Recent Acquisitions List 102 |
1. [Art Auction Records]. Hislop's Art Sales Index. 2008 Edition. [39th Annual Edition. August 2006 to July 2007]. For Oil Paintings, Works on Paper, Miniatures, Prints, Photographs and Sculptures. Phoenix, LTB Gordonsart, November 2007. Folio, 2522 pages in a single volume containing approximately 165,000 international auction results from over 3500 catalogues from over 500 different auctioneers. Laminated colour pictorial papered boards; mint. $330 [Enquire about this item] |
2. [BACON, Francis]. ROTHENSTEIN, John and Ronald ALLEY: Francis Bacon. Introduction by John Rothenstein. Catalogue Raisonne and Documentation by Ronald Alley. London, Thames and Hudson, 1964. Quarto, 292 pages with 287 plates (including 27 tipped-in colour plates). Cloth; top edge a little marked, with the ownership stamp of the artist Basil Hadley on the bottom edge; an excellent copy with the dustwrapper slightly torn and creased at and near the head of the spine, with small surface chips to the corners. Offered together with a copy of the catalogue 'Francis Bacon Paintings 1959-60' from the exhibition at Marlborough Fine Art Gallery, London in March and April 1960 (quarto, 12 pages plus 17 pages of plates: card covers slightly rubbed and marked). $1400 [Enquire about this item] |
3. [BARTON, Charlotte]: A Mother's Offering to her Children, by a Lady long resident in New South Wales. Sydney, printed at the 'Gazette' Office (but published by 'that strange, versatile explorer, surveyor, artist and bookseller, G.W. Evans'), 1841. Duodecimo, [viii, last leaf blank], 216 pages. Original quarter roan and marbled papered boards (with the binder's ticket of G.W. Evans on the front pastedown); leather very slightly rubbed; marbled paper a little rubbed with minor loss, but the main background colour of the marbling - mid-brown - matches the occasionally exposed boards, and the visual impact of the blemish is minimal; neat contemporary gift inscription on the half-title; original endpapers slightly offset and a little foxed; minimal foxing to the edges, half-title and a few leaves; overall an exceptional copy. A fabulous rarity - THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN'S BOOK. Offered together with a copy of the 1979 Jacaranda Press facsimile edition and Marcie Muir's pamphlet 'Charlotte Barton: Australia's First Children's Author' (one of 500 signed copies). Marcie Muir's exhaustive research finally solved the mystery of the identity of the author, long misattributed by Ferguson (based on information pencilled in the Petherick copy in the National Library); we also have her to thank for the description of Evans above. The book is rare in any condition, but unheard of in this state of preservation. Indeed, we have personally checked eleven institutional copies (for instance, there are five copies in the State Library of New South Wales alone - perhaps this is why so few remain in circulation!). None of these copies could match this one overall for original condition, cleanliness and completeness, but it is an academic exercise, as none of them will ever be for sale! For those institutions presently lacking a copy but restricted to buying along parochial or thematic lines, stories include 'Port Essington', 'Loss of the Stirling Castle', 'Wreck of the Charles Eaton' and 'Anecdotes of the Aborigines of New South Wales'. Very few copies have turned up on the open market in the thirty-plus years we have been in business. The last recorded sale we have traced was a rebound copy (thus, replacement endpapers and no binder's ticket), which was priced at $48000 several years ago. $60000 [Enquire about this item] |
4. BATESON, William: Mendel's Principles of Heredity. A Defence by W. Bateson ... With a translation of Mendel's original papers of hybridisation. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1902 [first edition]. Octavo, xvi, 212 pages plus a frontispiece portrait. Original green cloth slightly marked and flecked, and slightly rubbed and bumped at the extremities, with minimal wear to the outside rear top corner; edges lightly marked; endpapers offset and lightly foxed; small neat ownership details of 'J.B. Hair [a NZ botanist], Jan. 1952' in ink on the front pastedown, with his (very small) name-stamp twice on the front flyleaf; title page lightly foxed; a very good copy with the four errata neatly corrected in ink. Garrison and Morton 241: 'The first book on Mendelism in English, and the first English textbook of genetics. It contains a reprint of the first English translation of Mendel's [first paper] from the J. Roy. Horticult. Soc., which Bateson had published the previous year, together with the first edition in English of Mendel's second paper on Hieracium (1869)'. $2000 [Enquire about this item] |
5. BEAN, C.E.W. and others: Official History of Australia in the War, 1914-1918 [the complete 12-volume set]. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1937 (one volume), 1938 (nine volumes), 1939 (one volume) and 1942 (one volume); the sixth volume is the first edition of 1942, the others are mixed editions ranging from the third to the ninth. Octavo, twelve volumes, each approximately 700 pages with numerous maps plus plates. Original maroon cloth; Volume 6, of notoriously indifferent production quality, is in exceptional condition, apart from light marginal creases to the last few leaves; Volume 8 has a light crease to the spine and the cloth on the front cover is very slightly bubbled; basically it is a fine uniformly coloured set that would suit the most fastidious collector. [Other complete sets are in stock, including two with all the original mailing cartons. Prices start at $1650]. $2000 [Enquire about this item] |
6. BELZONI, G.: Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia; and of a Journey to the Coast of the Red Sea, in Search of the Ancient Berenice; and another to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon. London, John Murray, 1821 [second edition]/ [1820]. Quarto, xx (last blank), 533 pages plus a frontispiece portrait, 2 plates of inscriptions and a folding two-section map of the course of the Nile. Recent antique-style full gilt-decorated calf (by Newbold and Collins); short tear to the map near the stub expertly repaired; inoffensive tiny light stain to the bottom corner and leading margin of the frontispiece and the first four leaves (and by tiny we mean just that); very occasional scattered light foxing; a very good copy. The last nine pages are 'Remarks on Mr Belzoni's Plates'; they refer to the plates in the separately-issued - and now rare and costly - atlas, not present (as often) with this volume. $1650 [Enquire about this item] |
7. BETJEMAN, John: John Betjeman's Collected Poems. Compiled and with an introduction by the Earl of Birkenhead. London, John Murray, 1960 [ninth printing]/ 1958. Octavo, xxviii, 279 pages. Cloth; a fine copy with the very slightly rubbed dustwrapper. Signed, dated and inscribed ('Adelaide, 1961. Here's to ringing!'), with a small sketch of a bell and a four-line 'Ringing Rhyme' on the verso of the half-title. Loosely inserted is a small octavo sheet of paper with a ten-line initialled autograph note followed by a hand-drawn bell-ringing chart. $800 [Enquire about this item] |
8. BOLDREWOOD, Mrs Rolf: The Flower Garden in Australia. A Book for Ladies and Amateurs. Melbourne, Melville, Mullen and Slade, 1893. Octavo, iv, 144 pages. Original blind-stamped cloth slightly marked, bumped and a little rubbed, with light wear to the foot of the spine; contemporary (Xmas 1892) gift inscription; very light tidemark and cockling to the bottom inner corner of the endpapers; first and last pages offset and lightly marked; two pages slightly marked; stitching a little strained; a very good copy. $350 [Enquire about this item] |
9. BRAGG, W.H. and W.L.: X Rays and Crystal Structure. London, Bell, 1915 [first edition]. Octavo, viii, 228, [2, index, verso blank], [2, publisher's advertisements] pages with numerous formulae and 75 diagrams plus 4 pages of plates. Original cloth slightly rubbed at the extremities, lightly flecked and slightly bumped on one corner; boards slightly bowed; endpapers, first and last pages and the edges lightly foxed; a very good copy. The Braggs, father and son, 'together initiated the whole subject of X-ray crystallography, for which they received the Nobel prize for physics in 1915. W.L. Bragg was then 25'. The front flyleaf of this copy is inscribed (but not by the authors) 'To / J.R. Wilton / 2nd May 1915' (with the unidentified initials 'L.P.' in the bottom left-hand corner). John Raymond Wilton (1884-1944), mathematician, studied at the University of Adelaide under Professor William Henry Bragg, who 'described Wilton as having had the greatest natural genius for mathematics among any of his students'. For details on the Braggs and Wilton, consult the Australian Dictionary of Biography. $1650 [Enquire about this item] |
10. CHAPMAN, Abel and Walter J. BUCK: Unexplored Spain. London, Edward Arnold, 1910. Quarto, xvi, 416, ii, 22 (advertisements) pages with numerous illustrations plus more than 40 plates. Cloth slightly flecked around the edges; spine slightly bumped and sunned; bookplate on the pastedown; an excellent copy. $600 [Enquire about this item] |
11. A Comment. [A Journal of Poetry, Art, Literature and Social Comment. Edited by Cecily Crozier.] Number 3, Christmas 1940-41 to Number 21, October 1944 inclusive [18 issues, including one double issue, Number 9/10, January 1942]. [Melbourne, The Editor], 1940 to 1944. Quarto, 18 issues, from 16 to 32 pages each, with linocut illustrations in all numbers (including cover illustrations in all but two instances) and occasional tipped-in plates. Decorated wrappers (often printed in one or more colours), with all issues except Number 3 printed on brown paper, with sections of some issues roneod (and occasionally on white paper); Number 3 is printed on four sheets of paper of different colours and sizes. 'Encouraged all forms of experimental writing. Translations of Kafka, Baudelaire and Maupassant. Contributors included Max Harris, Adrian Lawlor, Alister Kershaw, Muir Holburn, Arthur Ashworth, Irvine Green and the Americans Karl Shapiro, Harry Roskolenko, and Wm. Van O'Connor. Ceased for want of 150 subs' (Tregenza: Australian Little Magazines, 1923-1954). Number 26, the last issue, appeared in Winter 1947. [Several duplicates are also available: Numbers 12 (front cover a little damaged, $75), 14 ($100), 15 ($125) and 16 ($125)]. $2200 [Enquire about this item] |
12. De LONG, George W.: The Voyage of the Jeannette. The Ship and Ice Journals of George W. De Long, Lieutenant-Commander USN, and Commander of the Polar Expedition of 1879-1881. Edited by his wife, Emma De Long. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin, 1883. Octavo, two volumes, xii, 440 pages with 6 full-page wood engravings, 7 maps and numerous vignettes plus 2 steel engravings and a folding chart [and] x, [441]- 911 pages with 7 full-page wood engravings and numerous vignettes and a few maps plus a tinted lithograph. Original half morocco and cloth, with all edges and endpapers marbled; extremities and high spots slightly rubbed; short tear near the stub of the folding map expertly repaired; essentially a fine set. De Long set out from San Francisco in July 1879 for the North Pole via the Bering Strait. By September, the ship was trapped in pack ice and for 21 months she drifted north-west towards the pole until crushed and sunk in June 1881. All survived the sinking, but most of the party, including De Long, died before or after reaching mainland Siberia. De Long's journals were recovered, and this account is based in part on them and on 'the testimony given in public and private by the survivors'. $2000 [Enquire about this item] |
13. Desiderata. A Guide to Good Books. Number 1, August 1929 to Number 41, August 1939 (the last issue). Adelaide, F.W. Preece & Sons (and printed at the Hassell Press), 1929 to 1939. Octavo, from 20 to 48 pages each issue (plus a loosely inserted supplementary leaflet in the fifth one). Original overlapping wrappers, decorated with a Lionel Lindsay woodcut; apart from minor blemishes to the front covers of six issues, the set is in superb condition. The editorial in the first issue states: 'The articles and notes ... are all original matter and specially contributed' (and offers original contributions from Walter de la Mare and Sylvia Townsend Warner). In the series there are linocuts by Eric Thake, literary contributions by Norman, Lionel and Peter Lindsay, Virginia Woolf, Paul and Frances McGuire, George Hassell, Seaforth Mackenzie (his review of 'Happy Valley') ... We have previously sold a circular dated 16 December 1939 loosely inserted in a copy of Number 41: 'Owing to the uncertainty of supplies and prices, and the scarcity of important books, the publication of "Desiderata" is temporarily postponed'. $1250 [Enquire about this item] |
14. FAIREY, Eric: The 38th Battalion AIF. The Story and Official History ... Bendigo, 38th Battalion History Committee, 1920. Octavo, [vi], 110 pages plus 19 plates. Original pictorial wrappers slightly ink-marked on the front cover; trifling signs of use and age; an excellent copy. The initial blank carries a contemporary ownership signature and a later inscription noting that the elder brother of the original owner 'was in this unit and was killed in action' - his name is underlined on page 109. $650 [Enquire about this item] |
15. [Fishing]. WELLS, Henry P.: Fly-Rods and Fly-Tackle. Suggestions as to their Manufacture and Use. London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, [1884]. Square octavo, 364, [4, advertisements] pages with 86 figures and a frontispiece. Gilt-pictorial cloth, top edge gilt; extremities slightly rubbed and bumped; spine a little sunned; mild foxing to the first and last few leaves; slight marginal damage to two adjacent leaves where inexpertly opened where uncut; inner hinges cracked but firm; a very good copy. [We have recently purchased a collection of fishing books - search our website under the subject FISHING]. $400 [Enquire about this item] |
16. FLEMING, Ian: Dr No. London, Cape, 1958 [first edition]. Octavo, 256 pages. Plain papered boards (the variant without the blind-stamped silhouette on the front panel); extremities very slightly bumped; a near-fine copy with the unclipped dustwrapper very lightly rubbed with one tiny light mark to the rear panel - overall, an exceptionally clean and crisp copy. $2350 [Enquire about this item] |
17. [FRIEND, Donald]: Sundry Notes and Papers; being recently discovered Notes and Documents of the Natural & Instinctive Bestiality Research Expedition. Collected and collated under the title Bumbooziana ... Melbourne, Gryphon Books, 1979. Elephant folio, [iv], 126 pages (a full-colour facsimile of Friend's richly illustrated manuscript). Quarter leather and gilt-decorated cloth; a fine copy with the slipcase. Oversubscribed on publication and destined to be perennially rare, as the edition was limited to only 150 copies numbered and signed by Donald Friend. $6000 [Enquire about this item] |
18. GREY, Sir George: An autograph letter signed by Sir George Grey (small octavo, 3 pages on two conjugate leaves; London, March 1853). It is a letter of introduction to Governor Charles Latrobe in Melbourne, written at the request of Christopher Jobson 'who is about to try his fortunes in Victoria. In acceding to his request I have informed him that he must not expect favour[?] in any appointment or employment'. Grey goes on to thank Latrobe for kindnesses extended to a young Mr Arnold, the previous recipent of a similar letter. Sir George Grey (1812-98), explorer of north-west Australia, Governor of South Australia, New Zealand (twice) and Cape Colony, and New Zealand politician (among much else - consult the Australian Dictionary of Biography for more details). He was between Governorships when he wrote this letter, having been recall from New Zealand in 1853 before his appointment to the role in South Africa in June 1854. The fourth page (blank apart from early docketing) is a little marked; creased where folded; in excellent condition. $2200 [Enquire about this item] |
19. GUNN, Mrs Aeneas: We of the Never-Never. London, Hutchinson, [undated 130th thousand (early 1930s?)]/ 1908. Octavo, 256 pages with a map plus 8 plates. Red cloth slightly flecked and marked; spine sunned and lightly worn at the extremities, with a tiny closed tear near the middle of the front hinge; edges slightly foxed; ownership signature and newspaper clipping (with slight glue and paper residue) on the pastedown; a very good copy. Across the front flyleaf is a most interesting message written and signed in ink by the author. It is worth quoting in full: 'Since this book was written, two of my bush-folk: Neave's mate and poor little Tam-a-Shanter have 'perished' from thirst on the terrible dry stages of the Out-back, and in their names I inscribe this copy, with much pleasure, for the Hermannsburg Mission Appeal Fund for an adequate water supply. With many thanks, Sincerely yours, Jeannie Gunn. Melbourne, April 23, 1934'. The clipping (from the 'Argus', 16 April 1934) notes that 'Irish Mac' had recently died. $550 [Enquire about this item] |
20. HUGHES, Ted: The Hawk in the Rain. London, Faber, 1957. Octavo, 59 pages. Cloth; a fine copy with the dustwrapper unevenly sunned, slightly worn at the top corners and a little chipped at the head of the spine. The author's first book; one of only 2000 copies. $880 [Enquire about this item] |
21. JACK, Robert Logan: Northmost Australia. Three Centuries of Exploration, Discovery, and Adventure in and around Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. With a Study of the Narratives of all Explorers by Sea and Land in the Light of Modern Charting, many original or hitherto unpublished documents ... London, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1921. Octavo, two volumes, xvi, 366 and xiv, 367-768 pages plus 39 plates and 17 folding charts loosely inserted in two endpockets. Cloth very slightly rubbed and bumped at the extremities; endpapers offset, with early ownership details on the front flyleaves; some foxing to the edges, endpapers and (infrequently) to some leaves; an excellent set. $1350 [Enquire about this item] |
22. KINLOCH, Arthur: The Murray River. Being a Journal of the Voyage of the 'Lady Augusta' Steamer from the Goolwa, in South Australia to Gannewarra, above Swan Hill, Victoria, a Distance from the Sea Mouth of 1400 Miles. Adelaide, W.C. Cox, Printer, 1853. Octavo, 46 pages. Antique-style quarter calf and marbled papered boards; title page slightly dusty and a trifle marked, with two tiny closed tears to the top edge; a few pencilled emphases to the margins; light vertical crease down the centre of the last six leaves; an excellent copy. The author, Clerk of the Executive Council of South Australia, was on board the vessel; this is his account of the first successful navigation of the Murray as far as Swan Hill by Captain Francis Cadell. Fellow-passenger James Allen also published his version of events. Captain William Randell and his paddle-steamer Mary Ann left Goolwa at the Murray mouth ahead of Cadell and travelled much farther up the Murray, but Cadell overtook him en route and reached Swan Hill first. However, both men deservedly earned the bonus of 2000 pounds offered by the South Australian Government 'for each of the first two steamers to travel up the Murray as far as the Darling junction' (Australian Dictionary of Biography). $2500 [Enquire about this item] |
23. LEWIS, C.S.: The Weight of Glory. London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1942 [first separate edition]. Duodecimo, 24 pages (last one blank) plus the printed wrappers (with the series checklist printed inside the front cover and on both sides of the rear). Decorated wrappers very lightly sunned on the rear cover near the spine; bottom corner creases to one leaf; an excellent copy. Little Books on Religion, Number 189. 'Preached originally as a sermon in the church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, on June 8, 1941, and published in "Theology", November, 1941'. $400 [Enquire about this item] |
24. [LIGHT, William]: Sicilian Scenery from Drawings by P. De Wint. The Original Sketches of Major Light. London, Rodwell & Martin, 1823. Quarto, unpaginated but comprising an engraved title page (verso blank), 3 index pages and 60 full-page plates (versos blank), each with a leaf of descriptive text (English on one side, the French translation on the verso) and a tissue-guard. Contemporary full morocco superbly gilt- and blind-decorated, all edges gilt; small light tidemark to the top margin of most leaves and plates (essentially inoffensive); small amount of scattered foxing, confined mainly to the tissue-guards and a few plate margins; overall an excellent copy. William Light (1786-1839), soldier and surveyor, was born in Malaya and spent his childhood in Penang. He served with distinction (and was unharmed) in the Peninsular war. He missed Waterloo, but was severely wounded in a minor Spanish revolution in 1823. In the years before (and after) this, he travelled widely in Europe, and mixed with artistic and literary circles; the material in this book stems from this period. He was appointed the first Surveyor-General of South Australia in February 1836; in December of that year he determined the site of Adelaide, and his plan gave the city its belt of parklands. He died from tuberculosis in October 1839 (Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2). $2500 [Enquire about this item] |
25. LYELL, Denis D.: The African Elephant and its Hunters. London, Heath Cranton, 1924. Octavo, 221 pages plus 13 plates. Gilt-pictorial cloth slightly unevenly sunned; extremities very slightly rubbed; tiny mark on the spine; edges a little foxed; endpapers offset; contemporary ownership initials; an excellent copy. $1200 [Enquire about this item] |
26. LYELL, Denis D.: Memories of an African Hunter. With a Chapter on Eastern India. London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1923. Octavo, 268 pages plus 32 pages of plates. Cloth unevenly sunned and mottled; head of the spine very slightly rubbed; edges a little foxed; endpapers offset; contemporary ownership initials; a very good copy. $650 [Enquire about this item] |
27. LYELL, Denis D.: Wild Life in Central Africa. London, The Field and Queen (Horace Cox), [circa 1913]. Octavo, xvi, 284, [4, advertisements] pages with a table plus 48 plates. Pictorial cloth very slightly rubbed at the extremities and lightly flecked; contemporary ownership initials; edges and first and last leaves lightly foxed; an excellent copy. $2000 [Enquire about this item] |
28. McCRAE, Hugh: Forests of Pan. A Selection of Poems not hitherto reprinted from Hugh McCrae's 'Satyrs and Sunlight', 1928. Made by R.G. Howarth. Brisbane, Meanjin Press, 1944 [first thus]. Octavo, 40 pages plus the original plain card covers and wrappers (and numerous binder's blanks). Later quarter morocco and marbled papered boards (the latter a little rubbed at the extremities); an excellent copy. Not identified as such, but clearly from the collection of the bibliographer and book collector Harry Chaplin. As often with his books, this copy has related material added to it. Mounted on seven blank leaves bound in before the booklet are eleven pages of manuscript by the author. These include four pages (two conjugate leaves) of a draft of 'Kekk - Kkk - KKKK - Kek' ('Will I make some tea for that dreadful cough?'), with a small doodle. Another one is 'Forest Friends' ('What shall a satyr do / Who has no lover to / Pair with him dancing?'), with a small pencil sketch, heightened with green colour pencil, of the lone prancer; dated 10 December 1942, it is written on the verso of portion of a wholesale fishmonger's list. $600 [Enquire about this item] |
29. MALOUF, David: Bicycle and Other Poems. St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1970 [first edition, first impression - with the $1 price printed on the front cover]. Octavo, [viii], 60 pages. Pictorial card covers very slightly rubbed at the extremities; an excellent copy. Malouf's scarce first book. $500 [Enquire about this item] |
30. Mary's Own Paper. Primarily a Review of Current Cultural Events in South Australia. A broken run of nine issues from September 1950 (Number 22) to August 1951. [Adelaide], Mary Martin, 1950 and 1951. Foolscap folio, 9 issues, generally 8 pages each. Roneod typescript stapled in the top left-hand corner (or along the left-hand margin in #22); minor creases; overall in excellent condition. The journal was 'published, printed, edited, authorised by Mary Martin. [Max] Harris [was] a co-manager of Mary Martin's bookshop, and although he rarely signed his name, it was generally understood he wrote most of MOP' (Tregenza: Australia's Little Magazines, 1923-1954). Present in this group are Number 22 (September 1950), Number 25 (December 1950), Number 26 (January 1951); Number 27 (February 1951) and unnumbered issues for the months of March, April, May, July and August 1951. For what it's worth, the subscription rate increased from 2/6 to 9/6 per annum over this period! 'Is MOP too destructive? Too negative? We are trying to present judgments which are not too slick, too facile - at least where the work merits consideration' (note at the head of #22). The observations on the local art scene are worth reading. These copies come from the collection of Mervyn Smith and Ruth Tuck, and a couple of references to them (one uncomplimentary) have been marked. Copies of this ephemeral publication are rare on the open market, and the few institutional holdings are fragmentary. $400 [Enquire about this item] |
31. MAURICE, R.T.: Extracts from Journals of Explorations ... Fowler's Bay to Rawlinson Ranges and Fowler's Bay to Cambridge Gulf. Adelaide, Government Printer, 1904. Foolscap folio, 39 pages plus 12 panoramic plates and 2 large folding route maps (approximately 855 x 680 mm and 870 x 440 mm). Titling-wrappers, recently bound in cloth lettered in gilt on the front cover; thin strip around the edge of the front wrapper a little sunned and very lightly chipped; an excellent copy. South Australian Parliamentary Paper Number 43 of 1904; one of only 1000 copies. The two expeditions took place between April and September 1901, and April and October 1902. McLaren 13277 (not recording the plates). The head of the front wrapper is inscribed and signed by the author to '- Zeitz Esqre / Museum / Adelaide / With best wishes from / R T Maurice'. A.H.C. Zeitz was Assistant Director (then Honorary Director) of the South Australian Museum from 1888-1909; although his son Frederick Robert also worked for the Museum at the time, presumably Zietz senior was the intended recipient. $3000 [Enquire about this item] |
32. MAWSON, Sir Douglas: The Home of the Blizzard. Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914. London, Heinemann, 1915. Quarto, two volumes, xxx, 349 and xiv, 338 pages with 9 maps and 28 illustrations plus 275 plates (including 12 panoramas and one folding plate), 21 colour plates (with captioned tissue-guards) and 3 folding maps in an endpocket. Silver-pictorial cloth lightly bumped at the top corners of the second volume and very, very lightly marked; (commercial) bookplate on the front pastedowns; edges a little foxed; slight offsetting to the endpapers; a near-fine set. $3000 [Enquire about this item] |
33. MURRAY, A.S.: Twelve Hundred Miles on the River Murray. [Melbourne], George Robertson and London, Virtue, 1898. Oblong folio, 36 pages plus 15 tipped-in colour plates (each with a paper guard, now with associated offsetting); the plates are by the author. Attractively gilt-decorated dark green cloth, all edges gilt; cloth moderately flecked; foot of the spine bumped; endpapers a little silverfish-nibbled and foxed, with some foxing to the verso of the frontispiece mount; a very good copy. With the pictorial bookplate ['Gang forward'] of [Sir] Edward Charles Stirling. $750 [Enquire about this item] |
34. OLSEN, John: My Complete Graphics, 1957-1979. Melbourne, Gryphon Books, 1980. Quarto, 248 pages with numerous black and white plates (including a pictorial index of the 102 prints) and 8 colour plates. Gilt-decorated full calf; a fine copy with the slightly rubbed pictorial dustwrapper. Number 41 of only 100 deluxe copies (in a total edition of 1000) signed and dated by the artist, WITH A NUMBERED AND SIGNED ETCHING ('Tame Owl') BOUND IN AT THE REAR. $2500 [Enquire about this item] |
35. [OUTHWAITE, Ida Rentoul]. RENTOUL, A.I. and I.S.: Mollie's Staircase. Melbourne, M.L. Hutchinson, [1906]. 200 x 255 mm, [52] pages (alternate openings blank) with a pictorial title page, 12 full-page illustrations (facing 12 separate poems) and 6 smaller illustrations (5 of them on pages with the poems, plus a tail-piece). Overlapping textured light brown wrappers bound with brown ribbon; wrappers slightly unevenly sunned and lightly marked, slightly chipped and curled at the edges, with a crease to the front bottom corner and short tears with minor loss to the ends of the spine; title page and last page uniformly discoloured from contact with the covers; contemporary ownership details on the title page; a few corners are slightly rounded, with top corner creases to three leaves and tiny corner pieces of the first three leaves expertly stabilised; small tidemark to the top edge of the title page (near the corner); tiny piece missing from the leading edge of one leaf of text; a few trifling light fingermarks; a very good copy. Twelve verses by Annie Isobel Rentoul, with illustrations by her daughter Ida Sherbourne Rentoul (later Outhwaite); Ida's second book (after 'Mollie's Bunyip', 1904). Muir 6333. $1100 [Enquire about this item] |
36. PHILBY, H. StJ. B.: The Empty Quarter. Being a Description of the Great South Desert of Arabia known as Rub' al Khali. London, Constable, 1933. Octavo, xxiv, 433 pages plus 47 plates and 3 folding colour maps. Cloth a little rubbed at the extremities and along the front hinge, with a light indentation to the front cover; edges foxed; a very good copy. $650 [Enquire about this item] |
37. PULSFORD, Edward (compiler): Special Record of the Proceedings of the Geographical Society of Australasia, in fitting out and starting the Exploratory Expedition to New Guinea. July, 1885. Sydney, Geographical Society of Australasia, 1885. Octavo, 80 pages. Original blue wrappers (with the title repeated on the front cover) very slightly chipped and sunned; scattered foxing; an excellent copy. A scientific expedition under the leadership of Captain Henry Everill. $900 [Enquire about this item] |
38. ROBERTSON, Professor Thorburn Brailsford: The bulk of the retained collection of this eminent Australian biochemist's publications, plus a large quantity of books (approximately 200 plus 15 exercise books) from his scientific library are offered as one lot. Relevant material from his extended family round out the collection (numbers are approximate): his father-in-law Sir Edward Charles Stirling (40 items); his wife Jane Winifred Robertson (nee Stirling) (25 items); his son Dr David Stirling Robertson (50 items plus 20 exercise books) and his colleague (and David's godfather) Professor Oscar Werner Tiegs (10 items). Thorburn Brailsford Robertson (1884-1930) 'pioneered many avenues of thought, and published some 170 papers, textbooks, essays on the philosophy of science and research, even children's storybooks'. Many of these publications are included in this collection. Volume 9 of the Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science, published in 1932, is the Robertson Memorial Volume. It contains an obituary to Professor Robertson, as well as an extensive bibliography, compiled by Mary Dawbarn. Copies of all his books are present, including unlisted titles and editions, and heavily revised, augmented and corrected interleaved versions of two of them. There are 107 of the first 120 articles listed (plus duplicate copies of 17 of them), plus 11 of the 18 collaborative articles. Fifteen vintage photographs of Robertson, in various (but generally large) formats, are included in the collection. Further details are available on request; for the potted history of Robertson, consult the Australian Dictionary of Biography. $10000 [Enquire about this item] |
39. ROCKEFELLER, Michael Clark: The Asmat of New Guinea. The Journal of Michael Clark Rockefeller. With his ethnographic notes and photographs made among the Asmat people during two expeditions in 1961. Documented by a pictorial and descriptive catalogue of the objects he collected. Edited with an introduction by Adrian A. Gerbrands. New York, The Museum of Primitive Art, 1967. Quarto, 349 pages with 600 plates (90 in colour) plus a folding map. Decorated cloth; a fine copy with the clear acetate dustwrapper (printed with text) very slightly nicked at the foot of the front leading edge. Michael Rockefeller lost his life on the second expedition (in November 1961); the photographs to that expedition were lost at sea with him. This book includes 'a complete, annotated pictorial catalogue of the objects he collected, some of the finest works of Oceanic art known'. $550 [Enquire about this item] |
40. ROSE, Frederick G.G.: The Wind of Change in Australia. The Aborigines at Angas Downs, 1962. Berlin, Akademie-Verlag, 1965. Quarto, x, 382 pages with illustrations and maps plus 56 plates and a folding map. Original card covers; a fine copy. $450 [Enquire about this item] |
41. ROSS, Captain Sir James Clark: A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions, during the years 1839-43. London, John Murray, 1847 [first issue, with the January 1847 publisher's catalogue]. Octavo, two volumes, [ii, blank], lii, [ii], 366 pages plus 7 vignettes (on 10 unnumbered chapter fly-title leaves) and 5 tinted lithographs (one of them a four-panel panorama) and 6 maps (2 of them folding, including a long chart of Wilkes' discoveries), and [v]-x, [ii], 448, 16 (publisher's catalogue, dated January 1847) pages with a vignette on page 387 (and an unlisted illustration on page 401) plus 10 vignettes (on 13 unnumbered chapter fly-title leaves), 3 tinted lithographs and 2 maps (including the large folding 'South Polar Chart shewing the Discoveries and Track of HMS Erebus and Terror during the years 1840,1,2,3'). Early half calf and marbled papered boards, with all edges lightly speckled; frontispieces offset onto the title pages; trifling blemish to one page of the introduction (where a silverfish met its match); two short tears to the margins of the folding plate neatly repaired; an excellent set, with the text, plates and maps in very crisp and clean condition. Rosove 276 (not noting the unlisted illustration): 'a cornerstone of the Antarctic literature and a monument to one of mankind's greatest expeditions of geographical and scientific exploration'; Taurus Collection 9; Renard 1328. The expedition was 'the first to enter what is known today as the Ross Sea, the first to sight the Admiralty Mountains, the first to see Victoria Land, Ross Island, Mounts Erebus and Terror, and the Ross Ice Shelf, amongst other momentous discoveries' (The 'Taurus' Collection). The original initial blank in the first volume is INSCRIBED ('Mary Armitage from / her affectionate Brother') AND SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. The later armorial bookplate of the South Australian barrister John Warren Bakewell (1847-1923) is mounted on each front pastedown. $6000 [Enquire about this item] |
42. RUFFER, Sir Marc Armand: Studies in the Palaeopathology of Egypt. Edited by Roy L. Moodie. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1921. Quarto, xx, 372 pages plus 72 plates (8 in colour). Cloth a little bumped and rubbed at the extremities, with a tiny repaired tear near the head of the spine; front inner hinge cracked but firm; the first two plates (on acidic paper) are heavily browned, with their uncut leading edges slightly chipped; an excellent copy. $900 [Enquire about this item] |
43. [Shipping]. 1913-1914. The Register of Australian and New Zealand Shipping, including Shipping registered at Fiji and New Guinea, with which is incorporated the Australian Register of Shipping, compiled and issued by the Marine Underwriters' and Salvage Association of Victoria Limited, Melbourne, from Returns furnished by the Customs Authorities in Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Fiji and New Guinea. Melbourne, Mason, Firth and McCutcheon, General Printers, 1913. Large oblong octavo, 206 pages plus a tipped-in addenda slip (offsetting to the adjacent pages). Gilt-decorated cloth rebacked, retaining most of the original spine; minor silverfish damage to the cloth on the edges of the boards; flyleaf lightly creased and four early leaves lightly foxed; a very good copy. The fortieth year of issue, on the eve of the first World War. $750 [Enquire about this item] |
44. SPENCER, Baldwin and F.J. GILLEN: Across Australia. London, Macmillan, July 1919 [second edition]/ June 1912 (Volume 1) and September 1912 [second edition]/ June 1912 (Volume 2). [The second edition date is generally the same - September 1912 - in both volumes, but we have seen this 1919 variant once before]. Octavo, two volumes, xvi, 254 and xx, [255]-516 pages plus 365 plates, 7 colour plates and 2 folding maps. Gilt-decorated red cloth, top edges gilt; extremities slightly rubbed; head of the spine of the second volume slightly bumped, with a clean 10mm split to the head of the front hinge; cloth lightly marked and flecked; a very good set. The 'scientific results have already been published in the two well-known works "The Native Tribes of Central Australia" [1899] and "The Northern Tribes of Central Australia" [1904], which won for Messrs. Spencer and Gillen a foremost place among anthropological observers. Some of the excellent illustrations which appeared in the earlier books are reproduced in this popular version of their travels, together with a good deal of description and anecdote which would have been out of place in books addressed mainly to anthropologists. The book includes an account, based on quite recent personal observations, of the relatively unknown Northern Territory which is just about to be opened up' (from a contemporary publisher's announcement). $750 [Enquire about this item] |
45. STEIN, Sir Aurel: On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks. Brief Narrative of Three Expeditions in Innermost Asia and Northwestern China. London, Macmillan, 1933 [first edition]. Quarto, xxiv, 342 pages plus 148 plates (including several large folding panoramas and 18 colour plates with captioned tissue-guards) and a large folding colour map. Gilt-decorated cloth, top edge gilt, others uncut; cloth very slightly rubbed and bumped at the extremities; front inner hinge (at the half-title opening) cracked but firm; ownership signature and date written neatly at the foot of the title page; leading edge and a few leaves slightly foxed; very small section of the bottom edge of the map slightly chipped and dusty; an excellent copy. $1650 [Enquire about this item] |
46. STEPHENSON, John and James Morss CHURCHILL: Medical Botany, or, Illustrations and Descriptions of the Medicinal Plants of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Pharmacopoeias. Comprising a Popular and Scientific Account of Poisonous Vegetables indigenous to Great Britain.... New Edition, edited by Gilbert T. Burnett. London, John Churchill, 1834, 1835 and 1836/ 1831. Octavo, three volumes, unpaginated but containing a total of 187 very attractive full-page hand-coloured engravings. Contemporary half morocco and marbled papered boards (the latter slightly marked and a little rubbed, with minor wear to the edges); later name-stamp on each title page and the verso of each plate; withall, an excellent set. $4000 [Enquire about this item] |
47. [STREETON, Arthur]. The Arthur Streeton Catalogue. Melbourne, Arthur Streeton, 1935. Large quarto, 141 pages with 2 portraits, 18 monochrome plates and 26 tipped-in colour plates plus an addenda slip on page 113. Gilt-lettered cloth a little mottled as often and slightly marked; spine (almost invariably sunned) now redyed, with a tiny tear near the middle of the front hinge neatly repaired; early ownership details on the flyleaf; a very good copy (internally fine). Number 258 of 500 copies signed by the artist. The text includes articles by Lionel Lindsay and J.S. MacDonald. 'In publishing this Book, the artist has striven to produce a complete catalogue of his works from the year 1883 to 1934; it is the first volume of its kind printed in Australia, and the artist in trying to make it as accurate and complete as possible, hopes that it may help to avoid any future dispute or question regarding the authenticity of his works.' Over 1110 works are described by title, medium, size and (then)-current ownership. $650 [Enquire about this item] |
48. SVERDRUP, Otto: New Land. Four Years in the Arctic Regions. Translated from the Norwegian by Ethel Harriet Hearn. London, Longmans, Green, 1904 [first edition in English]. Octavo, two volumes, xvi, 496 pages with 3 maps, 80 illustrations and 31 full-page illustrations plus a plate [and] xii, 504, 40 (publisher's catalogue) pages with 78 illustrations and 30 full-page illustrations plus 3 folding maps (including 2 chromolithographic maps in an endpocket). Silver-pictorial blue cloth very lightly marked and slightly rubbed at the extremities; first and last pages and the surfaces of the flyleaves in contact with them are a little discoloured; essentially a fine set. The first Fram Expedition, 1893-96, was Nansen's famous voyage of exploration; Sverdrup was captain of the vessel. This is the narrative of the second Fram Expedition, 1898-1902, with Sverdrup as both leader and captain. 'He overcame the early loss of his physician and the near loss of the Fram to fire to be the first to fully map the coast of southern and western Ellesmere Island; in 1900 he became the first non-aboriginal to visit Axel Heiberg and the Ringnes Islands. Altogether more new land - some 260,000 square km.... - was charted by Sverdrup than during any other polar expedition in history' (Otto Sverdrup Centennial Expedition website). Arctic Bibliography 17322. $1800 [Enquire about this item] |
49. TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord: Vivien. Illustrated by Gustave Dore. London, Edward Moxon, 1867. Folio, vi, 49 pages plus 9 plates with tissue-guards. Gilt-decorated cloth over heavy bevel-edged boards, all edges gilt; cloth a little marked and slightly rubbed at the extremities, with minor wear to the foot of the spine and the bottom corners; spine a little sunned; minimal light scattered foxing; a very good copy. With the pictorial bookplate ['Gang forward'] of [Sir] Edward Charles Stirling. On the verso of the front flyleaf is a fine piece of contemporary illumination: a pair of linked gold shields inscribed with calligraphic monograms (ECS on one, JLD on the other). Stirling married Jane Gilbert in 1877; this book may be a memento of an earlier romance. $450 [Enquire about this item] |
50. [Trade Catalogues]. Old Violins. A.E. Smith & Co. Ltd. The Violin Experts. 68 Hunter St, Sydney [cover title]. Sydney, The Company, [circa 1930]. Octavo, 16 pages. Colour pictorial overlapping wrappers; small piece missing from the front top corner; an excellent copy. 'Genuine Old Violins. The Collection of Instruments described in this Catalogue represents an effort on our part to supply to the Australian musical people' fine examples of the violin family (violins, violas, 'cellos and double basses). Over 150 instruments are listed, including a Peter Guarneruis and several others from the eighteenth century. Offered together with four English violin catalogues: two substantial ones from Rushworth and Draper, Liverpool (we suggest 1920s and 1950s); one on modern violins from Hawkes & Son (circa 1930) and a more prosaic one from Leslie Sheppard (1970s). [A second copy of the Smith catalogue is available on its own. The wrappers are slightly creased and marked, with a few short edge tears and a 45 mm split to the foot of the hinge in all instances bar the centrefold; it is a very good copy, with approximately half of the violins listed stamped as sold. It is priced at $125]. $400 [Enquire about this item] |
51. [TUCKER, Albert]. MOLLISON, James and Nicholas BONHAM: Albert Tucker. South Melbourne, Macmillan, 1982. Square quarto, 144 pages with 109 plates (55 in colour). Full leather; a fine copy with the slipcase. One of only 100 signed and numbered copies, with an original signed and numbered colour lithograph loosely inserted. $2750 [Enquire about this item] |
52. Vanity Fair. A Weekly Show of Political, Social, & Literary Wares. Volume V [containing 25 issues - numbers 114-138 - from 7 January to 24 June 1871]. London, 'Vanity Fair' Office, 1871. Folio, [ii], 256 pages (but bound without paginated wrappers and some of the advertising leaves, as issued) plus 25 full-page chromolithographs. Original dark green cloth a little mottled and slightly rubbed and bumped at the extremities; minor wear to the foot of the spine and a tiny scratch near the head, with a small bruise to the rear leading edge; front inner hinge neatly strengthened; a very good copy (with the contents in fine condition). All but one of the plates are by Ape. Not least among the assorted sovereigns, statesmen and men about town is #136, Men of the Day, Number 25, 'Baronet or Butcher' - the Tichborne Claimant. $550 [Enquire about this item] |
53. [WHITE, Patrick]. CONRAD, Joseph: Under Western Eyes. Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1957 [first thus]. Octavo, 316, [4] pages. Original orange card covers very lightly scuffed with a tiny bump to the front leading edge; an excellent copy. Inscribed and signed in ink on the title page 'Reg Bennett, / Thanks from / Patrick White / Bald Mountain 1964'. White's play, 'Night on Bald Mountain', was first produced by the Adelaide University Theatre on 9 May 1964. Presumably Bennett was involved with the production (although he was not one of the cast). $350 [Enquire about this item] |
54. [WILLIAMS, Fred]. KLEPAC, Lou (editor): Contemporary Australian Drawing. Perth, Western Australian Art Gallery, 1978. Oblong quarto, 128 pages with 96 full-page plates (28 in colour) and a few illustrations. Plain cream cloth; a fine copy with the dustwrapper a little creased. An important catalogue, edited and with an introduction by Lou Klepac. It was issued in conjunction with the 1978 Perth Survey of Drawing, a travelling exhibition that later went to the state galleries in Queensland and New South Wales. '3000 copies of this catalogue have been printed including a de-luxe edition of 100 copies which contain an original lithograph by Fred Williams'. The standard edition is bound in wrappers. The lithograph loosely inserted in this copy is signed by Fred Williams and numbered 20/50; presumably a second lithograph made up the balance of 100 prints for the deluxe edition. $2500 [Enquire about this item] |
55. WOOD FM VC GCB, Evelyn: From Midshipman to Field-Marshall. London, Methuen, October 1906 [fourth edition, with 'Colonial Edition' stamped at the foot of the title page]/ October 1906. Octavo, two volumes, xiv, 322 pages plus 8 plates and 10 folding maps [and] viii, 300, [40, publisher's catalogue] pages plus 2 plates and 4 folding maps. Original blind-stamped red cloth slightly sunned and rubbed; one volume has slight wear to the two bottom corners and one high spot on the rear hinge; edges slightly foxed; top inner corner of a few leaves in one volume slightly marked by a small scrap of newspaper used as a bookmark; an excellent set. Mounted on the half-title of the first volume is an ALs from the author, dated 30 September 1908, thanking the recipient (a resident of Adelaide) for his generous words about the book; he concludes 'will you please accept the photograph enclosed herewith'. The photograph (a vintage gelatin silver print, 200 x 135 mm) is loosely inserted in the book; it is a fine portrait of the author in full dress uniform, taken late in his life; it is signed vertically up the right-hand side 'Evelyn Wood FM'. Tipped on to the verso of the frontispiece is a TLs (with manuscript corrections) from the author, dated 9 March 1913. It is in reply to another enthusiastic letter from the same Adelaidean; Wood writes 'I never indeed anticipated that anyone could be good enough to read [this book] so many times as you have done. To be frank I may say that when I am tired, with over(head) [sic] work I occasionally pick up the book and it never fails to interest, and often amuses me'. Evelyn Wood (1838-1919) served as a midshipman in the Crimean War, where he was severely wounded and mentioned in despatches. He then joined the army and saw action in the Indian Mutiny (where he was awarded the VC), the Ashanti War, the Anglo-Zulu War, the First Boer War and Egypt. $600 [Enquire about this item] |
56. YEATS, W.B. and Dorothy WELLESLEY (editors): Broadsides. A Collection of New Irish and English Songs, 1937. Songs by W.B. Yeats, W.J. Turner, Oliver Gogarty, Hilaire Belloc, Dorothy Wellesley, James Stephens, Edith Sitwell, Frank O'Connor, Gordon Bottomley, F.R. Higgins, Padraic Colum, Walter de la Mare. Illustrations by Jack B. Yeats, Victor Brown, Harry Kernoff, Maurice McGonigal. Music by W.J. Turner, Arthur Duff, Edmund Dulac, Frank Liebich, Hilda Matheson, Art O'Murnaghan, Hilaire Belloc. Dublin, Cuala Press, 1937. Quarto, [vi, 52] pages with numerous hand-coloured illustrations plus a loosely inserted errata leaf. Original quarter linen and papered boards with a paper titling label on the front cover; small light tidemark to the foot of the cloth spine; paper on the bottom edge of the boards lightly nibbled; paperclip impression to the top edge of the flyleaf and the first two (blank) leaves, with a matching rust stain to the two facing blank pages; top edge of the errata sheet a little creased, sunned and chipped; an excellent copy, with the contents in very fine condition. The new series of 'A Broadside' was published monthly from January to December 1937. Each issue (quarto, 4 pages [8 pages in March]) was limited to 300 copies; 150 sets were bound as above with an additional title leaf, index leaf and two-page introduction by the editors, signed in ink by both Dorothy Wellesley and W.B. Yeats. Miller (The Dun Emer Press, later the Cuala Press, 1973) #58; Pyle (The Different Worlds of Jack B. Yeats, 1994) #2002-14. $6500 [Enquire about this item] |