Dobie produced three versions of his ‘blue books’ in Auckland in the years 1880-81, bringing them all together in this first complete edition, which contains 104 mounted cyanotypes on which 148 varieties are displayed and captioned.
A few years later Dobie sold the plates to Eric Craig, also of Auckland, who re-issued them c.1882 and 1888, but fewer than 20 copies in all of either Dobbie’s originals or Craig’s re-issued versions are now recorded.
The rare example coming up in the New Bond Street sale is estimated at £15,000-20,000.
