Historical information

These books originally belonged to James Martin of Beeac and have been passed on to his grandson, William James Wines, in 1938. The books were a gift to the Warrnambool and District Historical Society from Bill Wines and it is presumed that he was the recipient of the books in 1938. The Wine families were pioneer settlers in the Woodford area, and later in the Mailors Flat district (Job and Ellen Wines and Charles Wines). Bill Wines was noted for his lifetime interest in Warrnambool cycling and his recording of the history of the Melbourne to Warrnambool Cycling Classic (one day race).

Significance

These four volumes are of antiquarian interest as examples of technical education books from the late 19th century. They are also of interest because they belonged to a member of the Wines family, Bill Wines, late of Warrnambool, and his grandfather before him, James Martin.

Physical description

These are four volumes of an encyclopedia on technical education. They have dark blue covers with leather binding on the spines and cover edges. The leather binding is partly torn and stained. Some of the inside binding is partly detached. Two of the volumes have colour plates at the beginning of the text and all have many black and white illustrations and drawings. The inscriptions are handwritten in black ink and one inscription had been handwritten on a piece of paper and pasted into the inside front cover.

Inscriptions & markings

‘James Martin Beeac August 3rd 1893’
‘To Wm. Jas. Wines from his grandfather, J. Martin on November 20th 1938’
‘Direct gift from Mr Bill Wines Crawly (sic) Street’