Our latest list features an impressive portrait of a young Aboriginal woman, Clara, photographed by Charles Scott at Allendale Station, near Oodnadatta, in 1903-04. There are another dozen or more photographic items (including cartes-de-visite, stereophotographs, albums and photographically-illustrated books), many of them genuine rarities. From antiquarian travel, and Australian unit histories and military ephemera, to signed modern literature and a broad miscellany in between ... enough already, it's over to you now!

This effort is shorter than usual, but it contains some stellar items, and we can also use the opportunity of making contact with you to announce some of our projects for the coming months (in particular, our major auction in Melbourne on 5 and 6 April – see below).

First, the catalogue. It contains an extraordinary letter from Camille Saint-Saëns; written in 1882, it is a bitter denunciation of the failure of a journal to promote French music (and at the same time be modern). Other unique items include an album of photographs from Donald Campbell’s abortive 1963 attempt on the World Land Speed Record at Lake Eyre, with a letter from Campbell; a collection of twelve signed photographs of international musicians and singers from the 1920s-30s, presented to an Adelaide impresario; an original large ink drawing by David Hockney; and an archive of material relating to the Australian Limited Editions Society’s 1939 publication, The Life and Times of Captain John Piper by M. Barnard Eldershaw, including the 17 pieces of original artwork by Adrian Feint.

Printed items include the complete set of Butler’s Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services in the War of 1914-1918 (1938-43), with all volumes inscribed and signed by the author; Bardon’s Papunya Tula. Art of the Western Desert (1991) inscribed and signed by the author, with two letters from him; and Austin’s The Mines of South Australia (1863), the cloth-bound edition with the map, unknown to Ferguson, and rare to this day. Our featured item, illustrated above, the 'Starvation Debenture' handbill, political propaganda from the June 1932 election in NSW, was apparently printed by the hundreds of thousands, but don’t hold your breath for another one to surface …

Our latest list features two very large-format vintage Frank Hurley photographs, both carbon prints from his 1915 Fine Art Society Exhibition: the superb 'Panorama of Bergs in the Davis Sea', from Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-14, and 'Haunt of the Wild Duck', from Hurley's trip to the Northern Territory in April-July 1914. Another key polar item is the first edition of Shackleton's South (1919), from the personal collection of one of the ill-fated Ross Shore Party.

Other rarities include an album of over 100 bookplates by George Perrottet (many signed); the deluxe edition of the Alsop sisters' Some Childrens' [sic] Songs (1910); Bodyline umpire George Hele's copy of Sir David Sergeant's Australia: Its Cricket Bat, Its Kangaroo, Its Farming, Fruit and Flowers (inscribed by the author, who faced the first ball bowled in the first match between Victoria and NSW in 1856); two sets of Bean's Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 (one of them a complete set of first editions); half-a-dozen items 'not in Trove'; significant photograph albums; numerous books with interesting provenance ... you get the drift ... and with only 102 items to choose from, you haven't got time to lose!

Impressive in both their very large format and impeccable provenance are two vintage photographs by Frank Hurley of Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914, from the personal collection of Sir Douglas Mawson himself.

Also on offer are Sir John William Downer's copies of the elaborate commemorative rolls from both the 1891 and 1897 Federation Conventions, signed by all the delegates (a Who's Who of Australian political history). Downer was one of only sixteen delegates to attend both conventions.

A fine selection of the acclaimed colour-plate books of George French Angas is available, including South Australia Illustrated (1847), The Kafirs Illustrated (1849), and Description of the Barossa Range (1849).

Other impressive illustrated books include limited editions signed by Edmund Dulac, Thomas Mackenzie, Arthur Rackham, Charles Robinson, and W. Heath Robinson. An eclectic range of manuscripts, photographs and maps rounds out the catalogue.

To view these items (and much else!) visit us at Stand 19 at the Melbourne Rare Book Fair, at Wilson Hall, University of Melbourne, 22-24 July 2016. For more details go to www.rarebookfair.com