Highlights
Here is a small selection of the highlights offered in 2026 by our exhibitors for you to browse and whet your appetite. These highlights are only a small offering of what will be available at the fair.
Our exhibitors will be uploading more highlights regularly up to the opening of the fair.
If you are interested in a highlight, contact the respective exhibitor directly. Prices are in Australian dollars inclusive of GST.
Fitzclarence, George - Journal of a Route Across India, Through Egypt, to England in the Latter End of the Year 1817, and the Beginning of 1818.
$2250
George Fitzclarence, the eldest illegitimate son of King William IV, was a soldier and scholar who served in the Napoleonic Wars and India. During the Third Anglo-Maratha War, he served as aide-de-camp to the Marquis of Hastings before being chosen to deliver peace dispatches to England via an arduous overland route. Starting in December 1817, he travelled from Bundelkund to Bombay - witnessing the defeat of the Pindarrees at Jubbulpore - and then sailed to Egypt.
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![Trout Fishing in America - Richard Brautigan [Proof Copy]](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/John@sainsburysbooks.com.au/133211.jpg)
Trout Fishing in America - Richard Brautigan [Proof Copy]
$300
Proof copy of Brautigan's cult-classic. Scarce in dust jacket.
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Louis Philippe, The King of France's Copy - "Field Sports of New South Wales"
$7250
"Field Sports, &c. &c. of the Native Inhabitants of New South Wales..."
-London 1813: First separate edition published without numbering to pages.
-Complete: 8,[10] with 10 hand coloured plates.
-BOUND FOR LOUIS PHILIPPE KING OF FRANCE AND DUC D'ORLÉANS (1773-1850)
The first significant work to be published illustrating the Indigenous Peoples of Australia. This copy bound for the Bourbon King Louis Philippe I of France, who was exiled in Britain during the Napoleonic wars (until 1815). Later owned by Horace William Wheelwright (1815-1865) who wrote "Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist"
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A Dictionary of the English Language
$35000
A pleasing example in original, unrestored binding of the first edition of Johnson's landmark dictionary - the first standard English dictionary. These massive volumes are rarely encountered in a fully contemporary binding due to the stress placed on the hinges and joints by the sheer weight of the text block in each volume. As Fleeman notes: '... few copies survive in booksellers' boards, and all such have restored spines, for when standing upright, the contents are too heavy for the binding cords'.
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William Camden. Britannia sive Florentissimorum Regnorum, Angliae, Scotiae, Hiberniae, etc.
$1250
5th edition. 1600. London: George Bishop
8vo. Full modern blindstamped leather gilt, decorated title page, 7 plates of Roman Coins, 1 plate of Roman Altars, 1 plate view of Stonehenge, and various figures in text of ancient British coins and Roman inscriptions. Text in Latin, with place names in English. A monumental study of ancient British history and archaeology, and the first to undertake a county by county account of the nation, including the earliest reference to Stonehenge. A good copy.
The Sydney Gazette, and New South Wales Advertiser. Vols I – II, 1803-1805.
$325000
The earliest work printed in Australia that a collector can acquire, printed on the printing press which arrived on the First Fleet. The origins of printing and journalism in Australia : the most significant collection of early issues of Australia's first newspaper in private ownership.
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Doctor Zhivago
$550
1958 (First Edition English Translation). Collins and Harvill Press, London, England
Hardcover in publisher's red cloth with gold title original a firm rounded spine with virtually no shelf-wear original the book itself plus a purple and yellow non price-clipped dust wrapper showing the expected scuffing and chipping original all corners and edges, but now protected by removable clear archival covering.
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WODEHOUSE, P.G.: Psmith in the City. A Sequel to 'Mike'
$3000
London, Adam and Charles Black, 1910 (first edition).
Octavo, xii, 266, [2] (advertisements) pages plus 12 plates by T.M.R. Whitwell.
A very bright copy of this transitional and partly autobiographical novel, in which the heroes of the Public School tale 'Mike' find themselves caught up in the drudgery of the Edwardian banking system (although they do find time for cricket). Wodehouse was unhappily employed at the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank before finding success as a writer.
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![浅草観音. 雨の図. [Asakusa Kannon Temple. A Rainy Scene].](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/books@asiabookroom.com/218363_01.jpg)
浅草観音. 雨の図. [Asakusa Kannon Temple. A Rainy Scene].
$5250
Exceedingly rare limited edition woodblock print by Yokouchi Ginnosuke, a Yokohama-based artist who began his career as a watercolour landscape painter, before producing eight self-published woodblock prints in the 1930s. Little is known of his life, but his work is representative of the Shin-hanga movement. This beautiful, playful composition has a great delicacy of tone and a painterly fluidity of line.
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Nostradamus’ Propheties, one of the earliest obtainable editions
$63000
Nostradamus, Michel de. Les Propheties de M. Michel Nostradamus. Dont il y en a trois cens qui n’ont encores iamais esté imprimées. Adioustées de nouueau par ledict Autheur, 1568. Lyon. Benoist Rigaud.
The exceedingly rare complete edition of the Prophéties bearing the Benoist Rigaud imprint, this is the second complete edition of Nostradamus's Prophéties, of the utmost rarity, here in a fine copy in a contemporary binding.
An Essay on Silence - Michael Chater
$250
"This volume is dedicated to those who enjoy the sight and feel of good books but to their sorrow have little time for reading them." Contains five different paper products of Abbey Mills, a small and independent paper mill in the British Isles, each with detailed description.
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![[La Borde (Jean-Benjamin de)] PREMIER [& DEUXIEME] RECUEIL DE CHANSONS](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/kay@kaycraddock.com/184348_6.jpg)
[La Borde (Jean-Benjamin de)] PREMIER [& DEUXIEME] RECUEIL DE CHANSONS
$2500
Avec Accompagnement de harpe, de violon, de clavessin. Grave par Mlle Vendome, chez M. Moria. [Music scores, two works in one volume]. In a handsome contemporary binding of full crimson morocco, royal coat of arms of the Dauphin at centre; Richomme L'aine, Paris, 1763; 1764. *'First [and Second] collection of songs with accompaniments for harp, violin, and harpsichord. Engraved by Mademoiselle Vendome'. Jean Benjamin de la Borde (1734-1794) studied under Dauvergne and Rameau. From 1762-1774, he served as valet at the court of Louis XV, and his wife was was an attendant to Marie Antoinette.
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Nobody's Fool - Yoshitomo Nara
$250
Catalogue of the first major New York exhibition of Yoshitomo Nara (1959), and features more than one hundred works ranging from his early career in the 1980s to his most recent paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, and large-scale installations.
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ARISTOPHANES Lysistrata; Done into English verse by Jack Lindsay; with illustrations and decorations by Norman Lindsay
$2500
Sydney: Fanfrolico, 1925. First Edition. Deluxe edition. No. 50/64. This is one of the early books from the Fanfrolico Press produced in Sydney before their move to London.
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The Wolf Hall or Thomas Cromwell Trilogy
$5500
Mantel, Hilary
2009, 2012, 2020. Fourth Estate/Harper Collins, London, United Kingdom
Acquired at auction from Forum Auctions London, the trilogy is all signed First Editions and comprise Wolf Hall (2009), Bring Up the Bodies (2012), and The Mirror & The Light (2020). The books should be read in order of publication and are best referred to as great historical fiction - impeccably researched and highly imaginative. Mantel uses a well known era of Tudor History and made it refreshing by focusing on a historical figure integral to that time, i.e., Thomas Cromwell.
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Beautiful copy of the most important collection of Dutch voyages of the 17th century
$81500
[COMMELIN, Isaac]. Begin ende voortgangh, van de Vereenigde Nederlantsche Geoctroyeerde Oost-Indische Compagnie.
[Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius], 1646. 21 parts in 2 volumes. Oblong 4to. With a richly engraved allegorical frontispiece in each volume (one by J. van Meurs, the other unsigned), and 229 engraved maps, views and plates illustrating the voyages, several double-page or folding, including a large folding map of the world. Modern vellum.
Young Men in Spats
$1250
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1936. Octavo, [8]pp. publisher's advertisements, minor foxing & offsetting, original primary turquoise cloth lettered in black with chipped pictorial dustwrapper (bit oxidised on verso & creased on lower panel), oval 2/6 price label on spine, additional wrap-around band. First edition ‒ first issue 7/6 dustwrapper with 2/6 label. Jasen, 55; McIlvaine, A55a. Very scarce with the publisher's promotional 'Drones Club Book of the Month' wrap-around band. Collection of short stories including 'Uncle Fred Flits By' introducing Frederick, Earl of Ickenham.
!["HAWAII"; “ÎLES SANDWICH: MAISONS DE KRAÏMOKOU, Premier Ministre du Roi; FABRICATION DES ÉTOFFES” [Sandwich Islands: Houses of Kalanimoku, Prime Minister of the King; Fabric Making]. "Voyage autour du monde" under the command of Louis de Freycinet](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/sartoniprints@yahoo.it/PALLIERE-Saladero.jpg)
"HAWAII"; “ÎLES SANDWICH: MAISONS DE KRAÏMOKOU, Premier Ministre du Roi; FABRICATION DES ÉTOFFES” [Sandwich Islands: Houses of Kalanimoku, Prime Minister of the King; Fabric Making]. "Voyage autour du monde" under the command of Louis de Freycinet
$950
“ÎLES SANDWICH: MAISONS DE KRAÏMOKOU, Premier Ministre du Roi; FABRICATION DES ÉTOFFES” [Sandwich Islands: Houses of Kalanimoku, Prime Minister of the King; Fabric Making] Hawaii Islands. 1825. ALPHONSE PELLION (1796-1868) [drawn by]
STIPPLE ENGRAVING [contemporary hand-colour]
Early and interesting depiction of Hawaii Island. The esteemed Prime Minister Kalanimoku standing in the doorway of one of his houses in the company of his wife Likelike. In the foreground is an Olo board, the largest of the Hawaiian wood surfboards...
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![Sweeney Reed. Moments of Mind [Keepsakekeep e]](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/araps@alassoc.com.au/Sweeny-grouped.jpg)
Sweeney Reed. Moments of Mind [Keepsakekeep e]
$750
1st Edition 1977. St Kilda: Tolarno Galleries.
16mo. original printed paper wraps; pp. [iv], with photo portrait. Catalogue from the artist's first solo exhibition of prints held May 25th - June 17th 1977. No. 74 of 120 copies signed by Sweeney Reed, with offset-lithographic print on front cover. Rare self-published 'keepsake' from the boy at the centre of the Heide circle 'who had five parents or maybe none at all' (The Age). He took his life two years later aged 35. A fine copy.
Abel Janszoon Tasman’s Journal of His Discovery of Van Diemens Land and New Zealand in 1642 with Documents Relating to His Exploration of Australia in 1644.
$4750
“The most comprehensive account of Tasman’s life and achievement; ” (Schilder, Australia unveiled, p.157) of which only 200 copies were printed.
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Kowalewski, Joseph Etienne - Dictionnaire Mongol-Russe-Français Dédié à Sa Majesté L'Empereur de Toutes les Russies.
$3950
A landmark work - the first large-scale scholarly dictionary of Mongolian published for the European market and a milestone in historical linguistics and academic publishing. Published in three volumes over six years, it drew on classical Mongolian and religious and archaic texts (reflecting the author's own interests in Mongolia and in Buddhism); the trilingual dictionary also addressed the challenge of transliterating Mongolian script. These three volumes were reprinted and bound as one in 1941 by the influential White Russian bookseller and publisher Ivan Serebrennikoff in Tianjin.
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Float - Anne Carson
$250
A collection of twenty-two chapbooks whose order is unfixed and whose topics are various. Part of a collection of contemporary literature being exhibited at the 2026 Melbourne Rare Book Fair.
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Blue Chicory - Lorine Niedecker
$150
Designed by Martino Mardersteig and limited to 400 copies printed from Dante type on Magnani rag paper by Stamperia Valdonega. From the editor: "The poems in the first part of this collection, heretofore unseen in bookform, are those that seem largely to have been 'abandoned' by the poet as perhaps not up to her best work, since they were available for the Fulcrum edition of the Collected Poems 1968. Nevertheless, they seem to me to warrant safer keeping here they are variants upon other pieces. Those in the second part are clearly poems she wanted published"
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