Catalogue of Sir Samuel Wilson’s pure merino ewes and rams for sale at Ercildoune, by Fisken, Gibson, & Co., on Thursday, October 27, 1881. To commence at 1 o’clock precisely.

Cover title: Catalogue of the Fourth Annual Sale of Sir Samuel Wilson’s … … Ballarat, Vic. : James Curtis, printer [for Fiske, Gibson & Co.], 1881. Duodecimo (170 mm), original limp red morocco covers with gilt-stamped pictorial device and lettering to front, and a second pictorial device to rear; marbled edges, original salmon-coloured endpapers, pp 66 (last blank), with [6] mounted albumen prints by William Bardwell (one a view of Ercildoune, the others showing Wilson’s prize merinos), and a folding plan of the sale pens at rear; all text set within red borders; bottom corner of front cover and first few leaves bent, but contents clean and bright, a fine example.

Rare, lavishly produced auction catalogue for the October 1881 sale of merinos bred by wealthy Western District pastoralist Sir Samuel Wilson (1832-1895). Like his previous annual sales, this sale was held at Wilson’s magnificent homestead, Ercildoune, situated northwest of Ballarat.

Not in Ferguson

Holden, Robert. Photography in colonial Australia : the mechanical eye and the illustrated book, 21

Trove locates only two copies of this sale catalogue (NLA; SLNSW)

Provenance: Alexander Sloane, of Mulwala and Savernake Stations, southern New South Wales (one of the oldest merino studs in that colony), who attended the sale.