Highlights

“..the best Japanese male nude photography book of that time”, which remains one of the high points of homoerotic photography books to this day. Dedicated to Yukio Mishima, the models could easily be characters from his novels, and Mishima himself posing as a Samurai.

An excellent example of England's mapmaker Emanuel Bowen's fine engraving skills. Bound in full suede and comprising 273 full-page engraved maps with the armorial crest of the various boroughs and towns. The complete first edition of Ogilby's famous atlas.

The only known manuscript example of any part of Robert Dudley’s magnum opus, ‘Dell’arcano del mare’ held in private hands. An astonishing survival: a working manuscript, seemingly specifically assembled for the eyes and instruction of the officers of the Tuscan Navy, the Knights of St. Stefano, rather than for a public audience. This suggestion is borne out by the wording of the first title for the work that Dudley has crossed out: ‘Compendio del Direttorio Marittimo: Il pr[im]o Tomo e intilato , Supplemento della Navigare. Nel pr[im]o libro si discorre dell ‘arte, piu Curiosa di Navigare.

Hobart, John Vail, Government Printer, 1914. Octavo, 80 pp., illustrations, original pictorial wrappers (slightly rubbed). Scarce in part form.

Fleming (Ian) FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. Pp. 254(last blank); cr. 8vo; black boards, lettered and decorated in silver & red, bottom fore-corner of upper board lightly bruised; dust wrapper, slightly soiled, edges lightly worn, with small chips to flap fold extremities and small pieces torn from head and foot of backstrip; Cape, London, 1957. First edition, first impression, Binding A. Gilbert A5a(1.1).*The fifth Bond book, and the first to carry a Richard Chopping dust wrapper. $3,500.00

Morris (William) THE GOLDEN LEGEND of Master William Caxton done anew. In three volumes. Kelmscott Press, London, 1892. Edition limited to 500 copies. *The Golden Legend was originally intended as the first production of the Kelmscott Press, but due to production difficulties it became the seventh. In July 1890, William Morris had purchased a copy of one of Wynkyn de Worde's reprints of the Caxton translation. Originally compiled by the Archbishop of Milan, Jacobus a Voragine or de Varagine (c. 1230-1298), the book is a repository of the lives and miracles of saints and martyrs. $20,000.00

First edition, first printing, in the scarce and most collectible state with the uncorrected text error, erratum slip, and superfluous brushstroke on the calligraphic endorsement leaf. While first editions were issued in several states, "it is believed that copies with the text error... represent the earliest printed version" (Schiller, p. 37).

Tinted lithograph by Eugene Von Guerard (1812-1901). 1867. 315mm by 475mm (image) 460mm by 630mm(sheet). Blind stamp of Hamel and Ferguson to bottom of the sheet. From Von Guerard's 'Australian Landscapes, A Series of 24 Tinted Lithographs', published in Melbourne in 1867.

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.

London, Thomas M'Lean, 1847. This monumental plate book is a cornerstone of any collection of Australian illustrated books.

Saint-Exupery (Antoine de) THE LITTLE PRINCE. Translated from the French by Katherine Woods. Handsomely bound by The Chelsea Bindery in full terracotta morocco. Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, 1943. First trade edition. *Although the original manuscript was written in French, the American edition preceded both the French and English editions. $5,000.00

Uncommon work that appears to have ended up consisting of at least 14 volumes published over a few years from 1901. The book, in oblong format with decorative covers, contains 30 very nice, woodblock printed kimono designs with tissue interleaves numbered 151-180. Honda Kinnosuke of Unkindō in Kyoto published some of the most beautiful books in this genre. Kyoto. Honda Kinnosuke. 1902. 30 leaves of prints. 17.8 x 25cm. In very good condition with only minor wear. Tissue interleaves a bit darkened as expected and a couple with creases. Otherwise very good.