[TASMANIA; ALCOHOL] Licence to keep an Inn or a Public House, circa 1836.

[Hobart Town : s.n., circa 1836]. Foolscap folio, 315 x 200 mm, letterpress printed recto only on laid paper with watermark ‘W. Warren 1836’; a colonial Government licence ‘to keep an Inn or a Public House … and to sell and retail therein Ale, Beer, and other Malt Liquors, and Wines, Cider, Ginger Beer, Spruce Beer, Gin, Rum, Whiskey, Cordials, and any other spirituous or fermented Liquors … by an Act of the Lieutenant-Governor, with the advice of the Legislative Council … Given under my hand this … day of … One thousand eight hundred and thirty-‘; an unused example, in fine condition.

Provenance: Robert Muir Old & Rare Books, Perth (Catalogue 74, 1981, #517); ex Peter Dodds (1929-1980)

Peter Dodds was a notable Australian antiquarian book collector and antique dealer, Melbourne-born but based in Perth from 1949, and later York, Western Australia, from 1976. See: Australian book collectors : some noted Australian book collectors & collections of the nineteenth & twentieth centuries / edited by Charles Stitz, volume 1, pp 97-98 (Bendigo : Bread Street Press, 2010).

In 1981 Robert Muir issued two catalogues (69 and 74) that featured 950 lots comprising the cream of Dodds’ private collection, including much Australian colonial material (books, maps, engravings and ephemera) of major significance. In his introduction to the first of these catalogues Muir wrote: ‘The Dodds Collection was certainly one of the most important, extensive and erudite ever to be assembled and shown in Western Australia. It was catholic in taste and direction, though Peter himself had a great knowledge of, and appreciation for, such areas as maritime and land history and exploration (with a bias to Bligh’s Bounty); the convict era; limited editions; early domestic furniture and appliances; and by no means least, West Australiana … This is the first truly substantial and West Australian based Library ever to be assembled then later catalogued for sale in this state.’