To be sold in London (Ontario) on October 15, with other art from the same source, the find appears to be creating a stir among librarians and Australiana book collectors of the magnitude not registered since the unveiling of the the Macquarie Chest in 1987.
For as well as natural history and landscape views the watercolours include early sketches of Aborigines, which has been among the most keenly sought Australiana to hit the market in recent times.
If the interest translates into money paid, the result may prove ironic given what Wallis says about the race in his notes in the book.
But the auction following so close to the sale of the 13th Earl of Derby's 741 natural history watercolours from the period, returns a lot of interest to early colonial art. This during the bicentenary of the swearing in as governor of Lachlan Macquarie in whose "golden age" Wallis played a laudable part. The find could hardly have been better timed.
Captain Wallis arrived in Sydney with the 46th regiment on February 7, 1814 with the convict artist Joseph Lycett a fellow passenger. Following his appointment as commandant of Newcastle when he built many of the early landmark buildings of Newcastle, Wallis developed an association with the artist reflected throughout the book.
There are two hand written inscriptions in black ink on the title page of the book, being offered in one lot, stating that this was James Wallis’ own copy.
Mr Grant Gardner, the president of the auction house Gardner Galleries which is auctioning the book and in separate lots, a watercolour of Cape Town and an album of 75 drawings done in India during his later military career there, says he is unable to set an estimate because there is little by way of past sales to guide him.
Australian institutions will be heavily pressed to pursue the album and may even be stirred to sound out a presale arbitrated price.
The first in the queue would be the Mitchell Library, but coming so soon after the multi million purchase of the 13th Earl of Derby's London-copies of early NSW natural history collection (741 watercolours) announced a month ago, it will pose a particularly hard challenge to its resources and fund gathering ability.
That is, should any uncertainties about the collection be resolved and a curator's recommendation to buy be sustained.
While the item is a "printed book in progress" it is to the sketchbook market is where it is necessary to look first for some idea of value
The find also comes not long after the acquisition by the Mitchell Library for $900,000 in 2009 of the less significant but still historically illuminating sketchbook of Lieutenant Edward Close, who arrived in Sydney in 1817 and founded Morpeth.
The original Macquarie Chest price is now history after Sotheby's removed the North American Indian artefacts to sell in New York and obtained $583,000 for it at an auction in Sydney in 1989 but it was later reported sold by her agent to the Mitchell Library for a reported $2 million.
Book collectors could be in the market with other Australiana collectors who still exist, but not with the same profile or public awareness as they had in the 1980s.
Only one solitary finished painting, an oil by Wallis appears to have gone through the saleroom. <i>Newcastle, NSW, Looking towards Prospect Hill</i> made £26,400 in London 1991.
Other slight sketches by Wallis, of Cork in Ireland and Somerset UK appear to have come into circulation with the breakup of a sketchbook in 1989 and have been bought by the Mitchell.
The public interest, however, may be gauged by the almost immediate sell-out of librarian Ellizabeth Ellis's book <i>Rare and Curious:The Secret History of Governor Macquarie's Collector's Chest</i>.
The story of the Wallis book might well prove as diverting if ever it could be uncovered. Gardner's, the general and art and antique auction house that will sell it, was founded in 1922.
Published locally and in London in various plate and book forms from 1817 Wallis's <i>An Historical Account of NSW</i> contains 12 views of Sydney, Newcastle and Hawkesbury.
The Mitchell Library has a few works faithfully attributed to Wallis and the watercolours in the Gardner copy of the book are essentally in the same sort of naive style.
Most of the artworks have been pasted onto a sheet (book page), titled, and each sheet is hand signed "Major James Wallis, 46th Regt." Additional inscriptions on the images themselves (titles, dates, signatures, etc.) are included, with spelling Wallis employed for each sketch.
The twelfth end paper (illustrated above) has a watercolour pasted down approximately (22 x 33 cm) of three Europeans standing by a stone rampart with cannons overlooking barracks, harbour and village.
This is, with a few minor variations such as the number of figures in the foreground, the same as the first engraving in the printed book "A View of the Cove and Part of Sydney". Underneath is written in black ink "Drawn by a Convict". This is one of six watercolours (five others following) attributed to Joseph Lycett, (1774-c.1825.)
One glued in watercolour shows five Aborigines in the foreground by a fire, and in the distance a river with moored ship, and on a hill an outpost flying the Union Jack.
With minor variations, this is the same as the 12th engraving "A View of Dawes Battery at the Entrance to Sydney Cove" and which is attributed to Joseph Lycett
On one of the flyleafs is a sheet with a watercolour of an aborigine titled "Dick" with a portrait drawing above in profile titled "Burigon or Jack" flanked by two botanical watercolours both of which are inscribed with Latin names.
At the bottom is written in black ink "Nature in a sportive humour or a contrast between Animal and Vegetable Life in New South Wales. The former hideous disgusting and barbarous, the latter graceful modest and gratifying to the senses, the Aborigines of New South Wales are the most perfect savages in existence."
There are more views of Aborigines in a landscape and "A View of Sydney from the North Shore" also attributed to Joseph Lycett. It was not the practice of convict artists to sign their name.
This also distinguished it from the Wallis watercolours.
