Highlights

Chaucer (Geoffrey) THE CANTERBURY TALES. With wood engravings by Eric Gill. Four volumes. Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in qr. brown niger morocco. The Golden Cockerel Press, Waltham Saint Lawrence, 1928-1931. One of 485 numbered sets, printed on Batchelor hand-made paper with Cockerel watermark. *The native-dyed niger morocco often varies in hue, but this set is well-matched. Loosely inserted is an ALs, dated 24 September 1932, from Eric Gill to the archaeologist Stuart Piggott, whose wife's signature is on the upper free endpaper of Volume I. $25,000.00

Two seminal maps of the Pacific: the earliest map focused on Alaska, the Northwest and upper California, and “the first printed map of Australia” (Tooley). In the map of North America the west coast is reasonably well delineated, and de Jode has chosen to include the mythical Strait of Anian separating America from Asia. The existence of a body of water between the two continents had been suggested but not proved when the map was made. Despite the channel between the continents, the figures populating America are outside tents and domed buildings which are distinctly Asian in appearance.

The 'New Naturalist' series has been continuously published since the first volume in 1945. Subjects are primarily British and most of the contributing authors are the leaders in their specialised fields. Apart from high quality texts, New Naturalists are distinguished by the original dustwrapper designs of Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, with the style being continued by other artists such as Robert Gilmour. Print runs are usually small and many volumes are highly collectable. New Naturalists can be best described as the 'modern firsts' of natural history book collecting.

The first English guidebook to Tokyo by A Resident [William Elliot Griffis]. Yokohama. F.R. Wetmore & Co. 1874. pp.35[1]. 17.2 x 10.8cm. Very good. Covers worn and marked. Ownership stamp of Theodor Peteln inside front cover. Title page has had square shaped area cut out but this has been neatly repaired. Internally very good with only minor wear.

First Printing [Hot Chilli Press, Sydney, 1999]; oblong quarto; 144 pages; black cloth, titling in black on spine, top edge sunned, 1cm spot stain on half-title, else fine; in excellent dustjacket, a bit rubbed, curling slightly at edges. An excellent & scarce copy of brilliant photographer Trent Parke’s first book [photographs of the Sydney streets].

Early edition (1587) of the earliest printed map to focus solely on China, and the first to illustrate the Great Wall.

“NOUVELLE-HOLLANDE; PORT-JACKSON: FAMILLE DE SAUVAGES EN VOYAGE.” 1824 Artists: SEBASTIAN LEROY [drawn by] & BOISSEAU & FORGET [engraved by] TECHNIQUE: Stipple engraving printed in colour [finished by hand-watercolour] Early and interesting depiction of natives 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.Without number 102; From first edition of: “Voyage autour du Monde" by Louis Freycinet.

Cartographer: Captain G.H. RICHARDS Publisher: BRITISH ADMIRALTY 1865 [1901] Engraving [engraved by J. & C. WALKER] Very interesting and detailed large plan of Melbourne and Hobson Bay. All pertinent nautical information as ports, docks, sea depths, sand bars, wrecks, as well as building, streets, parks etc are accurately named and tracked. As updated charts were offered for sale, the earlier outdated charts in the hands of mariners, pilots, ships owners and sailors were invariably discarded, subsequently making all British Admiralty issued hydrographic charts of the period rare

Author: CARLO DOLCI (signed lower right) Title: “AUSTRALIA E SUOI ABITANTI” [Australia and its Inhabitants] c.1890 Ink, pencil & watercolour on paper. Unusual manuscript map of Australia and Oceania executed by an Italian student in a school context. The chart is showing China, Borneo, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. All places and islands accurately named. Australian continent, named “Nuova Olanda”, includes tracking of Leeuwin land, De Witt land, New South Wales and Van Diemen land as well as main Gulfs, Straits and Capes are accurately named.

First Edition [The Beagle Press, Sydney, 2005]; 256 pages; red cloth, gold titling to front board & spine, slight lean, faint stain at base of front board, a very good copy; in like illustrated dustjacket, scratches on rear, a little bumped at extremities, v. slight sunfading. Perhaps the most comprehensive volume on the life & art of one of Australia's finest artists. With signed inscriptions from Lou Klepac, Barry Pearce & Jeffrey Smart [for my darling Pammers…] to Pam Cleland.

Vysheslavtsev, A.V. Ocherki Perom i Karandashom iz Krugosvetnogo Plavaniya v 1857, 1858, 1859 i 1860 godakh [i.e. Sketches in Pen and Pencil from the Circumnavigation in 1857, 1858, 1859 and 1860]. St. Petersburg-Moscow: M.O. Wolf, 1867.

Mushrooms: History, description, culture, uses of edible, poisonous, suspicious species used in the arts, industry, home economics, medicine.