Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Südaustralien. (Baldwin Spencer’s copy)

Berlin : Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), 1908. First edition. Thick small quarto (280 x 195 mm), publisher’s half black morocco over marbled papered boards (cornerpieces worn, boards silverfished), spine lettered and decorated in gilt (leather scuffed and worn along joints and spine ends), Baldwin Spencer’s copy, with his pencilled initials to front free-endpaper, pp. 28, 496, [36], large folding map, numerous plates, some coloured, and folding table; very occasional light foxing, otherwise clean throughout, binding firm. A significant association copy.

German ethnologist, geologist, ornithologist and botanist Erhard Eylmann (1860-1926) was an exact contemporary of eminent Australian anthropologist Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer (1860-1929). He made three trips to Australia between 1896 and 1913, where he principally carried out anthropological field research in South and Central Australia. Eylmann’s major work was his Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Südaustralien (The natives of the Colony of South Australia), which includes much valuable information and commentary on indigenous language and culture. His publications and work, however, have remained comparatively little known in Australia.