Catalogues

Online Catalogue #39

Online Catalogue #39

Our latest catalogue contains two early works on mathematics, including John Wilkins's Mathematicall Magick (1648), the first edition of the first book on mechanics in English. There are other antiquarian books on economics, law, philosophy and religion, and a bound volume of eight pamphlets (1803-1808) on the Napoleonic Wars.

You will also find tickets to the funeral of the Duke of Wellington, the signed limited edition of the Works of Max Beerbohm (10 volumes, 1922-28), signed lithographs by Oskar Kokoschka, a mammoth map of Kangaroo Island (1858), and an unpublished large-format photograph by George Aiston of a Wangkangurru elder spinning string from grass fibres using a cross-piece spindle (early 1920s).

Online Catalogue #38

Online Catalogue #38

Our latest offering features an important collection relating to the early exploration of the Northern Territory, compiled by William Webster Hoare (1841-1927), surgeon's assistant and dispenser on George Goyder's survey expedition of 1868-9.

The balance of the catalogue is an eclectic assortment of militaria, bookplates, photography, art, aviation, vintage Australian tourist guides and more.

Happy browsing!

Online Catalogue #37

Online Catalogue #37

As well as preparing for our two currently-running online auctions (see below) we have also been hard at work on our latest retail list.

One singular and significant item is an impressive sketchbook of original drawings and verse compiled collaboratively by two Australian officers on the Western Front during the First World War.

The balance of the catalogue is our traditional rich miscellany, including travel and exploration, literature, fine bindings, autograph material, photographs, trade catalogues, Indigenous Australiana, and more.

Online Catalogue #36

Online Catalogue #36

New Year’s greetings, and welcome to our first retail catalogue for 2019. It is an interesting miscellany representative of just some of our many interests – in this case these include art, autographs, literature, photographs, travel and exploration. Recent acquisitions include rare Lawrence of Arabia ephemera, Somerset de Chair’s The First Crusade (Golden Cockerel Press, one of 100 copies), and Idriess’s The Cattle King (1936, a fine first edition with the dustwrapper).

Photographs include the first one taken of Robert O’Hara Burke’s burial tree, a framed pair of images of the Smith brothers’ Vickers Vimy in Adelaide in March 1920, a very unusual group portrait of Oswald Mosley and his first wife’s family, and fine portraits of Don Bradman and George Fife Angas.

Online Catalogue #35

Online Catalogue #35

Just in time for the Christmas season, we are pleased to announce our latest online catalogue.

Highlights include a superb Japanese plant nursery catalogue containing 143 hand-coloured plates (1892), and a rare 1543 edition of the Luther Bible, with over 100 woodcut illustrations.

Strong sections include militaria, cartography, Australian exploration, photographically-illustrated books, trade catalogues, South Australiana, and more!

Happy browsing!

Online Catalogue #34

Online Catalogue #34

Welcome to our latest catalogue and our revamped website. The ease with which you will be able to navigate your way around it belies (but more than justifies) the time and effort spent on the project.

However, if you remain cartographically challenged, read on. We can offer you a copy of the very rare atlas, Goyder’s Plan of the Southern Portion of the Province of South Australia (1877), and a presumably much rarer linen handkerchief map highlighting the Dardanelles in 1914. We have J.M. Black’s complete set of Brown’s Forest Flora of South Australia (1882-90), with 45 superb chromolithographs. There are eight photobooks by Bird, Everard, Green and Haskins; a vintage photograph of three-times Australian prime minister, Alfred Deakin and his wife; and a very large-format photograph taken at the farewell banquet in London in October 1900 to The Earl of Hopetoun, the first Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.

There are rare and desirable cricket cartoon books by Branson, Glover and Mailey; fine first editions of Idriess’s The Desert Column (1932, with the dustwrapper) and Gold-Dust and Ashes (1933, one of only 200 of the signed deluxe version); Kaleski’s Australian Barkers and Biters (1914, in the original pictorial wrappers) … in short, the tempting eclectic mixture as before!

Online Catalogue #33

Online Catalogue #33

Our current catalogue features a collection of approximately 200 books on campanology, offered as one lot. If that doesn’t ring your bell, move on to the literature and illustrated works. We have half a dozen titles from the Cuala Press by W.B. Yeats; a large-paper copy of T.S. Eliot’s Marina (1930), one of 400 signed copies; Ngaio Marsh’s Death and the Dancing Footman (1942), a fine copy with the dustwrapper; and Verve, Numbers 27 and 28 (1952), a double issue containing 29 original lithographs.

Singular or unique items include a photograph of ‘Breaker’ Morant, in a small group of troopers in Adelaide in January 1900; a copy of The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899), the seminal work on anthropology, signed by both Spencer and Gillen; and a husband-and-wife pair of 1850s South Australian daguerreotypes.

Happy browsing!

Picture Book 8

Picture Book 8

To coincide with the Melbourne Rare Book Fair we are pleased to announce the latest in our series of Picture Book catalogues. It contains a fine miscellany, from Antarctic photography to scarce modern literature, classic texts of voyages and exploration to unique manuscript material.

Since the catalogue went to the printers we have been busy! New in stock are:

A singular copy of A Child's Garden of Verses, signed and inscribed by Robert Louis Stevenson, together with a signed letter; The Native Tribes of Central Australia signed by both Spencer and Gillen; private press material, including titles from the Cuala Press of W.B. Yeats and his sister Elizabeth; delightful publications from Lucien Pisarro's Eragny Press; D.H. Lawrence's privately printed Pansies (signed); and T.S. Eliot's Marina (also signed); superb examples of Indigenous portraiture.

To view these items (and much besides) visit us at Stand 31 at the Melbourne Rare Book Fair this coming weekend, 6–8 July 2018.