Melbourne Rare Book Fair

台湾勤務日本人警察官手帳. [Japanese Police Officer's Journal].

$3250

Pocket book with hand-written journal records in graphite, 117pp. 10.5 x 7cm. A very rare and highly unusual example of a notebook kept by a Japanese policeman (junsa) in colonial Taiwan in the early twentieth century. On the upper cover of the notebook debossed characters name the southern Taiwanese region of 蕃薯藔廳 (Fanshuliao District), home to Rukai and Paiwan indigenous people. The entries span the period from December 1903 to 25 May 1904. Most entries appear to be Morimoto's day-to-day notes taken during and after his interactions with the indigenous people in the area.

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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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Dickens (Charles) A TALE OF TWO CITIES.

$7500

Kay Craddock - Antiquarian Bookseller

With illustrations by H. K. Browne. Chapman & Hall, London, 1859. First edition in book form. Smith, Part I, 13, with all the internal flaws called for, but without the advertisement catalogue found 'in some copies'. *A Tale of Two Cities originally appeared in the weekly journal All the Year Round, from April 30 to November 26, 1859. It was also published in eight monthly parts (the last part being a double number), from June to December 1859. This was the final work illustrated by Browne for Dickens.

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[HOOKER (Joseph Dalton), his copy] HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE. Chart of the South Polar Sea.

$25000

Maggs Bros Ltd

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.

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI, "VEDUTA DI PIAZZA NAVONA SOPRA LE ROVINE DEL CIRCO AGONALE", from "VEDUTE DI ROMA".

$6800

Sartoni Antique Prints

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI (Mogliano Veneto 1720-Roma 1778) "VEDUTA DI PIAZZA NAVONA SOPRA LE ROVINE DEL CIRCO AGONALE" [THE PIAZZA NAVONA WITH S. AGNESE ON THE RIGHT] 1751 Etching DESCRIPTION: Original etching from the series "Vedute di Roma". "Veduta di Piazza Navona sopra le rovine del Circo Agonale" with Santa Agnese church at right. Piranesi first general depiction of one of the most emblematic corners of Rome, Piazza Navona, built on the ruins of the ancient Circus of Domitian (or Circus Agonale).NOTE: Life-time Rome edition on thick laid paper, fourth state of six, with address..

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Inheritors: a Novel by Brian Penton.

$850

Kenneth Hince Old & Fine Books

Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1936. Demy octavo, small bookseller's label on front pastedown, very good in original bright burgundy cloth lettered in gilt on spine with Norman Lindsay dustwrapper, few blemishes but in uncommonly good condition. First edition. Second volume of Penton's unfinished trilogy. Published as Giant's Stride in the UK. Very scarce with the fabulous Lindsay dustwrapper.

Signed, First edition of The Book Bag

$1000

Archives Fine Books

MAUGHAM, W.S. The Book Bag The Lungarno Series No.9. Florence: G. Oriolo, 1932. First Edition. “Though I said that affection was the greatest enemy of love, I would never deny that it's a very good substitute.” — Maugham. No. 29 of 725. Maugham's tale of the too-close relationship of a brother and sister has gained a reputation as one of Maugham's more unsettling works. With its themes of obsession, isolation and taboo relationships, it was first published by G. Orioli, a publisher unafraid to issue controversial works, albeit for a niche market.

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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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Barret (Robert) THE THEORIKE AND PRACTIKE OF MODERNE WARRES.

$15000

Kay Craddock - Antiquarian Bookseller

Discoursed in Dialogue wise. Printed for William Ponsonby, London, 1598. *'A compilation from foreign writers. It is said that Shakespeare in the passage "The gallant militarist that had the whole theoric of war in the knot of his scarf, and the practice in the chaps of his dagger" (All's Well That Ends Well, act iv, scene iii), was alluding to this book' [Cockle, page 57]. The table of 'forrain words' at the end is effectively the first English glossary of military terminology preceding the anonymously published Military Dictionary of 1702.

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GOTHIC REVIVAL ILLUMINATION. FRENCH ILLUMINATOR. A suite of large neo-gothic illuminated initials.

$9250

Maggs Bros Ltd

Full-page frontispiece illustration with floral border and a central figure of a woman holding two shields in silver, blue and red; 29 illuminated initials in watercolour and gouache, gilded, and some partly with gold foil; all on wove paper. 1840-60.

Les Amours de Psyche et de Cupidon

$5500

The Book Merchant Jenkins

One of the most striking editions of Fontaine’s adaptation of the story of Cupid and Psyche with coloured stipple engravings by Bonnefoy, Mme Demonchy, and Colibert after Jean-Frederic Schall. This copy extra illustrated and finely bound by the Paris bookbinder Salvador David.

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ABNEY, Hephzibah. Manuscript with hundreds of original watercolour illustrations of shells.

$26100

Peter Harrington

A conchological labour of love: an attractive album of “shells from nature” by the talented watercolourist Hephzibah Abney (née Need, 1758-1841) and a record of the conchylomania that swept Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This is the only recorded example of Abney’s shell illustrations and has re-entered the market almost 50 years after its last appearance.

Metabolism in Architecture

$350

Sainsburys Books

Details the 1960s Japanese architectural movement which envisioned cities as evolving organisms. Led by Tange, Kurokawa, Kikutake, and Maki, it championed modular, adaptable, and sustainable designs.

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Harry Potter Bundle (First Editions) | JK Rowling

$2450

Somerset House Books

This is a very rare complete set in perfect new condition. A magnificent gift for the dedicated Potter enthusiast. In slipcase volumes, the box set is also still sealed in the publisher's cling wrap cellophane.

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Maria Callas: Siged Portrait.

$2700

KOTTE Autographs

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Lucio Fontana

$150

Sainsburys Books

Scarce monograph on the Italian avant-garde, abstract artist.

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Dracula

$750

Mount of Alex - Arapiles Mountain Books

Stoker, Bram, Dracula, New edition. [1956]. London: Rider & Co. 12mo. Original red boards gilt in dustjacket; pp. 336 (last blank). Fraying to jacket, but a very good copy. This edition of the seminal vampire tale comes with cover art evoking the film portrayals, rather than the more abstract imagery of earlier jackets. The design closely resembles Christopher Lee’s classic interpretation, though it actually pre-dates his first appearance in Hammer Horror’s 1958 ‘Dracula’ by two years.

And Quiet Flows the Don | Mikhail Sholokhov

$3100

Somerset House Books

And Quiet Flows The Don by Mikhail Sholokhov (1934 First UK Edition, First Impression in April):8vo, 755pp. Obviously very scarce as a first edition and impression from April 1934, the wonderful patina of age is very obvious as the novel in four volumes traces the lives and struggles of the Cossacks of the Don River Valley during the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the terrible Russian Civil War for the White armies against the Red Bolsheviks. Originally published in a Soviet magazine in 1928-1932 and then in 1940.

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The Man with the Golden Gun | Ian Fleming

$1995

Somerset House Books

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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Dobbson's first book restricted to 200 copies and published when she was only 17.

$500

Archives Fine Books

Rosemary Dobson. Poems. [Mittagong, NSW]: Frensham Press, 1937. First Edition. Paper boards with black and white lino cut designed by Rosemary Dobson with her monogrammed initials : red paper label lettered in black : black cloth spine. The Press was established by the Australian children's author Joan Phipson after she visited some private presses in England and consulted Leonard and Virginia Woolf at their Hogarth Press. Leonard Woolf was later to praise Dobson's book as equal to any of the initial efforts by the Hogarth Press.

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Fraz Kafka: Autograph letter signed ("K"). [Prague, December 1921].

$134000

INLIBRIS

To his close friend, the physician Robert Klopstock, about mutual friends, including Irene Bugsch, who, to Kafka's great joy, had recently been accepted by the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.

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