved views of Mount Victoria, eleven engraved advertisement sheets (some tinted) for Sydney firms, which are bound into the business directory section at the rear; short tear with small loss to upper margin of pp. 251-52; complete, as issued, a very good copy. Housed in a handsome custom clamshell box with gilt-lettered morocco spine. The rare second year of issue of The New South Wales Calendar and General Post Office Directory, a publication that ceased in 1837. The fascinating textual content is a valuable primary source for the period, and includes: sketch of the Colony, pages i-xxi; description of the northeast coast (what is now Far North Queensland, then part of New South Wales), by Captain Philip Parker King, pages 21-48; directions for inner passage through the Torres Strait, pages 49-52; itinerary of roads throughout New South Wales, pages 53-149; list of toll gates throughout the Colony, pages 150-152; assigned servants (text signed by Alexander McLeay), pages 153-165; land regulations, pages 166-189; port regulations, pages 190-204; quarantine regulations, pages 205-209; post office regulations, pages 210-224; fees and duties, pages 225-227; bills of costs in Supreme Court, pages 228-234; method of curing hides, pages 240-243; prevention of the scab in sheep, page 242; government establishments and institutions, pages 245-262; description of Mount Victoria, with three plates bound in (a plan and two views of Mount Victoria and Victoria Pass), pages 323-326. There is also a well illustrated section on telegraphs and semaphores from South Head to Fort Phillip, which includes thefolding colour plate "Code of signals for the Colony of New South Wales". What makes this already important volume yet more appealing are the separately engraved advertisements bound into the directory section, among them some glorious examples of early Sydney engraving and graphic design. The firms represented are: R. Broad, watch and clock maker; Wellington Brewery, Edward Eagan, brewer; William Moffitt, bookbinder and stationer; William Pendray, tailor and draper; E. Peterson, house and ship painter; George Ross, boot and shoe maker; Spital Fields House, haberdasher, hosier and draper; Reuben Uther, hat manufacturer; J. White, lamp contractor; William Wilson, engraver and chaser; Wilson & Uther, furnishing ironmongers. Ferguson, 1689. Provenance : Sir Thomas Phillips (1792 - 1872), perhaps the world's greatest book collector, his shelf mark to pastedown.