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.


ZLATA' PRAHA, Viktor Oliva, Czech painter and illustrator.
$750
VIKTOR OLIVA (Nové Stašecì, [Bohemia] 1861- Prague 1928) Czech painter and illustrator “ZLATA' PRAHA” c.1894 LITHOGRAPHY Original colour lithograph advertising “Zlata' Praha” (Golden Prague), a Czech illustrated literary magazine founded by poet Vítězslav Hálek, published between 1864 to 1929. An elegant woman dressed in red in a golden frame, wearing an eccentric hat and walking with a copy of "Zlata' Praha" under her left arm. Published by Imprimerie Chaix (Atelier Chéret), Paris. NOTE: Original colour lithograph printed on "Arches" paper.Blank at verso; before stamps (before publication)
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Chart of the N. and W. Parts of Bass’s Straits
$6750
Rare and important, early c.19th hand coloured engraved chart by Lieutenant James Grant who was given command of the Lady Nelson with the instructions to sail her to Sydney and hand her over to Matthew Flinders.
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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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The Great Sermon Handicap by P.G. Wodehouse.
$1500
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?"'
Les Amours de Psyche et de Cupidon
$5500
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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Ex Libris of Yasushi Ohmoto by Cliff Parfit
$395
The Ex-Libris of Yasuhi Ohmoto. By Cliff Parfit Tokyo. English Centre. 1982. 16 tipped-in colour bookplates. Signed by the artist. Fine in cloth case.
Vegetius Renatus (Flavius) THE FOURE BOOKS OF FLAVIUS VEGETIUS RENATUS.
$15000
brieflye contayninge a plaine forme, and perfect knowledge of Martiall policye, feates of Chivalrie, and whatsoeuer pertayneth of warre. Translated out of lattine, into Englishe, by John Sadler. Thomas Marshe, London, 1572. First edition. *The first printed English version of De Re Militari by Vegetius. (Earlier English translations exist in manuscript form). Written circa 390 AD and focusing on military organization (how to set up and fortify a camp, train and discipline troops, how to march, etc.), De Re Militari was highly influential in Europe after the Middle Ages.
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雙六式國史早わかり. [Sugoroku - Quick View of Japan's History].
$650
Large colour folding sugoroku game, 93 x 125cm. This unique and visually rich sugoroku-style educational chart was published in 1927 in Shizuoka by Yamamura Azusa. Intending to present Japanese history through the lens of the imperial lineage, Yamamura sought to make the subject accessible and engaging for children by structuring it as a game. Using the familiar sugoroku board format, he transforms historical chronology into a path of progress, starting with the mythological creation of Japan by the sun goddess Amaterasu at the centre of the chart.
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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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Pennant’ Outlines of the Globe, vol. 4
$4850
The rare fourth volume of Pennant’s Outlines of the globe containing the large map of Australia, titled: Map For Mr. Pennants Outline of the Globe. Beautifully bound in striking contemporary hand painted tree calf
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"QUEENSLAND CENSUS DISTRICTS AND SUB-DISTRICT 1891"; Collection of 76 [of 77] folded maps. Printed at the Govt. Engraving and Lithographic Office.
$6500
"QUEENSLAND CENSUS DISTRICTS AND SUB-DISTRICT 1891" Printed at the Govt. Engraving and Lithographic Office. W. KNIGHT [engraver] DESCRIPTION: "QUEENSLAND CENSUS DISTRICTS AND SUB-DISTRICT 1891", 76 [of 77] folded maps. 60 [of 61] numbered and 16 unnumbered maps, + index map and index list; with the original cover labeled: "MAPS to company REGISTER-GENERAL REPORT CENSUS 1892". Map n:5 [Etheridge] missed.
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Clark: Foreign Field Sports, Fisheries, Sporting Anecdotes, &c. &c. ... With a Supplement of New South Wales
$7500
London, Published and sold by Edward Orme, 1814 and 1813. The 'Supplement of New South Wales' ('Field Sports &c. &c. of the Native Inhabitants of New South Wales, with Ten Plates, by the Author, dedicated, by permission, to Rear Admiral Bligh ...') is described by Jonathan Wantrup as 'the very first book on the Australian Aborigines, a fact not often acknowledged'.
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A treatise on the culture of the vine
$35000
Australia [i.e. Sydney] : R. Howe, Government Printer, 1825. The first edition of the first Australian book on wine. In the introduction Busby explains that Australia had a viable future as a major wine producing country, a statement that justifies the epithet for him of ‘prophet of Australian viticulture’.
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Doug Scott, The Ogre
$250
Scott, Doug. The Ogre. Biography of a mountain and the dramatic story of the first ascent. 1st edition. 2017. Sheffield: Vertebrate Publishing. 8vo. Original pictorial boards in dustjacket; pp. xiv, 178, with illustrations. Signed by the author. A fine copy. A full account of the first ascent of ‘The Ogre’ (Baintha Brakk), a notoriously difficult mountain in the Karakoram, by a British team in 1977, known for the absolutely epic descent by the two summit climbers, Doug Scott and Chris Bonington. This was the last of Doug‘s books to be published in his lifetime.
16回オリンピックメルボルン大会. [Japanese Newspaper Scrap Book on Melbourne Olympics in 1956].
$550
Scrapbook assembled by S. Tanaka in December 1965, 26 x 36.3cm, [38]pp, 4 hole string binding, hand-written title on front cover. This Japanese scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings from Japanese sources provides a detailed and engaging record of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, capturing the entire event from its earliest stages to its conclusion. The scrapbook begins with profiles of all Japanese athletes participating in the Games, followed by reports on the opening ceremony, individual sporting events, and the triumphs and disappointments experienced by Japan's competitors.
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ONE OF TEN KNOWN BOOKS FROM SIR WALTER RALEGH'S PRISON LIBRARY IN THE TOWER OF LONDON. [RALEIGH (Walter).] VIGNIER (Nicolas, the younger). Theatre de L‘Antechrist.
$72000
First edition. Small Folio. 692, [14 (index/errata)] pp. Diagonal closed tear from a paper flaw in EEe2. Contemporary limp vellum, sewn on four tawed leather slips, the covers tooled in the centre with the armorial crest of Sir Walter Ralegh. [Saumur] 1610.
Grecian and Chinese Architecture Hardy Wilson
$900
Grecian & Chinese Architecture By Hardy Wilson. 1937 No.93 of 100 copies. 50 tipped-in plates
ABNEY, Hephzibah. Manuscript with hundreds of original watercolour illustrations of shells.
$26100
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.
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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J.R.R. Tolkien
Various items of interest for the Tolkien fan, including an excellent set of The Lord Of The Rings [Second Edition, 1966]; all three De Luxe Editions of Tolkien works [LotR, The Hobbit, Poems & Stories]; and even a scale model of Gandalf from the Weta studio [New Zealand set creators for the epic movie franchise]!
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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Moby Dick
$39000
Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. 1st edition. 1851. New York: Harper & Brothers. Cochran copy, ex-Fisk Memorial Library, Natchez, Mississippi.12mo. Original brown cloth gilt, publisher’s circular blindstamp upper board in bespoke clamshell case; pp. xxiv (last blank), 636 (last blank), [6 publisher’s catalogue)]. [Tanselle 2] Despite initial unfavourable criticism, there is good reason why Moby Dick often makes lists of the top ten books ever written. It contains the best exposition of Melville’s philosophical musings, every sentence loaded with import.
An Austen family copy of the first edition in beautiful Regency binding. AUSTEN (Jane). Emma.
$100000
First edition. Three volumes. 12mo. Contemporary tree calf, single-rule gilt border, flat spines elaborately panelled in gilt. London, John Murray. 1816. From the library of Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen (1829-1893), Jane Austen’s grand-nephew. It is uncommon to find Jane Austen titles in contemporary bindings and even more so with such intimate provenance.
Boyle (Roger, Earl of Orrey) A TREATISE OF THE ART OF WAR.
$4500
Printed by T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringham, London, 1677. First edition. Wing O499; ESTC R200. *The frontispiece portrait of a warlike Charles II astride a horse, with troops in military formation and a battle fleet in the background, was engraved by Abraham de Blois. Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery (1621-1679), was an Anglo-Irish soldier and politician who held senior positions under the Commonwealth and later under Charles II. This work includes chapters on choosing, educating and disciplining soldiers, the ordering of garrisons, the marching and camping of an army, and battles.
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