[NEW ZEALAND] The new London spelling book: or, The young gentlemen and ladies guide to the English tongue …

A new edition, with alterations, improvements and additions. London : printed for G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row, by J. Crowder and E. Hemsted, Warwick-Square, 1803. Small octavo, contemporary brown cloth boards (rubbed and stained), pastedowns and front endpaper with contemporary child’s scribbling, front endpaper with modern biro inscription dated 1984; frontispiece engraved portrait of Charles Vyse, pp [6 preliminaries], 176, illustrated with [2] engraved plates with a total of 24 portraits of ethnic types and famous people, including a “Zealander” (Māori), an “Otaheitian” (Tahitian), a Kamchatkan, a Mexican and a Chinese; occasional browning and mild foxing, last leaf with short tears; binding sound. Rare.

Vyse’s popular The new London spelling book was first published in London in 1800 (by S. Hamilton for G. and J. Robinson), and subsequently appeared in numerous editions up until 1845. The 1803 edition – of which no copy is located in COPAC or OCLC – is significant for its inclusion of the two comparatively early portraits of a New Zealand Māori and a Tahitian.

Unrecorded in Australian and New Zealand collections.