Rare CEYLONIANA in the Roberts Study: Issues for the Future

thuppahi

2 years ago

Hallo to Those Attached to “CEYLONIANA” and Valuable Lankan Artefacts & Books

…………… Way back I took steps to catalogue and transport my Oral History tapes and other valuable material to Sri Lanka with the assistance of Jitto Arulampalam in Melbourne, several Adelaidians and VERITE RESEARCH in Colombo (a prolonged and massive set of operations). That stock in now available to the public at the National Library Services Board in Torrington Avenue, Colombo.[1]

Now: as my wife and I age and enter the last phase of our lives, we face the issue of the stock in my study. This includes:

many-many-many off-prints of articles on Sri Lanka and world politics;
books under my name;
books on Sri Lanka and/or world politics (including Marxist fare);
Sessional Papers and Census publications from official stock in Sri Lanka …in largish foolscap size bound copies ….;

THE SCENARIO in my STUDY …. including a steel cabinet made by Don Carolis’s firm in Colombo which brought my stock of books from that city to Adelaide in 1977…. lock stock and barrel,eh!

Most of these items will be widely available in public/university libraries …besides the digital world.

THAT stressed, I now proceed to list items that I consider RARE and as valuable as rare. … under two headings: one involving items that I call ARTEFACTS; and the other being books (generally those published in the 19^th century or early 20^th century). ..………. with supplementary photographs (amateur) of some items as Appendices.

ARTEFACTS

1 = Plaque with miniature bat signed by all Members of the 1996 Sri Lankan cricket team … & … miniature Cup …. 12 inches by 4

2 = B & W Etching of Don Bradman… framed … say 7 inches by 14

BOOKS

Charles Williams: An Australian Hero, 1996, Little Brown & Co … signed by Don Bradman himself
YOUNG CEYLON. A Monthly Periodical and Magazine of Ceylonese and General Information, MDCCCL [1850] Volume the First, 1850 …. 247 pp
Leopold Ludovici: Rice Cultivation; Its Past History and Present Condition, with Suggestions for its Improvement, Colombo, MCCCLXVII [1867]
William Digby: Life of Sir Richard Francis Morgan, 1879, Madras, Higginbotham & Co, …. 2 vols
A Planter: Ceylon in the Fifties and the Eighties: ….., 1886, Colombo, AM & J. Ferguson … But not the real thing: a photocopy of sorts??????
Robert Knox: An Historical Relation of Ceylon, together with …., Glasgow, James MacLehose & Sons, MCMXI … that is …
The De Soysa Charithaya by C Don Bastian … in Sinhala