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.
Horace (Quintus Flaccus) QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS.
$5500
[Text in Latin]. Joannis Baskerville, Birminghamiae, 1762. First Baskerville edition. *Formerly from the library of Jeanne-Annette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1721-1764), the chief mistress of French King Louis XV. Madame de Pompadour was an influential patron of the arts and accumulated an extensive library of over 3,500 books on topics including history, philosophy, theology, music and poetry. Many were bound for her by the leading French bookbinders of the time.
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[Flemish Book of Hours]. Book of Hours (use of Rome).
$267000
An outstanding, unpublished Book of Hours with 14 high-quality illuminations, produced around the year 1500, at the apogee of Flemish book illumination. The quality of illumination is remarkable, both in the borders and the full-page miniatures. The execution is neat and flawless. At least three different miniaturists worked on the illumination cycle of this precious Book of Hours. One main hand, however, executed almost all of the images, even the small ones, excepting only the Holy Face at the beginning and King David in Prayer towards the end of the book.
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Dante Alighieri: La Commedia. Comm. Jacopo della Lana.
$445000
"La prima edizione commentata della Divina Commedia" (Mambelli), published only five years after the editio princeps (Foligno 1472). An exceptionally large and crisp copy, completely unsophisticated in its first binding
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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.
“NOUVELLE-HOLLANDE; PORT-JACKSON: FAMILLE DE SAUVAGES EN VOfYAGE”; SEBASTIAN LEROY, 1824.
$950
“NOUVELLE-HOLLANDE; PORT-JACKSON: FAMILLE DE SAUVAGES EN VOYAGE.”
1824
SEBASTIAN LEROY [drawn by]
BOISSEAU & FORGET [engraved by]
Stipple engraving printed in colour, [finished by hand-watercolour]
DESCRIPTION:
Early and interesting depiction of indigenous 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.
NOTE:
Without number 102; From first edition of: “Voyage autour du Monde” by Louis Freycinet.
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Ah! Nana
$1200
Complete set of the French women’s comic magazine. Ah!Nana ran for nine issues, each with its own theme, coming to a short end following the magazine being banned to minors after the publication of the eighth issue devoted to homosexuality. This led the editorial team to go all in on the ninth and final issue, devoting it to incest, leading to the French censorship Commission banning the publication, labelling it pornographic.
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Rushcutter’s Bay, Looking South 1896 by Phillip Lee (1865 - 1909)
$4500
Phillip Lee 1865 - 1909 painted “romantic views of Australian scenery, notably coast scenes on the Illawarra Plains, the summit of the Bulli Pass, the Home of the Black-fish, Hawkesbury River, Fairy Bower, Manly, and the Blue Mountains." Refer SMH 27, March 1896.
His painting 'Native Sports 1880' was acquired by the NGA in 1969. 'The Pass, Bulli 1898' and 'Cascades at Fitzroy Falls, Moss Vale 1898' were sold by the Bridget McDonnell Gallery in 2006.
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三國通覽全圖. [General Map of Three Countries].
$6500
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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John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism
$9500
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.
Landfall, Environs of Sydney 1971 by Shay Docking (1928 - 1998)
$4200
The work consists of pencil drawings on four sheets of paper
with measurements of 20.5 x 101.5 cm. The works are signed, titled "Landfall" and dated 1971. Shay Docking's work is represented in the National Gallery, Canberra, all State galleries, many Regional galleries and University collections throughout Australia and New Zealand.
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CURIE, Marie. “Radio-Active Substances.”
$31400
First edition in English of Curie’s famous dissertation, rare in such excellent condition in the original parts. Serialized across 15 issues of The Chemical News, it was applauded by the examination committee for being the greatest scientific contribution ever made in a doctoral thesis. Later the same year, Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of radioactivity.
Machiavelli (Niccolo) THE WORKS OF THE FAMOUS NICOLAS MACHIAVELLI, CITIZEN AND SECRETARY OF FLORENCE.
$10000
Written originally in Italian, and from thence newly and faithfully translated into English. John Starkey, London, 1675. *The first English edition of Machiavelli's works. The translation has been attributed to Henry Neville (1620-1695), author of The Isle of Pines. Includes Nicholas Machiavel's Letter to Zanobius Buondelmontius in vindication of Himself and His Writings, which was by Neville, not Machiavelli. Other works include The History of Florence; The Prince; and The Art of War.
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City of Brisbane, Queensland.
$4750
Very rare, large c.19th hand coloured panorama of Brisbane depicting the wharves at Petrie’s Bight, from a vantage point near All Hallows School, by Albert Henry Fullwood (1863-1930).
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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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Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Illustrated by Erroll Le Cain.
$3750
LE CAIN, Erroll (Illustrator) THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. ONE OF 100 COPIES. By Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Illustrations by Erroll Le Cain. Calligraphy by David Howells. Paper by Philip H.Rowson. Lond. The Arcadia Press. 1972. Folio. Hand-bound by Zaehnsdorf in quarter vellum with seaweed paper sides. 55pp. t.e.g. Calligraphic text on seaweed paper pages. Ten striking tipped-in colour plates by Erroll Le Cain. No.50 of 110 numbered copies signed by the illustrator, the calligrapher and the paper-maker. Fine in the slip-case. Particularly scarce.
BEAUTIFUL NATURAL HISTORY ILLUSTRATIONS. CAPESTRO (Federico). [Three illustrated notebooks.]
$12500
Idrografia. Prospetto dei principali fiumi e laghi della Terra [e monti e vulcani]. Ms. in ink. 10 full page hand-coloured illustrations (9 on vellum), gold highlights throughout. Folio. Cloth-backed marbled boards. 36pp. “Premiato con diploma di 2o grada dalla Societa Patria in data 30 Novembre 1874.” [With:] Scienze naturali 1869. Gli ucceli. Ms. in black, red & blue ink. 39 hand-coloured drawings. Small folio. Cloth-backed marbled boards. 71pp. [And:] Storia degli animal di Capestro Federico A[nn]o 1869. Ms. in ink. 146 drawings. Small folio. Cloth-backed marbled boards. 108pp. 1874.
Alasdair Gray, Lanark
$750
Gray, Alasdair. Lanark. A Life in 4 Books. 1st thus ‘Definitive Edition’,1985. Edinburgh: Canongate. 8vo. Original black cloth gilt in dustjacket; pp. [viii (last blank)], 562 (last blank), illustrated and decorated throughout by the author. No. 747 of a limited edition of 1000 copies, numbered, signed and additionally inscribed by Alasdair Gray. A little sunning and spotting, a very good copy.
The author’s first book, a novel written over a period of almost thirty years, combining realist and dystopian surrealist depictions of his home city of Glasgow. First assembled in one book in 1981.
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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Orbis Terrarum Nova et Accuratissima Tabula.
$11500
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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The Man with the Golden Gun | Ian Fleming
$1995
First Edition, First Impression, Second State, so not the extremely rare first State example so avidly sought worldwide (with a golden gun on the front board). Still, a rare book in this near fine condition, nevertheless and will certainly appeal to specialist Fleming collectors as well as keen Bond devotees.
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Hobart Town
$2450
Rare c.19th detailed hand coloured engraved panorama of Hobart published in 1879. From the original edition of the Australasian Sketcher.
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[HOOKER (Joseph Dalton), his copy] HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE. Chart of the South Polar Sea.
$25000
First edition, first issue. Measuring 632 by 842mm. A little toned with old folds with ms. annotations in blue and red ink, small ink stain to upper margin, a couple of small, closed tears. London, Hydrographic Office, published according to the Act of Parliament, and sold by R.B. Bate [price] 2s.6d, June, 1839.
An important copy of this rare map, owned by Joseph Dalton Hooker, assistant surgeon aboard HMS Erebus on James Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition of 1839-43.
[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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