[MASLEN, T.J.]. The Friend of Australia. London: Hurst, Chance, & Co., 1830. 8° (223 x 140mm). 16pp. publisher's advertisements dated January 1830 tipped in, 5 hand-coloured lithographic plates, 4 double-page, one folding, folding lithographic map of Australia, all printed by Charles Hullmandel after Maslen. (Evidence of stamp removed from title, a few tears and tiny holes to folding map, small crease to plate 2 touching plate.) Original green cloth with original binders' ticket by W. Smith, original paper label on spine (joints split, head and tail of spine chipped, a few stains). Provenance: 'N' (red seal at beginning of first chapter) -- booklabel.

[MASLEN, T.J.]. The Friend of Australia. London: Hurst, Chance, & Co., 1830. 8° (223 x 140mm). 16pp. publisher's advertisements dated January 1830 tipped in, 5 hand-coloured lithographic plates, 4 double-page, one folding, folding lithographic map of Australia, all printed by Charles Hullmandel after Maslen. (Evidence of stamp removed from title, a few tears and tiny holes to folding map, small crease to plate 2 touching plate.) Original green cloth with original binders' ticket by W. Smith, original paper label on spine (joints split, head and tail of spine chipped, a few stains). Provenance: 'N' (red seal at beginning of first chapter) -- booklabel.

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of a 'fascinating book, scarce and sought-after. The supreme monument to the speculative geography of the 1820s and 1830s... [a] very scarce volume written in 1827 and published anonymously in London in 1830' (Wantrup). It contains Maslen's large folding map of the Australian continent as he would have liked it to be, with a vast inland sea and a 'Great River' whose delta enters the sea on the north coast. This copy is preserved in the original binding and lettered on spine: 'The Friend/of/Australia./Plates./[horizontal filet]/Price 16s'. Abbey Travel, 574; Ferguson I, 1379; Wantrup pp. 192-193 and 117a.