Our latest catalogue contains important albums of photographs and books on photography from the collection of the photographer and pioneering gallerist Joyce Evans OAM. Highlights are presentation albums of photographs of Warwick in Queensland (1897), and of New South Wales (1892, presented to The Lady Evelyn Gathorne Hardy by George Dibbs, the Premier). Books include copies signed by Anselm Adams, Max Dupain, Sam Haskins, Bill Henson, Tim Page, and Wolfgang Sievers.

An unrecorded item of great significance is a very large detailed map of the battleground of the failed attempt by Turkish troops to invade Egypt on 3 February 1915. The 3^rd Field Company Engineers AIF were directly involved, and the Australian War Memorial has in its collection one of the pontoons used by the 4th Turkish Army in their attempt to cross the Suez Canal.

There are numerous books on tribal art and ethnic jewellery; first editions of The Dandies’ Ball (with illustrations after Robert Cruikshank, 1819), J.D. Hooker’s Himalayan Journals (two volumes, 1854), Georgette Heyer’s Barren Corn (1930, with the dustwrapper), and Ezra Pound’s Selected Poems (1928, with the dustwrapper); items signed by George Fife Angas, Allen Ginsberg, Hans Heysen, Oskar Kokoschka … Too much already!

The centrepiece of the material we have for sale at the forthcoming Melbourne Rare Book Fair is a selection of unique items relating to Australian inland exploration. One exceptional item is an unrecorded manuscript journal of the first seven weeks of John McDouall Stuart’s second exploring expedition, with a lengthy addendum in the hand of the explorer himself. An extensive archive relating to the pastoral properties of Alfred Barker (1812-1880) in the north of South Australia includes a series of letters giving details of the controversial purchase of Stuart’s pastoral runs on the eve of his departure from Australia. Rare portraits include vintage photographs of Stuart, Burke, Wills, and Allan Davidson, and a lithograph of Edward John Eyre.

Children’s literature is well-represented by a superb collection of books by A.A. Milne and his illustrator Ernest H. Shepard, including deluxe and limited editions, some of them signed. Once again, we have a fine selection of private press material, including titles from the Doves, Eragny, Golden Cockerel, Vale and Cuala presses. One highlight is the complete run of twelve issues of A Broadside, New Series, 1937, a hand-coloured collection of ‘New Irish and English Songs’ edited by William Butler Yeats.

Artwork and photography include a suite of five colonial watercolours by S.T. Gill, and two large-format vintage photographs by Frank Hurley from Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914, with provenance from a member of his later BANZARE.

Our latest catalogue contains a comprehensive collection of Australian First World War unit histories, augmented by a selection of related ephemeral publications, many of them rare.

This introduction will be mercifully brief: it seems rather pointless to preach to the converted, and the rest of you have already stopped reading!

Please forgive the eccentric order in which the items are displayed. It is a quirk of our website platform and beyond our control, but you’ll figure it out!

Our regular catalogue of recent acquisitions and items from stock is accompanied this time by a remarkable offering: the retained core collection of bookplate material from the estate of H.B. (Harry) Muir (1909-1992), bookseller, publisher, bookplate collector - indeed, patron of the book arts.

At the heart of this catalogue, and offered as one lot, is the archive of material relating to all 21 bookplates commissioned by, or designed for, Harry Muir. It includes many preparatory drawings, original linoleum blocks and woodblocks, proof prints, and numerous variant examples of the bookplates (many of them signed by the artists). A similar archive, much smaller, but no less attractive, is the one containing the original artwork and linoleum blocks for the beautiful bookplate designed by George Perrottet for Harry's wife Marcie (née Collett).

Association copies of the books on bookplates published by Harry's Wakefield Press, a complete run of the very scarce journal Bookplate (published by The Pear Tree Press, 1920-23), and a collection of 57 bookplates by George Perrottet are offered with numerous other bookplates, including those designed by artists of the calibre of Adrian Feint, John Goodchild, Norman Lindsay, Gayfield Shaw, Eric Thake, and Brett Whiteley.