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The Wild Flowers of South Australia, 1861. This is the first wildflower book published in SA by an early female colonial artists named F De,mole. It includes 20 hand painted plates with matching information plates in gilt ( paint made with real gold ).
Many years ago I read a 1920,s book on Australian flora which mentioned this book as a seminal work. It said there was only one hundred copies printed before the artist died and only a few copies known to still exist. It noted the SA state library had one copy.
That began a quest to track down a copy for my collection of Australian antique art books. Several years later I attended an auction and after spirited bidding against a well known Adelaide antiques dealer, I had a coffee with him afterwards. He mentioned he was getting older and finallising some of his private collection. He had an item I may be interested in. It was the Wildflower book. Needless to say a lot of money later, I had my own copy of the rare book.
This will be left in my will as a special gift to my daughter. My son gets a copy of my other most prized book. " The Art of Frederick McCubbin" . One of 1000 copies printed and this one signed in pen and ink by the artist, along with a hand written letter from the author to Frederick on National Gallery of Australia stationary.
Both very special to me and packed in a small suitcase ready to be the first thing to grab when the house catches fire. ( the second being a couple of guitars, but maybe thats for later. )
The second thing I would grab when the house burns down. My old vintage Rickenbacker 4001 base guitar. I have had the guitar for a very long time. It has been my meal ticket when money has been tight and has been an introduction to numerous friends, made during jam sessions and paid gigs over many years.
I searched for over 12 months to find the right guitar. This one was pretty hacked when I purchased it, but had a magnificent tone. It had been butchered with a vintage Fender P base pick-up installed where the Rickenbacker pick-up had been, but you could pluck a string, go away and make a coffee and it would still be resonating when you got back.
The guitar is most notable as I met my wife through music. She plays lead guitar, I play base and vocals, so all we need is a drummer and we have a band. We have made beautiful music together with the guitars as well as some pretty horrible moments along the way.
Probably one of the worst gigs was a Sunday arvo show at the Kariwarra hotel in Elizabeth / Adelaide. The Kariwarra was one of the roughest pups in one of the toughest suburbs in town. It had a predominantly indiginous audience, which was OK. except on this particular day, our only audience was 3 very drunk indiginous woman who demanded to come on stage for a sing along to ABBA songs. We didnt play any ABBA, but learnt that afternoon and had three new honarary band members....
Probably the highlights where several support gigs we did for major touring acts. Theres no beating the adrenilin rush when you step on stage to an audience of thousands of people and the thump you get from standing next to the big speaker systems. Truly memorable experiences.
