Sidney Nolan
London, Thames and Hudson, 1961. Number 6 of 60 deluxe copies signed by the artist and all three authors, with an original monotype (sheet size approximately 235 × 195 mm) signed in pencil 'Nolan'. More
At the heart of this catalogue is a fine group of limited edition Australian art titles, many with original graphics or drawings, by the likes of Lionel and Norman Lindsay, Jeffrey Smart, John Olsen, Sidney Nolan, James Gleeson, and Lloyd Rees, among others.
But the epitome of limited edition artworks would have to be the unique 1840 manuscript concept plan for a town at Port Gawler, north of Adelaide, proposed in great detail but never realised. The very large format hand-coloured plan was part of an infamous fraudulent property speculation in the early years of the colony of South Australia. Extraordinarily, we are also able to offer beside it an unrecorded printed account of the fraud and ensuing court cases, produced by a successful defendant, the pioneering printer Robert Thomas.
The balance of the list contains a miscellany of rare, unusual and interesting material, including manuscripts, photographs, private press books, literature, history, exploration, and works on Indigenous art.
London, Thames and Hudson, 1961. Number 6 of 60 deluxe copies signed by the artist and all three authors, with an original monotype (sheet size approximately 235 × 195 mm) signed in pencil 'Nolan'. More
London, Hurst and Blackett, Limited, 1905 [first edition]. Provenance: W.R.B. Oliver, with a leather presentation label on the front pastedown ('W.R.B. Oliver from W.L. Wallace'), and his ownership details ('Raymond B Oliver | Wanganui | 5 May 1909') on an early blank. Tipped in on the blank is a manuscript..... More
Adelaide, Government Printer, 1866. South Australian Parliamentary Paper Number 55 of 1866. Mainly routine matters, but there is a page of information and 'Instructions to Botanical Collector' prepared by Dr Richard Schomburgk, Director of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. More
Adelaide, C.E. Bristow, Government Printer, 1907. A supplement to Parliamentary Paper 55 of 1906 ('Northern Territory of South Australia, north-western district. Reports, geological and general, resulting from the explorations made by the government geologist and staff during 1905'). Incorporated in this supplement are details of 'the diamond drill boring operations..... More
Adelaide, Government Printer, 1866. South Australian Parliamentary Paper Number 134 of 1866. Transcripts of three letters written by Finniss at Escape Cliffs in late 1865: a short one dated 9 November, advising the members of the Northern Territory Expedition that he had been recalled, and that James Manton was replacing..... More
Townsville, Lyre Bird Press and Melbourne, Zimmer Editions, 2009. Number 21 of 30 copies editioned (twice) and signed by John Olsen, with an original ink drawing of a lyre bird facing the title page, an original etching bound in ('The Kiss', number 21 of 30 copies, signed and dated), and..... More
Melbourne, Gryphon Books, 1980. 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. More
Melbourne, Lytlewode Press, 25 November 1998. A posthumous book of verse; Geoffrey Dutton died in September 1998. The entire edition comprised just 175 numbered copies signed in ink by the artist and the publisher (Robert Littlewood). This is copy number 24, one of 30 copies of the De Luxe issue..... More
South Yarra, Macmillan Art Publishing, 2005 [presumed first edition, second printing] (printed in China, with the printed dedication 'For Tessa and Cassandra | & | Tim, Louise and Jane' and ISBN 1 876832 23 1). Number 7 of one of two series of 10 copies of the 'special presentation' issue..... More
South Yarra, Macmillan Art Publishing, 2005 [presumed first edition] (printed in Australia with the printed dedication 'For Tessa and Cassandra' and ISBN 1 876832 93 2). Number 58 of 70 copies of the deluxe edition; bound in at the front of the book is an original etching ('Floating', sheet size..... More
South Yarra, Macmillan Art Publishing, 2005 [presumed first edition, second printing] (printed in China, with the printed dedication 'For Tessa and Cassandra | & | Tim, Louise and Jane' and ISBN 1 876832 23 1). Number 42 of 70 copies of this deluxe issue; bound in at the front of..... More
Sydney, Craftsman House, 2002. Number 87 of 100 copies of the deluxe edition; loosely inserted is an original colour etching numbered to match, captioned ('Billabong') and signed by John Olsen (sheet size 328 × 262 mm). The book contains an account of an artists' camp in Central Australia in 2001..... More
Melbourne, Macmillan Art Publishing, 2014. Number 10 of only 24 copies of this 'special presentation' edition, bound and boxed thus, containing an original signed pencil drawing (figurative nudes, 210 × 154 mm), and an original signed photograph of Olsen drawing in his sketchbook (210 × 135 mm). They are tipped..... More
London, J. & A. Churchill, 1922. Provenance: Dr Lance Walters (Chief Brewer at the South Australian Brewing Co. from 1944 to the 1980s), with his early quirky bookplate ('XXX Libris'); the later inkstamp of the company's technical library is on the front flyleaf. More
London, The Royal Photographic Society ('Printed in Photogravure by Lascelles & Co. Ltd., Essex St. Strand W.C.2'), June 1931. The first photogravure is 'Bewegungs Studie (Study of Movement) by Prof. Rudolf Koppitz of Vienna', featuring dancers from the Vienna State Opera Ballet. Rudolf Koppitz (1884-1936), was born in the Czech..... More
[Adelaide], P.L. Snell Chauncy, Surveyor, 1840. This magnificent production relates to perhaps the most infamous fraudulent property speculation in the early years of the colony of South Australia. The site of the proposed township of Port Gawler lay on property known as the Milner Estate, owned by George Milner Stephen..... More
[Adelaide], Robert Thomas and Co., Printers, Hindley-street (colophon at the foot of the last page), [circa 1840]. An apparently unrecorded compilation of accounts of the 1839 libel action, counter-action for wilful and corrupt perjury, and the counter-counter-action for libel involving George Milner Stephen, Colonial Secretary and Advocate General of South..... More
Firenze [Florence], Francesco Pineider, 1930. 'A sea journey by steamer from England to Albany, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and many points on a radius from these cities' (according to a bookseller's catalogue entry, quoted on Trove). In fact, the voyage is not the focus of the book; it is primarily an..... More
Roseville, The Beagle Press, 1986. Number 17 of 100 copies of the deluxe issue signed by the artist, with an original numbered, signed and dated (1983) lithograph loosely inserted (sheet size 237 × 304 mm). It is listed in the catalogue raisonné at #81 ('The Distant Derwent II'). This book..... More
A souvenir of the voyage of the Ninth Division back to Australia after the Allied victory in North Africa. RMS 'Queen Mary' left Suez on 25 January 1943; reaching Fremantle on 18 February, she departed for Sydney two days later, spent from 27 February to 22 March there, before returning..... More
Roseville East, Craftsman House, 1995. Number 55 of only 75 copies numbered and signed by the artist on the half-title; loosely inserted is an original numbered and signed colour etching, 'Self Portrait with Stunned Mullet' (image size 85 x 70 mm, paper size 265 × 245 mm). More
New York, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1971 (first US edition). 'When "Octobriana and the Russian Underground" was published in 1971, it garnered remarkable media attention for a book ostensibly about a Comic book movement - remarkable in the sense that it attracted the attention of not only comic book enthusiasts..... More
Melbourne, Decoration Galleries, 1921. Number 52 of only 57 copies signed by the artist. This copy is also inscribed (in another hand) 'To Hugh Grant Adams Esq. With compliments of the Artist and Publisher'. The book's release coincided with a major exhibition of Shirlow's etchings at Decoration Galleries, 16-28 May..... More
Dr Julian Smith (1873-1947), surgeon and photographer, 'took up photography late in life, exhibiting locally and overseas, becoming an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and gaining renown for his distinctive portraits' (National Portrait Gallery of Australia, dating the image 'c. 1937'). The National Gallery of Victoria also holds..... More
Stepney, The Authors, 1993. Inscribed and signed by Hallett Shueard. More
London, James Ridgway, 1826 (third edition). 'Illustrated with numerous figures of the plants and seeds upon which these experiments have been made, and practical observations on their natural habits and the soils best adapted to their growth; pointing out the kinds most profitable for permanent pasture, irrigated meadows, dry or..... More
Sydney, Beagle Press, 2005. Number 18 of 35 copies numbered and signed by Jeffrey Smart on the half-title. Loosely inserted is an original lithograph ('Come in, Spinner', 290 × 220 mm) captioned, numbered and signed in pencil by the artist, and a small limitation certificate from the publisher, also numbered..... More
Sydney, The Bookfellow, 1912. Number 2 of only 15 copies of this deluxe edition 'marginally illustrated by the author' and signed by him. It was priced at 'half-a-guinea'; the balance of the edition (in papered boards, printed as per the wrappers in the deluxe edition) comprised 'one hundred and eighty-five..... More
[London], 'Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be Printed', 10 April 1840. Great Britain and Ireland Parliamentary Paper Number 223 of 1840. The full title runs to 23 lines, enumerating ten separate returns. 'Contains valuable information with respect to many South Australian subjects' (Ferguson), but the perennial value of..... More
London, 'Printed for the Proprietor, by William Cecil Huttmann', 1840. The prospectus appears on pages 7 and 8 of the first issue; the proprietors' object is 'not mercenary but patriotic ... they are not the organs of any party ... they will offer a fearless and uncompromising opposition to every..... More
London, Smith, Elder, 1839 [second edition]/ 1839. Apart from dropping the original title ('on the ground [sic] of vagueness and liability to misconstruction') and outing himself as author, only the title page and two-page preface distinguish the first and second edition texts. More
London, Smith, Elder, and Co., 1839 [first edition]. Ferguson 2850 (calling the shipping table a plate). The frontispiece map, a zinc engraving, very closely resembles the one in 'Colonization of South Australia' by Robert Torrens (1835), as well as the Arrowsmith map in the 'First Annual Report of the Colonization..... More
[Cape Town], Central News Agency Limited, 1934. South African Agricultural Series, Volume XIII. Provenance: Dr Edward Angas Johnson (1873-1951), with his name-stamp on the title page, and numerous related inserts. Dr Angas Johnson, a great-grandson of George Fife Angas, was an Adelaide medical practitioner, prominent in public health circles. In..... More
Paris, Printed by Jacques Murray at the Stramur-Presse, 1951. Number 1 of 65 copies signed by Alister Kershaw, David Strachan and Jacques Murray, 'hand-printed on papier vélin de Johannot, and the plates cancelled. The printing consists of fifty copies numbered 1 to 50 and fifteen copies not for sale, marked..... More
Munn writes to say that she has observed Walbiri (Warlpiri) women story-telling by means of sign language and figures drawn in the sand, and wonders if Strehlow has observed these practices among Aranda (Arrernte) women and children. In his retained response (foolscap folio, one page, duplicate typescript signed, dated 6..... More
Four pages, quarto and foolscap; left-hand margins a little creased and chipped, with two holes punched in them for filing; in very good condition. Tindale's letter (one page quarto, 24 July 1958, on SAM letterhead) includes a transcription of one from Adam 'asking whether I could accompany one of his..... More
The photographer's credit and reference number ('Sweet | Adelaide | 90') is scratched in the negative. Captain Samuel White Sweet (1825-1886), was a sea captain, surveyor and photographer: after he was censured when his ship ran aground in 1875, he 'retired from the sea, opened a photographic studio in Adelaide..... More
The photographer's credit and reference number ('Sweet | Adelaide | 335') is scratched in the negative of the City Bridge (the second bridge built over the Torrens at that spot, in 1877). Oarsmen in four boats in the foreground have clearly paused for the event, as have the numerous pedestrians..... More
Adelaide, Printed for the Proprietor and Publisher, A. Timmann, at the 'Pioneer' Office, 1890 and 1891. The recto of the large folding supplement to Number 10 contains the text, with three line illustrations, of an article that 'appeared originally in the "SA Register" in six short letters': 'Protection or Freedom..... More
New York, Hyperion, 1995 (first edition thus)/ 1981. 'Three thousand five hundred copies of the first Hyperion edition of "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation" have been specially bound with sixteen [reproduced] drawings by the authors, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.... In addition, each copy has been numbered and individually..... More
Sydney, Thomas Richards, Government Printer, 1873. New South Wales Parliamentary Paper Number 181 of 1873. The attractive plates (two full-page and four half-page) are well-executed views of operational mining scenes or interesting landscape features ('granite outcrops and alluvial workings', as Trove succinctly puts it); artists identified are Wilkinson himself and..... More
Perth, Joseph Charles, Auctioneer and Sworn Valuator, 1929. A long and comprehensive 'list of properties sold through my agency since January, 1921, to April, 1929, making a total of 1,416,530 acres, together with City Property, sold for an aggregate price of £1,655,579'. More
London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1909. The folding maps include those of the cities of Nuremburg, Rothenburg, Karlsruhe and Cologne, all of which were extensively damaged during the Second World War. Provenance: Dr Alan Hutchings (1936-2015), a South Australian town planner, not least the Director of Town Planning for the Monarto..... More
Bathurst, E.J. Brill / Robert Brown & Associates (Aust) Pty. Ltd., 1988. An important survey of Aboriginal rock art; 'One hundred individual sections cover the rock art of not only every Australian state and territory but also every major rock art region and art style. Many art panels in the..... More
Toowong, Takarakka Nowan Kas Publications, in association with The Australian Centre, University of Melbourne, 2000. Signed and dated (17 August 2000) on the title page by the author. An unparalleled 'visual record of ancient Kimberley rock art, dealing specifically with periods predating the Ice Age', and a work of lasting..... More
London, S.W. Partridge & Co. and Moravian Mission Agency, [1908]. An account of the missionary activities of the Moravian Church in north Queensland. Provenance: the anthropologist Peter Sutton, with his signature (dated November 1993), and his pencilled annotation next to the name of Peter Bee, 'the South Sea Islander' referred..... More
Dublin, James Duffy, 1864 (first edition). Jane Francesca Agnes Wilde (circa 1821-1896) was an influential Irish poet, translator and feminist, and the mother of Oscar Wilde (this book is dedicated 'to my sons Willie and Oscar Wilde'. 'From 1846 she began to contribute prose (as "John Fanshawe Ellis") and verse..... More
London, Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1927. Hogarth Essays, Second Series, Number 5. More
Melbourne, City of Melbourne YMCA, 1912. The military camps were organised with the Second Infantry Brigade and the Third Light Horse; a short article on their involvement appears on page 14. More