After working on his collection for over 55 years, former National Trust Chairman and President Rodney Davidson has decided to put his unique collection up for auction. The Davidson collection consists of over a thousand items - books, maps, documents and manuscripts - relating to the early exploration and settlement of European Australia. Some of the pieces are unique and some are the only known copies in private hands, so it represents quite an opportuity for other collectors or libraries to enhance their own collections. The collection will be offerred in three stages over 2005-06 with the first auction to be held in Melbourne on Monday 7th March at 7:00pm. Australian Book Auctions, which is handling the sale, has a catalog available for purchase. Even the catalog looks like being of some value - aesthetic as well as for research purposes - for some time to come.
In January of this year, ABC Television's "7:30 Report" interviewed both Rodney Davidson and Jonathan Wanthrup (from Australian Book Auctions) about the collection and the sale. A transcript of that report is available. And Davidson was interviewed by "The Age" in November last year.
[Update: details of the results of this sale are now available.]
