WALLIS (JAMES): An historical account of the colony of New South Wales and its dependent settlements, in illustration of twelve views, engraved by W.Preston, a convict, from drawings taken on the spot, half-title, lithographed folding plan of Port Macquarie and part of the Hastings River by John Oxley, 12 engraved views by Preston, including 6 double-page (plan with creases at fold and slightly shaved at margin, one double page plate with soft vertical crease near fold, some spotting mainly in extremities of blank margins, a few captions with short fold tears, corroboree plate imprint cropped), contemporary calf, covers with blindtooled borders of trellis and flower-head tool and inner border of anthemion, central 5-line gilt rule panel with gilt floral cornerpieces, enclosing gilt-letterd title 'New South Wales' (rubbed, spine and corners worn, covers detatched), contemporary armorial bookplate of E.S.& H.Lloyd with the Lloyd arms contained within an heiress' lozenge shield. [Ferguson 842; Wantrup 2176], folio, 43.5 x 31 cm [17.2 x 2.4 in], R.Ackermann, London 1821 Second issue with the additional leaf 'Extract from the Sidney (sic) Gazette of the 26th December 1818' with Macquarie's praise for Wallis's work in inproving Newcastle and his humane treatment of the convicts there. Wantrup p.288 'Wallis's book has a most important position in the collection of Australian plate books. It is the first book of general landscape views of early New South Wales...It is also the first plate book...to consist entirely of plates engraved in the colony by a colonial engraver'. The convict engraver, Preston, recieved an absolute pardon, probably for his part in engraving the views'. Ferguson asserts that the plates were engraved on sheet copper used for coppering the bottom of sailing vessels 'no other plates being procurable in the colony'.