An Australian birthday book / compiled by M.F. and J.B.S. Printed for private circulation only. (Presented by Mabel Fairfax Barr Smith and Jean Balfour St Clare Barr Smith to their younger sister, Joanna Fitzgerald Barr Smith)

Adelaide : George Robertson, 1883. Octavo (185 x 130 mm), original brown calf, upper board ruled and lettered in gilt (re-backed, boards scuffed and lightly marked); all edges gilt; original floral endpapers; title-page with presentation inscription by the compilers ‘With Mabel & Jean Barr Smith’s Kind regards / March 2nd 1884’; dedication with ownership signature of Joanna Fitzgerald Barr Smith, and beneath it her later married name Joanna Hawker; pp. 277 + [12] leaves with mounted albumen print photographs, some with later manuscript captions (one of the photographs is a stunning portrait of the beautiful Joanna herself); the printed text comprises verses for each day of the year facing a space for the owner’s notes and autographs; the entries record many birthdays of family and friends, as well as events such as Joanna’s wedding day on 13 July 1886 and the tragic death from rheumatic fever of her husband George Hawker after a fishing excursion at Port Victor on 15 February 1889; occasional light foxing, otherwise the contents, including the mounted photographs, are in good condition; loosely inserted is a later owner’s manuscript note about the book and its contents.

Rare privately printed and circulated book, with original photographs, created by members of the Barr Smith family for members of their own and associated families from Adelaide’s social elite (Marryat, Giles, Bagot, Luxmoore, Gosse, Blakesley, Montgomerie, Sowerby, Cockburn, inter alia).

‘This work is designed for use as a diary and each month is preceded by a photograph. The compilers were Mabel Fairfax Barr Smith (1861-1946) and Jean Balfour St Clare Barr Smith (1864-1961), who dedicated the volume to their mother. The sisters themselves represent the four seasons in the diary and it is quite possible that the photographs are the work of Captain Sweet who was, by this stage of his career, operating a full-time photographic business in Adelaide and specialising in photographs of the town and its surroundings.’ (Holden)

The photographs – of which the majority, at least, are indeed by Captain Samuel White Sweet – are of the following subjects:

1. Native wurley 2. View of King William Street 3. [Erlistoun Barr Smith as] Autumn 4. Birksgate 5. View of Adelaide from the east 6. [Joanna Barr Smith as] Winter (captioned as Amy Morgan) 7. Government House 8. Unley Park 9. [Mabel Barr Smith as] Spring 10. Botanic Garden 11. Torrens Park 12. [Jean Barr Smith as] Summer.

The unique copy we offer here was presented by the book’s compilers, sisters Mabel Fairfax Barr Smith and Jean Balfour St. Clare Barr Smith, to their younger sister Joanna Fitzgerald Barr Smith (1866-1963). Joanna later married George Charles Hawker; her married name, Joanna Hawker, is inscribed beneath her original ownership signature on the dedication page. Joanna continued to use the book until very late in her long life, as one of her entries is dated 1952,

Holden, Robert. Photography in colonial Australia : the mechanical eye and the illustrated book, 101

Trove locates five institutional copies (Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide; State Library of South Australia; National Library of Australia; State Library of Victoria; University of Queensland Library).