Melbourne Rare Book Fair

[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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‘INCUNABLE’ OF COMIC PRINTING IN YOKOHAMA. WIRGMAN (Charles), editor. Japan Punch.

$13500

Maggs Bros Ltd

First edition. 42 issues. Lithograph illustrations throughout. Folio. Original flexible boards Light creasing and occasional water-staining. A few marginal pencil annotations in a contemporary hand. Yokohama, R. Meiklejohn, 1876-1880.

Orbis Terrarum Nova et Accuratissima Tabula.

$11500

Antique Print Map Room

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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Purdey's The Guns and the Family

$400

Sainsburys Books

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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The Origin Of Species By Means of Natural Selection | Charles Darwin

$2950

Somerset House Books

According to the well-credentialled Forum Auctions in London:- “The printing of 1876 is the final text as Darwin left it. The issue was limited to 1,250 copies only. This number is as small as any, being equalled only by that of the first edition and is remarkably hard to come by (Freeman pp 80-81 of F401)" So, this copy is a very good example of the Sixth 'Eighteenth Thousand' Edition but note: the actual print number as quoted has recently been disputed elsewhere and possibly may have been as many as 2000 copies. Still, very scarce with about 150 years of age patina.

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AUSTEN, Jane; THOMSON, Hugh (illus.). Pride and Prejudice.

$15700

Peter Harrington

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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さいころ独楽. 日本酒附録. [1930s Sake Advertising Campaign].

$450

Asia Bookroom

Sixteen delightful small porcelain spinning tops measuring 2.0 x 1.7cm in size each accompanied by ten handsome colour printed product labels heightened in gilt with soft purple cord ties (8.3 x 6cm). These sake promotional giveaways and accompanying die-cut cards in the shape of the Order of the Golden Kite are advertisements associated with Meiyo-gura, a sake brand sold in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. The advertisement describes a koma (spinning top), attached beneath the bottle top, which could also serve as a small entertainment item.

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The Great Sermon Handicap by P.G. Wodehouse.

$1500

Kenneth Hince Old & Fine Books

London, Hodder and Stoughton, [1933]. Duodecimo, very good in original gilt-lettered and decorated crimson boards with pictorial dustwrapper (slightly chipped), marbled endpapers. First separate edition. McIlvaine, A49a. Charming small format edition with dustwrapper in uncommonly good condition of the quintessential Jeeves & Bertie story: '"Well, all I can say," he cried, "is that it's a bit thick! Preaching another man's sermon! Do you call that honest? Do you call that playing the game?"'

Charles Darwin: Autograph Letter Signed. Down Farnborough, Kent, 8 [Aug. 1850].

$44700

KOTTE Autographs

An important letter to Nathaniel Thomas Wetherell which underscores Darwin's belief in the scientific significance of the study of Cirripedia (barnacles).

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GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI, "VEDUTA DEL ROMANO CAMPIDOGLIO CON SCALINATA CHE VA ALLA CHIESA D'ARACELI". From "Vedute di Roma".

$2750

Sartoni Antique Prints

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI (Mogliano Veneto 1720-Roma 1778) Italian school "VEDUTA DEL ROMANO CAMPIDOGLIO CON SCALINATA CHE VA ALLA CHIESA D'ARACELI" [THE CAPITOL AND THE STEPS OF S. MARIA IN ARACOELI] 1757 Etching DESCRIPTION: Original etching from the "Vedute di Roma". "Veduta del romano Campidoglio con Scalinata che va alla che va alla Chiesa d'Araceli". In this etching Piranesi captures with great power and theatricality one of the emblematic places of Rome: the Capitol, with its famous staircase. NOTE: Unidentified watermark. Hind 38, ii-iii/v.

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Maria Callas: Siged Portrait.

$2700

KOTTE Autographs

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John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism

$9500

Michael Treloar Antiquarian Booksellers

London, Parker, Son, and Bourn, 1863 [first edition in book form]. Mill's definitive statement on moral philosophy. The text was first published as a series of three articles in 'Fraser's Magazine' in 1861; this first edition in book form is rare.

First World War recruitment leaflet distributed by aeroplane

$550

Michael Treloar Antiquarian Booksellers

'If YOU were Hit by a Bomb from an Enemy Aeroplane you would Realise that we are at War!' Adelaide, printed by 'Advertiser' Print for J. Newland, State Recruiting Committee, 27 October 1917. Robert Graham Carey, manager of the Ballarat Flying School, dropped this leaflet over Adelaide from his 60hp Bleriot monoplane in October 1917.

Rainer Knaust: Precious Objects

$350

Sainsburys Books

Exhibition catalogue. 44 wooden blocks housed in wooden case. Limited to 300 signed and numbered copies. Exhibited at the Municiple Gallery at the German Blade Museum, Sollingen, March 17 - April 28, 1996.

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GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI, "LA TOMBA DI NERONE" [THE TOMB OF NERO]; From "GROTTESCHI".

$2750

Sartoni Antique Prints

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI (Mogliano Veneto 1720-Roma 1778) Italian school "LA TOMBA DI NERONE" [THE TOMB OF NERO] c.1750 TECHNIQUE: Etching, Burin, Drypoint & Burnishing DESCRIPTION: "The Tomb of Nero", from the series called “I GROTTESCHI” (Grotesques). In 1750 Piranesi collected in a miscellaneous volume published at the expense of the editor Giovanni Bouchard a collection of the works engraved by him up to that moment, some already published, others unpublished. The volume was published with the title serie "Opere Varie di Architettura Prospettive Grotteschi..."

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Expedition Antarctique Belge. Au Pays des Manchots: Recit du Voyage de la Belgica

$1800

The Book Merchant Jenkins

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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Bradshaw Art of the Kimberley By Grahame L Walsh

$2300

The Antique Bookshop & Curios

Bradshaw Art of the Kimberley By Grahame L.Walsh Toowong. 2000. Oblong folio. Profusely illustrated in colour with ancient Aboriginal rock art.

三國通覽全圖. [General Map of Three Countries].

$6500

Asia Bookroom

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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歌舞伎ミ二紙劇場. [Kabuki Miniature Paper Theatre].

$1500

Asia Bookroom

A delightful miniature paper theatre presented in a beautiful pictorial box (18 x 28cm). Contains a fold out stage, fifteen actors on stands (two extra stands also included), three double sided sheets of stage set illustrations, two sets of theatre curtain illustrations. This colourful kabuki miniature paper theatre was likely produced during the Meiji period. The set includes six different stage backdrops from famous kabuki programmes, including Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami (菅原伝授手習鑑). Players use the paper figures, such as Benkei from Kanjincho (勧進帳), to recreate iconic kabuki scenes.

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Thunderball | Ian Fleming

$2100

Somerset House Books

First Edition, First Impression of the ninth book in the James Bond series, or the first in the Blofeld trilogy, is excellent for the ardent Bond followers in such a good state.

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Salvador Dali, Hidden Faces

$150

Mount of Alex - Arapiles Mountain Books

1st thus, revised translation, 1973. London: Peter Owen. 8vo. Original black boards gilt in dustjacket; pp. i-xiv, 15-320 (last blank), with illustrations by the author. A near fine copy. The famous surrealist artist’s only novel, written in 1944, describing the intrigues of a group of eccentric aristocrats whose extravagant lifestyle symbolises the decadence of the 1930s

Bonaparte, Napoleon: MILITARY BREVET, 1803, SIGNED 'BONAPARTE'.

$5000

Kay Craddock - Antiquarian Bookseller

Foolscap folio parchment sheet, with engraved letterhead 'Departement de la Guerre, Republique Francaise' incorporating an image of Marianne, wearing a feathered helmet and holding a lowered sword, seated leaning against the table of the Constitution above the words 'Bonaparte, Consul de la Republique'. *The document records the details of service of citizen Ambroise Melac, and 'in the name of the French people' orders other officers to recognize his qualities and rank.

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THOMPSON, Theophilus. Chess Problems.

$73200

Peter Harrington

Scarce first edition of the author’s sole work, marking the starting point of chess book publishing in African American history. Born into slavery in Maryland, Thompson became a house-servant following his emancipation and learned the game in 1872 after meeting John Hanshew, later the editor of the Maryland Chess Review. Thompson published this collection of 101 prodigious problems the next year, aged 18.