Melbourne Rare Book Fair

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

Maggs Bros Ltd

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.

Manners and Customs in Manchoukuo

$2000

The Book Merchant Jenkins

A detailed and thoroughly illustrated guide in English to life and culture in Manchuria. Published at the height of WWII, depicting a completely normal world inside the Japanese puppet state with chapters on races and tribes, costumes, residential houses, food and drink, salutation and etiquette, tastes and pastimes, annual festivals, religions, symbols of religious faith, and happy and unhappy affairs.

View More

"QUEENSLAND CENSUS DISTRICTS AND SUB-DISTRICT 1891"; Collection of 76 [of 77] folded maps. Printed at the Govt. Engraving and Lithographic Office.

$6500

Sartoni Antique Prints

"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.

View More

Astounding Science Fiction July 1940

$150

Sainsburys Books

In this issue: the first printing of Robert Heinlein's novelette, "Coventry" as well as L. Ron Hubbard's "The Idealist" (published under the psuedonym, Kurt von Rachen). Part of number of titles on early science fiction.

View More

THE SECOND ENGLISH MIDWIFERY MANUAL. GUILLEMEAU (Jacques). Child-Birth or, the Happy Deliverie of Women.

$31000

Maggs Bros Ltd

First edition in English. Small 4to. 17 woodcut illustrations in the text. Contemporary limp vellum, title (twice) in early manuscript to the spine. London, by A. Hatfield, 1612. A very fine copy in contemporary vellum of one of the earliest English midwifery manuals.

Nicholas II: TSAR NICHOLAS II SIGNED DOCUMENT.

$5000

Kay Craddock - Antiquarian Bookseller

TSAR NICHOLAS II SIGNED DOCUMENT IN RUSSIAN, APPOINTING ALEXEI NIKOLAEVICH KUROPATKIN A KNIGHT OF THE IMPERIAL ORDER OF ST. VLADIMIR, APOSTLE AND PRINCE 1ST CLASS. Single sheet folded to form 4 small quarto pages; copperplate, with autograph subscription 'in gratitude Nicholas'; dated 8 August, [St. Petersburg], 1916. *The document details Kuropatkin's fifty years of distinguished service.

View More

Simon Raven, The Feathers of Death

$1250

Mount of Alex - Arapiles Mountain Books

Raven, Simon. The Feathers of Death. 1st edition,1959. London: Anthony Blond. 12mo. Original black cloth gilt in dustjacket; pp. 254. Inscribed by author to endpaper. Toning and spotting, jacket price-clipped. A very good copy. The author’s first book, a novel involving a same sex relationship in the British army. Simon Raven (1927-2001) is best known for his Alms for Oblivion series and his louche lifestyle, which features strongly in his work.

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI, "VEDUTA DEL ROMANO CAMPIDOGLIO CON SCALINATA CHE VA ALLA CHIESA D'ARACELI". From "Vedute di Roma".

$2750

Sartoni Antique Prints

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI (Mogliano Veneto 1720-Roma 1778) Italian school "VEDUTA DEL ROMANO CAMPIDOGLIO CON SCALINATA CHE VA ALLA CHIESA D'ARACELI" [THE CAPITOL AND THE STEPS OF S. MARIA IN ARACOELI] 1757 Etching DESCRIPTION: Original etching from the "Vedute di Roma". "Veduta del romano Campidoglio con Scalinata che va alla che va alla Chiesa d'Araceli". In this etching Piranesi captures with great power and theatricality one of the emblematic places of Rome: the Capitol, with its famous staircase. NOTE: Unidentified watermark. Hind 38, ii-iii/v.

View More

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.

View More

CHURCHILL (Winston S.) The Second World War: The Gathering Storm; The Finest Hour; The Grand Alliance; The Hinge of Fate; Closing the Ring; Triumph and Tragedy.

$30750

Maggs Bros Ltd

First editions, first printings. Six volumes. Numerous maps and diagrams, some folding and others full-page, throughout each volume. 8vo. Original black cloth, spines lettered in gilt, top edges in red, supplied dust jackets. London, Cassell & Co. Ltd. 1948-1954. Inscribed to Grace Hamblin, "the longest-serving member of Churchill’s secretarial staff."

Phantastica: Die Betaubenden und Erregenden Genussmittel

$800

The Book Merchant Jenkins

First edition of the psychedelic classic by German pharmacologist Louis Lewin (1850-1929). Set the standard for the classification of psychoactive drugs: Inebriantia (Inebriants such as alcohol or ether), Excitantia (Stimulants such as Khat or Amphetamine), Euphorica (Euphoriants and Narcotics such as Heroin), Hypnotica (Tranquilizers such as Kava), Phantastica (Hallucinogens or Entheogens such as Peyote or Ayahuasca). Later translated into French, Italian, and English, the 1931 English edition said to be Aldous Huxley’s introduction to drug literature.

View More

Salmon at the Antipodes: Being an Account of the Successful Introduction of Salmon and Trout into Australian Waters. By Sir Samuel Wilson.

$1750

Kenneth Hince Old & Fine Books

London, Edward Stanford, 1879. Octavo, mounted photographic frontispiece 'Trout Pond at Ercildoune', folding map, index, lemon china clay endpapers, bright original decorated terracotta cloth, lettered in gilt, vignette of a salmon in silver on front board, small lozenge binder's ticket on rear pastedown, near fine copy. 'Third Edition'. Presentation copy.

Christina, the Maid of the South Seas; a Poem.

$4000

Archives Fine Books

MITFORD, Mary Russell . London: Printed by A. J. Valpy for F. C. and J. Rivington, 1811. First Edition. Mary Russell Mitford's (1787-1855) second published title.A metrical tale based on the first news of discovery of the last surviving mutineer of the H. M. S. Bounty and a generation of British-Tahitian children on Pitcairn Island in 1811. As a manuscript, the work was apparently read and corrected by James Burney who sailed with Captain James Cook and the proofs were corrected by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A scarce item.

The Color Star

$500

Sainsburys Books

Itten's Color Star with eight templates that can overlay and display a variety of what he termed "color chords"

View More

Typescript of Jack London's South Sea story, "Mauki"

$58000

Archives Fine Books

“Mauki” holds significant literary and historical importance for the South Pacific, particularly in its depiction of colonial labour practices and indigenous resistance during a period of intense imperial activity. Written in 1907 during London's cruise of the South Pacific in the Snark, "Mauki" was first published by Hampton's Magazine in December 1908 and was collected in South Sea Stories in 1911. This is the Hampton's setting copy and is one of only a handful of Jack London manuscripts to come onto the market in the past 50 years.

View More

First time this pair have been offered for sale

$15000

Archives Fine Books

Two first edition volumes from the library of Lady Constance Malleson: The Waves [offered with] The Rainbow [together with] A small archive of personal correspondence from the executrix of Malleson’s estate (Phyllis Urch) to a friend. The two books are from the library of Lady Constance Malleson: pacifist, actress, and long-term lover of Bertrand Russell.

View More

Karski: How One Man Tried To Stop The Holocaust [Inscribed by Jan Karski to Dorothy Madden]

$1500

ORCHARD BOOKSHOP

First definitive account of Jan Karski’s mission to alert the West to the emerging Holocaust. Published shortly after his wife [avant-garde dancer & holocaust survivor, Pola Nirenska] committed suicide in 1992, our copy contains a poignant message penned by Karski to his wife’s former dance colleague [choreographer & modern dance pioneer, Dorothy Madden] which carries a warmth still evident today.

View More

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.

View More

"THREE ABORIGINAL CHILDREN", B. E. MINNS.

$330

Sartoni Antique Prints

BENJAMIN EDWIN MINNS (Dungog, 17 November 1863 – Taronga Zoo, 21 February 1937) "THREE ABORIGINAL CHILDREN" 1926 ETCHING & AQUATINT DESCRIPTION: Original etching by B.E. Minns depicting 3 indigenous Australian children sitting on their knees in the outdoor with an arrow and a boomerang at right. Signed by the artist in pencil lower right and on the plate. NOTE:Etching and aquatint on copperplate printed on cream laid paper Signed by the artist in pencil lower right and on the plate. SIZE: 124mm(H) x 173mm(L) [plate] 202mm(H) x 254mm(L) [sheet] CONDITION: In perfect condition.

View More

“CARTE DE LA NOUVELLE-HOLLANDE”; LOUIS CLAUDE DE SAULCES DE FREYCINET.

$2750

Sartoni Antique Prints

“CARTE DE LA NOUVELLE-HOLLANDE” 1824 Cartographer: LOUIS CLAUDE DE SAULCES DE FREYCINET (Montélimar 1779- Loriol-sur-Drôme 1841) Technique: COPPER ENGRAVING Rare updated version of Freycinet’s seminal map of Australia which was first issued in 1807 in a larger format in the accounts of the French expedition under the command of Nicholas Baudin. Freycinet was the cartographer for the expedition...

View More

Post Office [1st UK]

$1000

ORCHARD BOOKSHOP

Bukowski's alter-ego Henry Chinaski at his finest [read most disgusting, most hilarious, most obscene, etc]. Post Office was Bukowski's first novel and his best. "It began as a mistake. It was Christmas season and I learned from the drunk up the hill, who did the trick every Christmas, that they would hire damned near anybody..."

View More

Les Paradis Artificiels: Opium et Haschisch

$4000

The Book Merchant Jenkins

First edition of Baudelaire’s Artificial Paradises, on the drug experiences of hashish and opium and their relationship with creative expression, being accounts from within the walls of Le Club des Haschischins and a translation and adaptation of Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.

View More

A treatise on the culture of the vine

$35000

Douglas Stewart Fine Books

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’.

View More