Highlights
Each year our exhibitors bring extraordinarily rare, beautiful and unusual items for sale.
Leading up to the fair, you will find here, highlights, selected by our exhibitors, of the wide range of items that will be on exhibition and for sale at this year's fair.
Bookmark this page and visit again as our exhibitors will be adding highlights over the next two months
If something is of interest, please contact the exhibitor directly. They will welcome your enquiry.
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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Bony Buys a Woman By Arthur Upfield (Signed)
$350
BONY BUYS A WOMAN
By Arthur Upfield
Lond. Heinemann. 1957.
First Edition. Scarce.
Inscribed & signed by Arthur Upfield
The philosophy of Andy Warhol. (From A to B and back again). (Signed copy with drawing of a Campbell’s Soup can)
$7500
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. First edition. Octavo, boards in dust jacket, pp 241; a fine copy; the half-title is signed and inscribed by Warhol, accompanied by an original pen drawing by the artist of a Campbell’s Tomato Soup can, his most iconic image.
Andy Warhol’s seminal self-analysing memoir, filled with his reflections of youth and society which help give an insight into one of the most enigmatic and magnetic artistic figures of the twentieth century.
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PSEUDO-ARISTOTLE. Aristotle’s Master-Piece.
$36600
Rare early edition of “the first sex manual written in English” (Norman), for centuries the most popular compendium on conception, pregnancy, and childbirth. This copy has contemporary annotations by a husband and wife in the midst of conceiving and giving birth to their second child. Winifred and Francis Witham of South Normanton both inscribed the book in 1699, two years after their marriage.
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CHURCHILL (Winston S.) The Second World War: The Gathering Storm; The Finest Hour; The Grand Alliance; The Hinge of Fate; Closing the Ring; Triumph and Tragedy.
$30750
First editions, first printings. Six volumes. Numerous maps and diagrams, some folding and others full-page, throughout each volume. 8vo. Original black cloth, spines lettered in gilt, top edges in red, supplied dust jackets. London, Cassell & Co. Ltd. 1948-1954.
Inscribed to Grace Hamblin, "the longest-serving member of Churchill’s secretarial staff."
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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Ex Libris of Yasushi Ohmoto by Cliff Parfit
$395
The Ex-Libris of Yasuhi Ohmoto. By Cliff Parfit
Tokyo. English Centre. 1982.
16 tipped-in colour bookplates.
Signed by the artist.
Fine in cloth case.
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.
Self Portrait
$270
Series of Friedlander's self-portraits taken over the course of six decades.
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Signed Lady Chatterley's Lover
$35000
Octavo : pp. [iv] [368]: original mulberry boards with black phoenix : white paper label on spine : untrimmed and unopened : SIGNED by the author at the limitation page : with scarce yellow dust jacket. [Roberts 42a]. No. 336 of 1000.
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Poor Fellow My Country. By Xavier Herbert
$900
Poor Fellow My Country
By Xavier Herbert
First Signed Limited Edition
No.14 of 50. Half leather
One of 3 copies personally signed on the book and not on an affixed label.
Astounding Science Fiction July 1940
$150
In this issue: the first printing of Robert Heinlein's novelette, "Coventry" as well as L. Ron Hubbard's "The Idealist" (published under the psuedonym, Kurt von Rachen). Part of number of titles on early science fiction.
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Expedition Antarctique Belge. Au Pays des Manchots: Recit du Voyage de la Belgica
$1800
Account of the captain of the RV Belgica, Georges Lecointe, the second in command of the first Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897-1899. Considered the first expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. This copy bound in full vellum with a manuscript letter from Lecointe bound in.
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Phantastica: Die Betaubenden und Erregenden Genussmittel
$800
First edition of the psychedelic classic by German pharmacologist Louis Lewin (1850-1929). Set the standard for the classification of psychoactive drugs: Inebriantia (Inebriants such as alcohol or ether), Excitantia (Stimulants such as Khat or Amphetamine), Euphorica (Euphoriants and Narcotics such as Heroin), Hypnotica (Tranquilizers such as Kava), Phantastica (Hallucinogens or Entheogens such as Peyote or Ayahuasca). Later translated into French, Italian, and English, the 1931 English edition said to be Aldous Huxley’s introduction to drug literature.
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Peppermint Trees, Melbourne c1860 by William Strutt
$5500
Pencil and wash with measurements of 18.5 x 26.3 cm.
Signed and inscribed Peppermint Trees, Melbourne. Provenance: Private Collection, North Wales, part of a collection of works by William Strutt and Alfred William Strutt sold at Sotheby's, Chester, March 1991: John Ness Barkes & Edward Barkes
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ABNEY, Hephzibah. Manuscript with hundreds of original watercolour illustrations of shells.
$26100
A conchological labour of love: an attractive album of “shells from nature” by the talented watercolourist Hephzibah Abney (née Need, 1758-1841) and a record of the conchylomania that swept Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This is the only recorded example of Abney’s shell illustrations and has re-entered the market almost 50 years after its last appearance.
ZLATA' PRAHA, Viktor Oliva, Czech painter and illustrator.
$750
VIKTOR OLIVA
(Nové Stašecì, [Bohemia] 1861- Prague 1928)
Czech painter and illustrator
“ZLATA' PRAHA” c.1894
LITHOGRAPHY
Original colour lithograph advertising “Zlata' Praha” (Golden Prague), a Czech illustrated literary magazine founded by poet Vítězslav Hálek, published between 1864 to 1929.
An elegant woman dressed in red in a golden frame, wearing an eccentric hat and walking with a copy of "Zlata' Praha" under her left arm.
Published by Imprimerie Chaix (Atelier Chéret), Paris.
NOTE: Original colour lithograph printed on "Arches" paper.Blank at verso; before stamps (before publication)
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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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!["QUEENSLAND CENSUS DISTRICTS AND SUB-DISTRICT 1891"; Collection of 76 [of 77] folded maps. Printed at the Govt. Engraving and Lithographic Office.](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/sartoniprints@yahoo.it/QLD-ACensus-Label.jpg)
"QUEENSLAND CENSUS DISTRICTS AND SUB-DISTRICT 1891"; Collection of 76 [of 77] folded maps. Printed at the Govt. Engraving and Lithographic Office.
$6500
"QUEENSLAND CENSUS DISTRICTS AND SUB-DISTRICT 1891"
Printed at the Govt. Engraving and Lithographic Office.
W. KNIGHT [engraver]
DESCRIPTION:
"QUEENSLAND CENSUS DISTRICTS AND SUB-DISTRICT 1891", 76 [of 77] folded maps.
60 [of 61] numbered and 16 unnumbered maps, + index map and index list; with the original cover labeled:
"MAPS to company REGISTER-GENERAL REPORT CENSUS 1892".
Map n:5 [Etheridge] missed.
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Nova, et Integra Universi Orbis Descriptio.
$65000
Oronce Fine’s famous double cordiform map of the world is acknowledged as being one of the most striking and influential world maps published in the c.16th.
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![[Meiji Period Japanese Moveable Type].](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/books@asiabookroom.com/220081_01_hr.jpg)
[Meiji Period Japanese Moveable Type].
$3500
411 examples of Japanese wooden moveable type. The moveable type include kanji, hiragana, katakana and numbers both Japanese and Arabic. The pieces of wooden type shows some signs of use but overall a very good collection.
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Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
$5500
First edition of the highly influential autobiographical account of De Quincey’s laudanum addiction. The foundation work of drug literature.
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Typescript of Jack London's South Sea story, "Mauki"
$58000
“Mauki” holds significant literary and historical importance for the South Pacific, particularly in its depiction of colonial labour practices and indigenous resistance during a period of intense imperial activity.
Written in 1907 during London's cruise of the South Pacific in the Snark, "Mauki" was first published by Hampton's Magazine in December 1908 and was collected in South Sea Stories in 1911. This is the Hampton's setting copy and is one of only a handful of Jack London manuscripts to come onto the market in the past 50 years.
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