Recent Acquisitions List 95 |
1. (Art Auction Records). Art Sales Index 2007. 38th Annual Edition [August 2005 to July 2006]. Oil Paintings, Works on Paper, Miniatures, Prints, Photographs and Sculptures. Egham, Art Sales Index, November 2006. Folio, 2352 pages in a single volume containing approximately 155,000 international auction results for the works of over 39,000 artists. Laminated colour pictorial papered boards; mint. Make this a standing order and receive a permanent 10% discount off the landed price each year - our copies are despatched to us as soon as the title is released. $360 [Enquire about this item] |
2. (Atlas). JOHNSTON, Alexander: The Handy Royal Atlas of Modern Geography, exhibiting the Present Condition of Geographical Discovery and Research in the Several Countries, Empires, and States of the World ... with additions and corrections to the present date by G.H. Johnston. Edinburgh, W. & A.K. Johnston, 1904. Folio, [x] pages (first two blank) plus 52 double-page full-colour maps (including the North Polar frontispiece) and a comprehensive 80-page gazetteer ('of about 78,000 names of places contained in the atlas'). Original gilt-decorated half red morocco and cloth, all edges gilt; leather a little rubbed at the extremities, with slight wear to the corners; light stain (essentially a tidemark) to the spine; small waterstain to the cloth at the leading edge of the rear cover, resulting in some loss of colour to that portion (and minimal red dye-staining to the rear flyleaf); apart from these minor cover blemishes, an excellent copy. 'The Handy Royal Atlas [surely a misnomer!] is based on the larger "Royal Atlas", which is acknowledged to be the best Atlas published in Great Britain'. $650 [Enquire about this item] |
3. (Brindabella Press). McDONALD, Nan: For Prisoners. An Unpublished Poem. Canberra, Brindabella Press, October 1995. Octavo, [7] pages, sewn into overlapping salmon-pink wrappers; tiny inkspot to the top edge of the rear cover; a fine copy. Number 50 of '150 copies hand-set and printed by Alec Bolton for friends of Nan McDonald and Brindabella Press' and initialled by the printer. A late and rare item from this notable Australian private press - to the best of our knowledge, only 'A Torrent of Words. Leon Gellert: a Writer's Life' by Gavin Souter, published in April 1996, appeared before Alec Bolton's death later that year. Offered together with a copy of 'A Licence to Print. Alec Bolton and the Brindabella Press' by Michael Richards (Canberra, 1993), a discursive and detailed history and bibliography of the press. (We have a number of Brindabella Press books and prints in stock; enquiries are welcome). $250 [Enquire about this item] |
4. BURKE, John and John Bernard BURKE: A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland. London, John Russell Smith, 1844 [second edition]/ 1838. Octavo, vi, 638, 6, 16 [publisher's catalogue] pages with numerous coats of arms plus a frontispiece portrait and a handsome supplementary chromolithographic title page (presumably from the 1838 first edition, possibly with some applied hand-colouring and gilt). Original blind-stamped cloth expertly rebacked at a later date, with new endpapers; extremities of the boards a little rubbed and bumped, with minor wear to the corners; cloth a little marked; frontispiece and early leaves a little foxed and spotted; tear to the bottom inner corner of the last advertising leaf neatly repaired; a very good copy. With two retained armorial bookplates and the ownership signature of Thomas Thornton Reed, sometime Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide. $700 [Enquire about this item] |
5. CHRISTIE-MURRAY, David: School Arms. [Harrow-on-the-Hill, The Author, 1959]. Quarto, three portfolios, containing a total of 59 four-page sections (each comprising title page, text, colour illustration of the arms of the school by Dan Escott and a list of other titles) with each one devoted to a different school; a prospectus and order form is mounted inside the front cover of the first portfolio. Cloth binders with titles in gilt on the spine and front cover; cloth very slightly rubbed and bumped at the extremities; the bottom half of the first page of the first section in each of the first two portfolios is a little discoloured by contact with the acidic binding material; an excellent set. This complete set comes from the collection of Dr Thomas Thornton Reed, sometime Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide; the contents of each folder are helpfully numbered in his hand. Mounted on the front pastedown of the third folder is an envelope containing a small amount of correspondence between Dr Reed and the author: Reed's two retained typed carbon copies are accompanied by two interesting and informative aerograms (from 1959 and 1971) signed by the author, as well as a mimeographed form letter to subscribers detailing the trials and tribulations of producing this Schools Heraldic Folders series. It would appear that as few as 200 copies of the early numbers were printed, and the serial nature of the publication suggests that complete sets such as this are uncommon, if not rare. Reed has written a biographical note on the author on the envelope containing the correspondence. $500 [Enquire about this item] |
6. FORREST, John: Explorations in Australia. I: Explorations in search of Dr Leichardt [sic] and party. II: From Perth to Adelaide, around the Great Australian Bight. III: From Champion Bay, across the desert to the telegraph and to Adelaide. Adelaide, Sampson Low, Marston, Low and Searle, 1875 [first edition]. Octavo, viii, 354, 40 (publisher's catalogue) pages plus 8 plates (by George French Angas) and 4 folding maps (all with routes and main bodies of water in colour). Original gilt-decorated cloth slightly rubbed at the extremities, with minimal wear to the head of the rear hinge; inner hinges cracked but very firm; an excellent copy. From the collection of the naval historian H.M. Cooper, with the early ownership signature of Rob[er]t Cooper. $2750 [Enquire about this item] |
7. IDRIESS, Ion L.: The Works of Ion L. Idriess. National Edition. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1938 and 1939 [all first thus]. Octavo, twelve volumes, each volume approximately 250 pages plus plates (and endpaper maps in some cases). Green cloth with black title panels printed on the spines; insignificant marks to a couple of covers, with trifling rubbing and flecking; one volume has a clean break (a production flaw) to one leaf expertly repaired; an excellent set. A uniformly bound collected reprint edition of the author's standard works to that time. Each title page is inscribed to H.J. Bird, dated (1940, with occasionally the month of March) and signed in ink by the author. Along with the usual Cheerios, Sincerelys, Good Fortunes and Best Wishes are several gems among the inscriptions: 'You will recognise some of the old hands and country in this book' (Flynn of the Inland); 'Gratefully remembering the considerable help you gave me in writing this book about a great old man whose memory is pleasant to both of us' (The Cattle King) and 'With a Cheerio to Mrs Bird and jolly attractive daughter' (Men of the Jungle - apposite if nothing else!). $1100 [Enquire about this item] |
8. JACKSON, Frederick G.: A Thousand Days in the Arctic. New York, Harper, 1899 [first American edition]. Octavo, xxiv, 940, [4, publisher's advertisements] pages with 2 frontispiece portraits and 188 illustrations (many full-page) plus 13 plates and 5 folding maps. Colour-pictorial cloth, top edge gilt, others uncut; cloth slightly rubbed and very slightly worn at the extremities; short split to the cloth on the rear leading edge expertly closed; tiny chips and tears to the leading edge of two leaves (where inexpertly opened), with trifling imperfections to a few other leading edges; lengthy biographical note on the author in light pencil on the front flyleaf; an excellent copy. The account of the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition, led by Jackson and equipped and sponsored by Harmsworth 'to make a thorough scientific exploration of the newly-discovered Franz-Josef Land, only some part of its southern shores being then known, and the hope being reasonably entertained that it might extend far to the northward, and therefore afford facilities for a nearer approach to the North Pole than had hitherto been accomplished'. The party left England in July 1894 and spent the next three years based on Northbrook Island. It was here that Nansen and Johansen providentially met them in June 1896 on their return by kayak from their unsuccessful dash to the Pole. $700 [Enquire about this item] |
9. LACASSAGNE, L'Abbe [Joseph]: Traite General des Elemens du Chant. Paris, The Author, 1766. Octavo, [viii, commencing at the title page], 188 pages with many music examples; all pages are printed within engraved decorative borders. A bookseller's note pencilled inside the front cover and a loosely inserted catalogue reference indicate that this copy lacks the 'two pages [leaves?] with musical staves drawn in white on black paper to encourage the teacher to chalk his examples on a black-board'. Early quarter parchment and marbled papered boards repapered at an early stage (and now a little rubbed and chipped); the rear endpaper is tissue-paper (and there is no front endpaper); front inner hinge cracked but firm; title leaf chipped, marked and dusty, with an ownership signature in ink at the head of the title page and a name-stamp at the foot of the first five pages and the last page; short annotations in ink on two pages and a lengthy note in ink on the verso of the title page; a very good copy. Joseph Lacassagne (c.1720-c.1780), French theorist and teacher, 'entered the priesthood and lived in Paris, where his patrons included the dauphin and the dauphine, Marie Antoinette. [This work], intended for beginners, is his most noteworthy publication. In it he proposed to simplify the reading of music by using only one clef (a movable G clef) and only three time signatures ... Though his proposals caused some controversy, they found little favour' (The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1991). $1000 [Enquire about this item] |
10. LOCK, Cecil Bert Lovell: The Fighting 10th. A South Australian Centenary Souvenir of the 10th Battalion AIF, 1914-19. Adelaide, Webb, 1936. Octavo, [x], 320 pages. Red papered boards, lettered in black; covers lightly marked, with the spine slightly sunned; extremities a little bumped; endpapers a little offset; front cover slightly bowed; a very good copy with the contemporary ownership signature of an officer of the battalion. $450 [Enquire about this item] |
11. LUBBOCK, Basil: The Last of the Windjammers. Glasgow, Brown, Son & Ferguson, 1927 and 1929 [both first editions]. Quarto, two volumes, xvi, 518 pages plus 2 colour plates of 'Vanished House Flags', 17 plans (many of them folding), 126 plates and endpaper maps and xvi, 443 pages plus 2 colour plates of House Flags, 18 plans (many of them folding), 173 plates and endpaper maps. Gilt-decorated cloth a little bumped and slightly rubbed and marked (with trifling wear); bottom edges slightly marked, with one top edge a little foxed; a few plans folded off-line; overall an excellent set. Not identified as such, but from the collection of H.M. Cooper, the South Australian maritime historian. $350 [Enquire about this item] |
12. NEILSON, John Shaw: A typescript poem 'Replying to a Fellow Rhymer who complains that a Beautiful Young Girl is using Cosmetics' (four quatrains on a small quarto sheet of paper), signed in ink by the poet as 'Shaw Neilson'. In another hand the date 1936 has been added at the foot of the page and 'About Miss Nancy Strover' on the verso, where a third hand has also written 'Original copy of verse by John Shaw Neilson'. The leaf has been folded across the middle and is a little foxed; a small ink stain on the verso is visible in the wide bottom margin well clear of the signature. The first stanza is 'Great is the theme, good brother, you have chosen, / Sweet is the maid as the impetuous Spring; / Beauty she craves: without it all is frozen, / Love could not breathe in each beloved thing' - the poem is apparently unpublished. The poet John Shaw Neilson (1872-1942), born in Penola, spent most of his adult life 'making roads, quarrying stone, or on bush work, and always in poverty'. Poorly educated, and largely self taught in the techniques of poetry, he was held in high critical regard by his contemporaries. H.M. Green wrote of him as 'perhaps the most notable of all Australia's mystic poets', and a more recent assessment rates him with Christopher Brennan as 'the foremost poet of his generation' (comments from the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10). $350 [Enquire about this item] |
13. (Photography). BOOTHBY, William R.: The Olive. Its Culture and Products in the South of France and Italy. Adelaide, Government Printer, 1878. Octavo, 42, [2] pages (last blank) plus a frontispiece, 24 figures (on 11 leaves at the rear) and 5 original albumen paper photographs (each approximately 110 x 80 mm or the reverse) mounted on individual leaves. A correction has been made in ink (page 6, line 27 - Riviera for rivers); we have noted this with other copies (including the standard issue) and presume it is in the author's hand. Quarter leather and ornate gilt-lettered watered cloth (almost certainly the original binding); slight loss to the head of the spine, with a little loss of its treated surface down its length (slightly affecting a few letters); cloth slightly rubbed at the corners and very slightly discoloured around the edges; inoffensive contemporary library markings (namely, a gilt monogram on the front cover and spine, reference numbers in white ink at the foot of the leather near the spine on the rear cover, blind stamps on the title page and on four of the five mounts for the photographs, ink stamp on the verso of the title page, ink reference numbers at the head of the title page and on a small label inside the front cover); one photograph has a tiny piece missing from a bottom corner, and the border of the blind-stamp has just caught its top edge; in the scheme of things, these are trifles and the overall condition is excellent. Ferguson 7285 (not noting this extra-illustrated edition); Holden 7. The author was Sheriff of South Australia, 'and with a view to provide means of useful employment to the short-sentenced prisoners, it has been my duty to superintend the olive plantations which have been formed near the Adelaide Gaol. [On] holiday, in the years 1876 and 1877, [I visited] the olive countries of Europe, and ... acquainted [myself] with the processes of olive cultivation and manufacture of oil'. The plates are of mature olive trees; on one occasion in the text, he strongly recommends a particular variety and states 'I have brought photographs of this tree'. Offered together with six vintage albumen paper photographs (each 220 x 160 mm) from the same series used to illustrate the book, with only one of them published therein. Several of them are from the Cannes region. These photographs were originally owned by Sir Samuel Davenport, and all carry captions in his hand on the mounts. Sir Samuel Davenport (1818-1906) was an ardent promoter of agriculture and new industries in South Australia and served as president of both the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society and the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4). For good measure, a contemporary bottle label for pure olive oil 'from the Corporation olive yards' of the City of Adelaide is included. $6000 [Enquire about this item] |
14. (Photography). DAVISON, Jane and Margaret: The Triqueti Marbles in the Albert Memorial Chapel, Windsor. A Series of Photographs executed by the Misses Davison ... One Hundred and Seventeen Photographs. London, Chapman and Hall, 1876. Trimmed to 465 x 340 mm (down from approximately 495 x 348 mm), [iv], iv pages plus 49 leaves containing 117 mounted Woodburytypes (on rectos only) and a captioned leaf (rectos only printed) for each leaf of plates; there is an extra plate mounted on the title page. The Woodburytypes range in size from approximately 85 mm square to a very large 205 x 260 mm. Original cloth over recent boards, with most of the cloth from the original spine retained on the new cloth spine; cloth a little marked and scuffed (mainly at the rear); the plain head of the spine and a small section of the spine title (the letter B) are missing; title page a little marked; tears to the leading edges of a few captioned leaves are expertly repaired, with the occasional chip or dustiness to a few others; minimal light scattered foxing to a few leaves; essentially a very good copy, with the plates in uniformly fine condition. The marble 'mural decoration was confided by the Queen [Victoria] to Baron de Triqueti, whose exquisite sculptures have long been known to art lovers and whose revival and development of the old art of tarsia form an era in the history of decoration. The name tarsia was applied to the art of engraving marble, inlaid in large pieces, with lines which were afterwards filled with permanent cement.... In the early Italian specimens, the engraved lines are always filled with black cement; the use of various coloured cements, the great diversity of the marbles inlaid, and the amplification of detail which characterize the revived art, are due entirely to Baron de Triqueti.... Of the revised art of tarsia, the tablets in the Albert Memorial Chapel, Windsor, are the finest existing samples'. The Woodburytype certainly does justice to these sculptures, which 'Baron de Triqueti only lived to complete' (born in France in 1807, he died in 1874). This copy has the relatively early (cropped) ownership signature (dated 7 October 1915) of Laurence Hotham Howie (1875-1963), the South Australian artist and teacher, and the later bookplate of Archibald Jack Peake. $3000 [Enquire about this item] |
15. (Photography). EVANS, Admiral E.R.G.R. (Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell, 1880-1957): A gelatin silver photograph (180 x 128 mm) of a portrait in oils of Evans in full dress uniform. The painting is dated in the image (1927) and signed, but the signature is difficult to decipher (Bowring?). Evans has inscribed the mount below the photograph in ink 'To Jean and Lavington Bonython with love from E.R.G.R. Evans 1929-31'. He was second officer of the 'Morning', the ship sent out by the RGS in 1904 to the relief of Scott's first Antarctic expedition. In 1909 he was selected by Scott himself as second-in-command of his second expedition and captain of the 'Terra Nova'. He accompanied Scott in January 1912 to within 150 miles of the Pole where he turned back. Struck down with scurvy (which almost claimed his life), he spent a brief period of convalescence in England before resuming his captaincy. He arrived at Cape Evans in January 1913, only to learn that Scott had died the previous March on his return from the Pole. His enduring fame as 'Evans of the "Broke"' relates to his exploits in action off Dover Harbour in April 1917 - but that's another story. He was eventually promoted to Rear-Admiral in February 1928, and his first flag command was the Australian squadron in 1929. 'He was immensely popular in the Commonwealth, where his unconventional ways were fully appreciated'. [Sir] John Lavington Bonython (1875-1960), newspaper editor and company director, was Lord Mayor of Adelaide from 1928-30. 'Much of Bonython's energy was devoted to civic affairs'; this memento probably stems from one of these civic occasions, although the warm inscription suggests a more personal association. The photograph is in fine condition, mounted as issued (laid down on thin brown card which is tipped on to thicker, light brown card), glazed and in a contemporary thin wooden frame (overall dimensions 390 x 255 mm). The frame is a little scuffed, and the backing paper is a little waterstained and slightly torn with minor loss. The style of mount suggests that the photographer is May Moore, active in Sydney from 1911 until the late 1920s. The item is offered together with an unsigned framed and glazed photograph of Evans standing with another (unidentified) high-ranking naval officer in a garden-party setting (visible image size 103 x 127 mm). Both items carry the label of the Adelaide framers Bayly & Speirs. Most of these details have been gleaned from the DNB and the ADB. (Also in stock at present is a postcard-size gelatin silver photograph of Evans, signed and dated 1931, the year he completed his Australian command. He is in uniform, standing on the deck of a ship. The price is $500). $800 [Enquire about this item] |
16. SASSOON, Siegfried: Rhymed Ruminations. London, printed for Siegfried Sassoon and Geoffrey Keynes at the Chiswick Press, July 1939. Small octavo, 30, [2] pages. Decorated light-brown papered boards reprinting the full title page details on the front cover; small inkspot to the spine and front cover - a trifling blemish to an otherwise superb copy. One of only 75 copies printed; this copy is inscribed and signed (with his initials) by Sassoon to C.H. Wilkinson, with one manuscript correction ('things' for 'thing' on the third line of page 18). There is no harm in suggesting the inkspot came from Sassoon's pen ...! Wilkinson was an Oxford don, editor of the poems of Richard Lovelace (Oxford, 1925) and an anthology, Diversions (Oxford, 1940). Loosely inserted is a wonderful ALS from Sassoon to Wilkinson (octavo, one and a half pages on Heytesbury House, Wiltshire letterhead). It is dated 23 February 1940 and it accompanied the presentation copy of the book. Reference is made to Lovelace: 'The book was suggested (in print etc) by a little Chiswick Press Lovelace - about 1820 - which you no doubt possess (in its printed boards?)'. Sassoon explains the history of the poems and adds 'I was rather shy of printing the verses to my little George [his son], but G.K. [Geoffrey Keynes] persuaded me, & people seem to like them'. Reference is also made to the forthcoming anthology, and Sassoon mentions his ideal way of printing such a book: 'reproduce the old authors in facsimile from their 1st editions. Perhaps - in Utopia - (or America) it will be done some day by a rich man'. The key part of the letter then follows: 'I entirely agree with you about keeping one's mind clear of the War. I have absolutely refused to listen to a word of the wireless, from the start, & only read the head-lines of the papers; & when people talk about it I leave the room. We have got to see it through to the bitter end, & make a job of it, but one's mind must be safe-guarded from decivilisation. Discussing the war all the time, as so many people do, seems to me a thoroughly stupid & uncivilised way of behaving - (& certainly no help to the young, who have got to bear the worst of the burden'. There doesn't seem much need to say more ... $2500 [Enquire about this item] |
17. SHACKLETON, Ernest: South. The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition, 1914-1917. London, Heinemann, 1919 [first edition, first impression]. Royal octavo, [ii], xxii, 376 pages with 6 sketch maps (one full-page) plus a colour frontispiece with a captioned tissue-guard, a double-page panorama and 86 full-page plates and a large folding map (but without the errata slip noted by Rosove, Renard and others). Original silver-pictorial dark blue cloth very slightly rubbed at the extremities, with the slightest of wear to the bottom corner tips and at one point at the foot of the spine; minimal flecking (confined mainly to the extremities), with the rear cover very lightly marked and scored; cloth very lightly bubbled down the middle of the front cover; paper uniformly discoloured as ever with this first impression; tiny tear to the leading edge of the dedication leaf expertly closed; an excellent copy with the ownership signature of the South Australian naval historian H.M. Cooper on the flyleaf (and some related pencilling below it lightly erased). The Imperial Transantarctic Expedition of 1914-17 comprised two teams, the Weddell Sea party in the 'Endurance' and the Ross Sea party in the 'Aurora'. 'An essential aspect of Shackleton's scheme for crossing the Antarctic was that a second and quite separate expedition should establish a base on the Ross Sea to provide support for the transantarctic party and establish forward depots'. Things went horribly wrong for both parties, with the 'Endurance' fragmenting under the pressure of being locked in the ice of the Weddell Sea, resulting in the famous journey of survival that culminated in the epic voyage of the 22-foot boat 'James Caird' to South Georgia Island. Shackleton then learned that the men of the Ross Sea party were stranded on Ross Island. When the relief expedition finally reached them, two members of the party had perished. Shackleton returned 'to England in May 1917 and dictated the text of the popular account of the expedition to Edward Saunders, largely from recollection. Final editing was carried out by Leonard Hussey, with personal accounts by Mackintosh, Stenhouse and others, and the book was finally published in 1919' (Howgego, Volume 3). 'This exploit, which has captured the modern imagination, certainly struck the world differently in 1919; in the aftermath of the First World War feats of extraordinary heroism were thick on the ground, and so Shackleton's truly remarkable tale of survival at the extremes of human endurance largely fell flat. This is emphasised in the book's production: the first issue contained cheap paper prone to severe browning, a poorly crafted binding likely to split at the joints with normal usage and silver printing on the binding subject to oxidizing' (The Taurus Collection, 2001). All the more reason to buy this copy .... $5000 [Enquire about this item] |
18. SMITH, Meredith J., ASLIN, Heather J. and Rosemary Woodford GANF (the illustrator): Marsupials of Australia. Volume 1: Possums, the Koala and Wombats. Volume 2: Carnivorous Marsupials and Bandicoots. Melbourne [and] Sydney, Lansdowne Editions, 1980 and 1987. Folio, two volumes, 202 and 292 pages with 28 and 55 full-page colour plates respectively. Cloth with a large blind-stamped pictorial leather panel mounted on the front cover and a leather titling label on the spine; front board of the second volume bowed, otherwise a fine pair in the original cardboard packing boxes (showing a few signs of handling). Meredith Smith is the author of the first volume; Smith and Aslin are the authors of the second. Both volumes carry the number 664 of 1000 copies signed by the author(s) and illustrator. PLEASE NOTE: we can supply mint copies of the third and final volume by John Calaby, Tim Flannery and Rosemary Woodford Ganf, published in 2005, at the recommended retail price of $1150. It deals with Kangaroos, Wallabies and Rat-Kangaroos. It is uniform with the other two volumes, has 273 pages with 51 full-page colour plates and is limited to 650 copies signed by Tim Flannery and Rosemary Woodford Ganf (John Calaby died in 1998). $1150 [Enquire about this item] |
19. SNOW, W. Parker: A Two Years' Cruise off Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, Patagonia and in the River Plate. A Narrative of Life in the Southern Seas. London, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857 [first edition]. Octavo, two volumes, xvi, 376 and viii, 368 pages plus 6 chromolithographic plates and 3 folding maps (with bodies of water hand-coloured in outline) and publisher's advertising on all pastedowns. Original dark blue cloth extensively blindstamped, all edges uncut; cloth slightly rubbed and bumped at the extremities; slight wear to the head and foot of the spine and in a couple of spots on both rear hinges; occasional mild foxing, with somewhat heavier foxing to the recto of one frontispiece and the verso of one plate (with the page facing the blank verso offset and a little stained, with trifling adhesion damage affecting slightly four letters); a very good set with the contemporary ownership details of Edward McDonald (14 February 1858) on the flyleaves and the later signature of John Clark Hill ('By Purchase') on the title pages. William Parker Snow (1817-95) was captain of the 'Allen Gardiner' for the Patagonian Missionary Society, embarking (with his wife) from Bristol for the Falkland Islands in October 1854. The vessel 'landed the party on the uninhabited Keppel Island, off West Falkland.... Over the next two years Snow shuttled missionaries and supplies between Tierra del Fuego and the Falklands. However, Snow's commission ended abruptly when, feeling that the whole missionary effort had been ill-conceived, he fell out with the society's agent in the Falklands. He and his wife were left to find their own way back to England ... [This book] earned him a little money, but most of it was squandered on a costly three-year court action against the missionary society' (Howgego, Volume 3). $3250 [Enquire about this item] |
20. SPANHEIM, Le Baron de: Les Cesars de l'Empereur Julien, traduits du Grec.... Avec des Remarques & des Preuves, enricies de plus de 300 Medailles, & autres Anciens Monumens ... Amsterdam, Francois l'Honore, 1728 [new edition]. Quarto, [x], xlii, 286, [2], 196 pages (including 'Preuves des Remarques ...' on pages 5-147) with over 300 engravings (mainly of coins and medallions) plus a frontispiece and a plate (all engraved by Bernard Picart). Early full calf later expertly rebacked, retaining most of the old gilt-decorated spine; leather slightly pitted and a little rubbed at the extremities with minor loss to the corners; first and last (mainly blank) leaves a little foxed; an excellent copy, with the title page printed in red and black. An attractive edition of Spanheim's translation of 'The Caesars' by the Emperor Julian (331-363), with the name-plate of the Cambridge architect Marshall Sisson (1839-99) and an earlier European armorial bookplate on the pastedown. $1100 [Enquire about this item] |
21. (STREHLOW, T.G.H.). Secrets of the Aranda. [Contained in two issues of] 'People' Magazine. 3 August 1978 [and] 10 August 1978. Sydney, Sungravure, 1978. Royal quarto (305 x 233 mm), pages 20-23 with 10 illustrations (8 in colour) plus the striking full-page colour illustration on the front cover (repeated in much reduced form in black and white inside the front cover) [and] pages 30-32 with 5 illustrations (4 in colour). The three black and white illustrations show Strehlow at various stages of his life . Colour pictorial wrappers; fine copies of these popular weekly pictorial magazines. 'In March 1978 "Stern" magazine in Germany published a sumptuous sixteen-page spread on secret-sacred Aranda ceremonies [including] eight colour photographs displaying Aboriginal men in ceremony.... Strehlow had provided "Stern" with 211 colour slides and 78 black-and-white photographs. The selection from which the editors had made such a limited choice represented the span of his life.... "Stern" agreed not to publish the shots elsewhere for the next eight months or to pass them on to any other magazine. All the material was to be returned within six months, because, as Strehlow wrote later, "it had not been sold"' (Barry Hill - see below). He was paid $6000, and was assured that the material would not be sold to any Australian magazine. This proved not to be the case, and these two issues of 'People' tell the sorry truth of the matter that lead to the discrediting of Strehlow and hastened his end; he died less than two months later on 3 October 1978. Copies of these magazines, produced in vast quantities and disposed of on the same scale, are virtually unheard of on the open market. Barry Hill devotes twelve pages in 'Broken Song. T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possessions' (pages 741-52) to the story surrounding the publication of these photographs. We can do no better than recommend his book to you - we can supply mint copies of the paperback edition for $35 to those who don't yet have it. [For the record, Hill's account contains some inaccuracies, small enough in themselves, and easily corrected if you know the facts, but disappointing nonetheless if you are looking for them herein. The first article is not a 'front-page story under the headline "Sacred Secrets Revealed"'. One of the illustrations occupies the full front cover, with the caption 'Exclusive! Secret Rites of the Aranda - with pictures you've never seen before'. The second issue has the caption 'Amazing Pictures of the Arandas' on the front cover, over the full-page illustration of a young woman feeding a pig - the magazine did not run to front-page stories. Nowhere in either issue does Hill's stated headline appear. 'Hitler's Secret Sex Life' is advertised on the front cover of the second issue, not the first, which refers to the Elvis Museum, Demis Roussos, Lisa Peers and the Sappho scandal. Mountford's 'Nomads of the Australian Desert' was published in 1976, not stopped from being published in 1974; it was not pulped - we know for a fact that large quantities were remaindered through Angus and Robertson outlets in New South Wales, if not elsewhere]. A final comment on the subject appeared in People on 24 August. At the head of the second page, the editor issued a 168-word apology, which stated in part that 'It was not our intention to cause either Professor Strehlow, the Aranda or any other Aboriginal peoples any embarrassment or distress through publication of the photographs, but rather to provide our readers with an illustrated record, in a way never before depicted, of a fine race of Aboriginals who form a valued part of our Australian heritage.' A full transcript is provided with the magazines. $500 [Enquire about this item] |
22. STREHLOW, T.G.H.: Journey to Horseshoe Bend. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1969. Octavo, [vi], 220 pages plus endpaper maps. Cloth; ownership details at the head of the title page; an excellent copy with the dustwrapper a little rubbed and with the spine faded as often. The account of the last journey, in October 1922, of the author's desperately ill father, the Reverend Carl Strehlow, overland from Hermannsburg to the railhead at Oodnadatta; Horseshoe Bend was where he died and was buried. The author, who made the trip with his father, was fourteen at the time. This classic work received the 1970 Weickhardt Award for the best general Australian book; it has been genuinely scarce for many years. $350 [Enquire about this item] |
23. THIELE, Colin: Storm Boy. Adelaide, Rigby, 1963 [first edition]. Octavo, 51 pages with numerous illustrations by John Baily. Papered boards; ownership inscription on the flyleaf; endpapers offset and slightly foxed; an excellent copy with the dustwrapper slightly foxed, a little rubbed at the extremities with minor wear to the front top corner tip. The scarce first edition. Offered together with a fine copy of the 1974 first edition featuring the fine colour illustrations of Robert Ingpen (square quarto, 61 pages) - the comparison is nothing if not instructive. $400 [Enquire about this item] |
24. (TJAPALTJARRI, Clifford Possum). JOHNSON, Vivien: The Art of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Basel, Gordon and Breach Arts International, 1994 [first edition]. Large quarto, 177 pages with 10 maps or diagrams, numerous illustrations (many in colour) and 63 colour plates. Papered boards; faint impression of erased pencilled ownership details on the flyleaf; a fine copy with the fine dustwrapper. Signed boldly and in very large letters in black felt-tipped pen by the artist at the foot of his large and imposing colour frontispiece portrait (on 14 December 1999, according to a note pencilled onto the title page by the former owner of the book, who personally collected the signature). Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (c.1932-2002), 'one of the truly visionary Australian artists of the twentieth century.... [He] was an expert wood-carver and took up painting long before the emergence of the Papunya Tula School in the early 1970s. When [he] joined this group of "dot and circle" painters early in 1972 he immediately distinguished himself as one of its most talented members and went on to create some of the largest and most complex paintings ever produced' (Art Gallery of New South Wales website, December 2006). $1000 [Enquire about this item] |
25. TOMEONI, Florido: Theorie de la Musique Vocale. Paris, The Author and Charles Pougens, An VII [1799]. Octavo, viii, 138, 2-5 (music examples on light blue paper), [1, errata] pages. Later papered boards with a leather titling label on the spine; covers a little rubbed, with minor wear to the extremities and a small section of the rear hinge; endpapers offset; an excellent uncut copy. Signed by the author at the foot of the printed note on the verso of the title page (his surname only, with a flourish). Italian-born Florido Tomeoni (1755-1820), singing teacher, composer and publisher, 'settled in Paris in 1783 as a teacher of singing and harmony. He also established a music shop and publishing house ... from which he issued his own compositions as well as theoretical works. The last of these, [the work on offer here], as well as being a vocal method, belatedly continued the Gluck-Piccinni controversy about French as opposed to Italian music. Unsurprisingly, his judgment was in favour of the Italian' (The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1991). $800 [Enquire about this item] |