Highlights
Each year our exhibitors bring extraordinarily rare, beautiful and unusual items for sale.
Here is a selection of the items offered in 2025 by our exhibitors. These may still be available for purchase. If interested, contact the respective exhibitor directlyCloser to the 2026 Fair, new highlights of what will be on offer in 2026 will be posted. Bookmark this page and visit again to see the 2026 highlights.
COOK, James - SAMWELL, David. A Narrative of the Death of Captain James Cook.
$365800
First edition of this black tulip in the history of Cook. Samwell sailed with Cook as surgeon on the Discovery and his is the “fullest, most detailed and most objective” account of Cook’s death, scrupulously gathered from eyewitnesses (Holmes). We have traced five copies only at auction in the last 50 years, including the present copy.
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Moby Dick
$39000
Melville, Herman.
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.
1st edition. 1851. New York: Harper & Brothers. Cochran copy, ex-Fisk Memorial Library, Natchez, Mississippi.12mo. Original brown cloth gilt, publisher’s circular blindstamp upper board in bespoke clamshell case; pp. xxiv (last blank), 636 (last blank), [6 publisher’s catalogue)]. [Tanselle 2]
Despite initial unfavourable criticism, there is good reason why Moby Dick often makes lists of the top ten books ever written. It contains the best exposition of Melville’s philosophical musings, every sentence loaded with import.
Vegetius Renatus (Flavius) THE FOURE BOOKS OF FLAVIUS VEGETIUS RENATUS.
$15000
brieflye contayninge a plaine forme, and perfect knowledge of Martiall policye, feates of Chivalrie, and whatsoeuer pertayneth of warre. Translated out of lattine, into Englishe, by John Sadler. Thomas Marshe, London, 1572. First edition. *The first printed English version of De Re Militari by Vegetius. (Earlier English translations exist in manuscript form). Written circa 390 AD and focusing on military organization (how to set up and fortify a camp, train and discipline troops, how to march, etc.), De Re Militari was highly influential in Europe after the Middle Ages.
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Charles Troedel. The Melbourne Album, containing a Series of Views of Melbourne & Country Districts.
$12000
Oblong folio, lithographed titling-wrapper on cream paper, bound in as title-page as issued, twelve fine tinted lithographed plates,
Very rare: one of the short sets of twelve elegant tinted lithographs that make up Troedel's Melbourne Album of 1863-4, "perhaps the finest work of urban topography produced in Australia in the nineteenth century" (Wantrup). Notable contemporary artists including Nicholas Chevalier, Eugen von Guerard, Edward Gilks and Henry Gritten contributed to the Album.
La Nuova Olanda e la Nuova Guinea delineato sulle ultime osservazioni
$9250
Very rare and important c.18th map of Australia based on Cook’s first voyage observations and one of only a handful of maps to be solely devoted to the Australia continent.
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Les Fleurs du Mal
$15000
From the collection of actor and bibliophile Barry Humphries, one of 12 deluxe edition copies on Japon Imperial of Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil illustrated by Lobel-Riche with original drawings, the plates in multiple states, and in a unique fine binding by Henri Blanchetiere.
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Ah! Nana
$1200
Complete set of the French women’s comic magazine. Ah!Nana ran for nine issues, each with its own theme, coming to a short end following the magazine being banned to minors after the publication of the eighth issue devoted to homosexuality. This led the editorial team to go all in on the ninth and final issue, devoting it to incest, leading to the French censorship Commission banning the publication, labelling it pornographic.
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![REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN [REMBRANDT], “THE FLUTE-PLAYER” (HET UYLENSPIEGELTJE), 1642, Etching and drypoint.](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/sartoniprints@yahoo.it/REMBRANDT4.jpg)
REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN [REMBRANDT], “THE FLUTE-PLAYER” (HET UYLENSPIEGELTJE), 1642, Etching and drypoint.
$36000
REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN
(Leyden 1606-Amsterdam1669)
“THE FLUTE-PLAYER” (HET UYLENSPIEGELTJE)
1642
Etching and drypoint
DESCRIPTION:
A young couple resting beside a stream, the man playing flute
with an owl perched on his shoulder, the girl making a flower garland at left. Shepherds do more than their fair share of walking, but their lives also provide ample opportunity for relaxation...
NOTE:
Fourth state of four, without the face among the branches.
Barstch 188, Hollstein Dutch 144, New Hollstein 211.
Very good impression on 17th century [end of] laid paper.
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Orbis Terrarum Nova et Accuratissima Tabula.
$11500
Second state of van Loon’s famous, rare double hemisphere map of the world first printed in Amsterdam 1666, issued with the additions of the dedication to Charles II and his coat-of-arms for Moses Pitt’s English Atlas.
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![三國通覽全圖. [General Map of Three Countries].](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/books@asiabookroom.com/218276_01_hr.jpg)
三國通覽全圖. [General Map of Three Countries].
$6500
Manuscript, ink and watercolour copy of this famous map which shows the disputed island of Dokdo/Takeshima.
This particular map, showing Japan and its neighbours attracts strong feelings even today as it shows the disputed islands, known to the Japanese as Takeshima たけしま/竹島, Dokdo - 독도/獨島 to Koreans and Liancourt Rocks to English speakers, crucially marked as "Korea's possession". This is used by Korea as evidence for the legitimacy of their claim.
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Dante Alighieri: La Commedia. Comm. Jacopo della Lana.
$445000
"La prima edizione commentata della Divina Commedia" (Mambelli), published only five years after the editio princeps (Foligno 1472). An exceptionally large and crisp copy, completely unsophisticated in its first binding
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![The Waves [1931]; To The Lighthouse [1927]](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/orchardbookshopadl@gmail.com/Waves-Lighthouse.jpg)
The Waves [1931]; To The Lighthouse [1927]
Two uniformly bound copies of key works by Virginia Woolf. Our copy of The Waves is the 1931 First Edition and To The Lighthouse is the Secend Impression, published in June 1927 [the month following the first printing].
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J.R.R. Tolkien
Various items of interest for the Tolkien fan, including an excellent set of The Lord Of The Rings [Second Edition, 1966]; all three De Luxe Editions of Tolkien works [LotR, The Hobbit, Poems & Stories]; and even a scale model of Gandalf from the Weta studio [New Zealand set creators for the epic movie franchise]!
Bib and Bub Painting Book. New Stories by May Gibbs
$1250
Oblong quarto (210 × 305 mm), [24] pages of black and white comic-strip artwork plus text on the covers.
A rare and charming 'colouring book', the last of May Gibbs' Bib and Bub titles.
THE SECOND ENGLISH MIDWIFERY MANUAL. GUILLEMEAU (Jacques). Child-Birth or, the Happy Deliverie of Women.
$31000
First edition in English. Small 4to. 17 woodcut illustrations in the text. Contemporary limp vellum, title (twice) in early manuscript to the spine. London, by A. Hatfield, 1612.
A very fine copy in contemporary vellum of one of the earliest English midwifery manuals.
AUSTEN, Jane - TEMPLE BOOK CLUB. Remarkable manuscript archive of a private subscribers’ library.
$62700
An intriguing collection of book lists, invoices, and receipts from the Temple Book Club, which operated between 1812 and 1819, a period during which first editions of works such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park were acquired at discounted rates and circulated among its members, a select group of barristers from one of London’s Inns of Court.
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Horace (Quintus Flaccus) QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS.
$5500
[Text in Latin]. Joannis Baskerville, Birminghamiae, 1762. First Baskerville edition. *Formerly from the library of Jeanne-Annette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1721-1764), the chief mistress of French King Louis XV. Madame de Pompadour was an influential patron of the arts and accumulated an extensive library of over 3,500 books on topics including history, philosophy, theology, music and poetry. Many were bound for her by the leading French bookbinders of the time.
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Salmon at the Antipodes: Being an Account of the Successful Introduction of Salmon and Trout into Australian Waters. By Sir Samuel Wilson.
$1750
London, Edward Stanford, 1879. Octavo, mounted photographic frontispiece 'Trout Pond at Ercildoune', folding map, index, lemon china clay endpapers, bright original decorated terracotta cloth, lettered in gilt, vignette of a salmon in silver on front board, small lozenge binder's ticket on rear pastedown, near fine copy. 'Third Edition'. Presentation copy.
Purdey's The Guns and the Family
$400
History of the sporting shotgun and rifle maker firm, James Purdey & Sons. Limited to 250 copies, hand-bound in navy morocco, signed and numbered by the author and second generation proprietor, Richard Beaumont.
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Manners and Customs in Manchoukuo
$2000
A detailed and thoroughly illustrated guide in English to life and culture in Manchuria. Published at the height of WWII, depicting a completely normal world inside the Japanese puppet state with chapters on races and tribes, costumes, residential houses, food and drink, salutation and etiquette, tastes and pastimes, annual festivals, religions, symbols of religious faith, and happy and unhappy affairs.
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“NOUVELLE-HOLLANDE; PORT-JACKSON: FAMILLE DE SAUVAGES EN VOfYAGE”; SEBASTIAN LEROY, 1824.
$950
“NOUVELLE-HOLLANDE; PORT-JACKSON: FAMILLE DE SAUVAGES EN VOYAGE.”
1824
SEBASTIAN LEROY [drawn by]
BOISSEAU & FORGET [engraved by]
Stipple engraving printed in colour, [finished by hand-watercolour]
DESCRIPTION:
Early and interesting depiction of indigenous Australians in Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour, N.S.W.
An Aboriginal family in the foreground, walking past a camp in the background where another indigenous family is cooking an animal on an open fire.
NOTE:
Without number 102; From first edition of: “Voyage autour du Monde” by Louis Freycinet.
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AUSTEN, Jane; THOMSON, Hugh (illus.). Pride and Prejudice.
$15700
First fully illustrated edition, one of 250 large paper copies issued in Britain with the illustrations specially printed on China paper and laid down; a further 25 copies were released in the US. This fine Rivière binding displays the very highest standards of the bindery’s craftsmanship.
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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee | Dee Brown
$3900
An American bestseller in hard cover for over a year post publication, selling many millions of copies and was translated into seventeen languages, Brown became a celebrated author of both fiction and non-fiction until he died in 2002.
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