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 …
![Item #106018 Punch and London Charivari. Volume the First [to] Volume 25 [a uniformly-bound run...](https://treloars.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/106018.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1590022304)
London, Punch, 1841 to 1853. Attention all 'Flashman' fans! George Macdonald Fraser (1925-2008) 'rightly prided himself on his command of 19th-century trivia and slang, often drawn from contemporary issues of "Punch"' (from his obituary in 'The Telegraph', 3 January 2008). The first Flashman book is set between 1839 and 1842..... More
Sydney, United Country Party Bureau of Publicity, Information & Research, [1932]. 'The "Starvation Debenture" is political election propaganda for the United Country Party for the June 1932 New South Wales State Government election. In 1932, the Country Party was led in New South Wales by M.F. Bruxner, in alliance with..... More
Adelaide, Platts, Wigg, Dehane ... 1863. The author, a mine agent and broker in Adelaide at the time, states in his preface that 'About four months were occupied in visiting the Mines and collecting information, and during this time I travelled about 1,800 miles, chiefly on horseback'. 'First Edition of..... More
Amsterdam, Nico Israel and New York, Da Capo, 1967 (facsimile edition)/ 1766, 1768 and 1768. Bibliotheca Australiana #8, #9 and #10. More
There are 45 original gelatin silver photographs mounted on 16 pages (nine leaves) of A4 card; most are loosely inserted in photo-corners, and eleven (on three pages) are mounted with small pieces of Blu-Tack (easily removable adhesive putty). The leaves are inserted in plastic sleeves in a plastic-ring binder. The..... More
![Item #106373 World Challenge. Proteus Bluebird Project 1963 [cover title]. Sir Donald CAMPBELL](https://treloars.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/106373_00.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1536745743)
[London?], Griggs Lander Associates Limited [for Donald Campbell?], February 1963. Donald Campbell has inscribed in ink his portrait printed on the first page 'To Michel, All good wishes from Donald Campbell'. The 1963 World Land Speed Record attempt at Lake Eyre was abandoned when a 20-year drought broke and the..... More
Philadelphia, The Grey Falcon Press, and London, The Trianon Press, 1948. Number 1308 of 1500 copies (750 for each publisher). The 'first edition of this book with the complete text in French and English.... The colour frontispieces preceding the French and English texts were reproduced by hand ... under the..... More
London, William Clowes and Sons, [circa 1930s]. Both front and rear flyleaves are stamped 'Garrison Adjutant, Changi. No...... 31 Oct 1934'. Although its presence at Changi dates back to the peacetime military base developed in the early 1930s for the British Far East Command, the prayer book comes from the..... More
Adelaide, Australian Red Cross Society, South Australian Division, 1940. Signed by Noel Coward beneath the portrait. A large contemporary newspaper cutting advertising his Adelaide Red Cross functions is tipped in on the inside rear cover. More
Adelaide, Advertiser General Printing Offices, 1882. 'In a missionary country like Australia, where, in many instances, the instruction of a priest cannot always be availed of, this Catechism ... will prove of great advantage' (preface). Not in Ferguson; Trove records only two copies. More
(A) A fine copy of the book: quarto, xvi, 201 pages with 13 black and white and 4 colour illustrations by Adrian Feint, bound in full gilt-decorated calf. Number 3 of 350 copies signed by Marjorie Barnard and Flora S. Eldershaw. (B) A complete set of the 17 illustrations, tipped..... More
[Sydney?], The Shell Company, [1930?]. Muir 3752 (with 192-? as the date; we base our date on the code at the foot of the last page, K-W 4/30). An advertising booklet issued by the petroleum company. More
Melbourne, Alexander McCubbin, 1919. Number 417 of 500 copies signed by John Kauffmann (1864-1942), the pioneering Australian photo-impressionist. More
Penzance, W.H. Lane and Son, 1992. Together with a suite of over 50 original colour photographs (mainly 150 × 200 mm) of Lever's works offered in the sale. Richard Hayley Lever was born in Adelaide; he sailed for Europe in 1893, and lived in Paris and London before settling in..... More
[Antwerp, Plantin, from the second version of the plate, re-engraved circa 1574]. A hand-coloured engraved map from Ortelius' groundbreaking 'Theatrum Orbis Terrarum', considered the first modern geographical atlas, 'produced in thirty-one editions between 1570 and 1612' (David Parry: 'The Cartography of the East Indian Islands', 2005). Archivally mounted, ready for..... More
London, John Murray, 1818. The front pastedown and title page of each volume has the name-stamp of E[dward] Angas Johnson (1873-1951), Adelaide medical practitioner and serious book-collector; his grandmother was a daughter of George Fife Angas. More
The subjects are German pianist Wilhelm Backhaus; Serbian violinist Milan-Yovanovitch Bratza; Russian-born American pianist Shura Cherkassky; Australian bass-baritone Peter Dawson (two photographs, with Clarence Mates in one of them); Polish pianist and composer Ignaz Friedman; Italian soprano Amelita Galli-Curci; Italian-American soprano Dusolina Giannini; Russian-British pianist Mark Hambourg; Hungarian violinist Joseph..... More
![Item #106336 Comitetul Olimpic Romîn [cover title]. Olympic Games](https://treloars.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/106336_00.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1536737602)
[Bucharest, Romanian Olympic Committee, the second half of 1956]. The most recent date in the text is June 1956, prior to the Melbourne Olympics, where presumably this charming piece of ephemera was distributed and collected. More
London, Stanley Gibbons, 1892 (second edition, revised and enlarged). With the pictorial bookplate and signature of the noted South Australian book-collector Dr Frederick Lucas Benham. More
London, Chapman and Hall, 1859 (second edition)/ 1858. More
Adelaide, E. Spiller, Government Printer, 1886. The inaugural address by Sir Samuel Davenport (pages 39-99) is a potted history of the discovery and exploration of Australia; many of the plates are portraits of explorers. With the ownership signature of Fred Johns on the flyleaf. More
![Item #106401 Modern Painters [six volumes]. John RUSKIN](https://treloars.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/106401_00.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1536733688)
London, George Allen, 1897 (three volumes, 'New Edition in Small Form') and 1898 (three volumes, 'Second Edition in Small Form'). The flyleaf of the first volume bears the following inscription: 'These volumes were given by Sir Samuel Way Bart. C.J. to John William Downer & Una Stella Russell as a...... More
The catalyst for the discord appears to have been Hippeau's biting lampoon of Gounod in the issue of 29 October 1882. Saint-Saëns had hitherto been listed prominently on the covers as an official collaborator of the magazine; his name is absent from the issue of 13 November. His relationship with..... More
[London, The Queen's Printers], 1839. Ferguson 2735 (not noting the endorsement in his pagination). The SA Auditor General's copy, with his title stamped in gilt on the front cover, and written in ink inside the front cover and at the head of the title page (where 'Instructions to Aud. Genl..... More
London, J.C. Hailes and S. Gilbert, 1843. This copy contains the armorial bookplate of Henry Percival Moore (and his pencilled ownership initials on an early binder's blank). Moore was the Colonial Manager for the South Australian Company from 1901 to 1929. Interestingly, the lithographs are by George French Angas from..... More