Melbourne Rare Book Fair

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

$134000

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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Chemical Amusement, Comprising a Series of Curious and Instructive Experiments in Chemistry,

$2000

The Book Merchant Jenkins

The rare first edition with the 60 page, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Apparatus & Instruments, and with the author's calling card laid in.

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Maria Callas: Siged Portrait.

$2700

KOTTE Autographs

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The Beatles: Autographed Magazine by all four Beatles.

$31300

KOTTE Autographs

A February 1966 edition of the French magazine ‘La Semaine’ that has been autographed on the front cover by The Beatles in black felt tipped pen. The photo on the front of the magazine pictures the famous image of The Beatles in their famous grey collarless suits which was taken by Dezo Hoffman in his studio in Wardour Street, London, England in April 1963. The autographs were obtained during The Beatles tour of Germany which took place between 24th and 26th June 1966.

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Ongeluckige voyagie van het schip Batavia uytgevaren onder’t beleydt van den E. Francois Pelsaert,

$55000

Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Amsterdam : Gillis Joosten Saeghman, [c.1663]. A rare early illustrated edition of Pelsaert’s account of the wreck of the Batavia. The infamous story of the wreck of the Batavia was first published in Amsterdam in 1647, and the first edition is of the utmost rarity. Five editions followed in the seventeenth century, including two pirated versions, and all of these are considered rare. The Saeghman edition is held in only two Australian collections (neither in Western Australia) and a handful of libraries internationally.

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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"

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BEAUTIFUL NATURAL HISTORY ILLUSTRATIONS. CAPESTRO (Federico). [Three illustrated notebooks.]

$12500

Maggs Bros Ltd

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.

[Meiji Period Japanese Moveable Type].

$3500

Asia Bookroom

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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Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame | 1908 (First UK Edition)

$5160

Somerset House Books

1908 (First UK Edition) The first US edition is technically four days earlier and even the second UK edition was printed in the same month and year, too, but this example is the more recognised (and now increasingly rare) UK first edition, so sought after worldwide. No explanation is necessary about the beloved characters Mole, Toad, Ratty and Badger, remembering that it was not until 23 years later that Ernest Shepard did the first illustrations of these characters.

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An Austen family copy of the first edition in beautiful Regency binding. AUSTEN (Jane). Emma.

$100000

Maggs Bros Ltd

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.

Bonaparte, Napoleon: MILITARY BREVET, 1803, SIGNED 'BONAPARTE'.

$5000

Kay Craddock - Antiquarian Bookseller

Foolscap folio parchment sheet, with engraved letterhead 'Departement de la Guerre, Republique Francaise' incorporating an image of Marianne, wearing a feathered helmet and holding a lowered sword, seated leaning against the table of the Constitution above the words 'Bonaparte, Consul de la Republique'. *The document records the details of service of citizen Ambroise Melac, and 'in the name of the French people' orders other officers to recognize his qualities and rank.

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Doug Scott, The Ogre

$250

Mount of Alex - Arapiles Mountain Books

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.

Alasdair Gray, Lanark

$750

Mount of Alex - Arapiles Mountain Books

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.

三國通覽全圖. [General Map of Three Countries].

$6500

Asia Bookroom

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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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’.

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さいころ独楽. 日本酒附録. [1930s Sake Advertising Campaign].

$450

Asia Bookroom

Sixteen delightful small porcelain spinning tops measuring 2.0 x 1.7cm in size each accompanied by ten handsome colour printed product labels heightened in gilt with soft purple cord ties (8.3 x 6cm). These sake promotional giveaways and accompanying die-cut cards in the shape of the Order of the Golden Kite are advertisements associated with Meiyo-gura, a sake brand sold in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. The advertisement describes a koma (spinning top), attached beneath the bottle top, which could also serve as a small entertainment item.

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Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Illustrated by Erroll Le Cain.

$3750

The Antique Bookshop & Curios

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.

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

Asia Bookroom

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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The Resolution beating through the ice, with the Discovery in the most eminent danger

$3500

Antique Print Map Room

Important, early c.19th hand coloured aquatint by John Webber (1752-1793) artist on Cook’s third and final voyage depicting the Resolution and the Discovery surrounded by ice flows.

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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.

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Crown Lands of Australia - Inscribed

$500

Sainsburys Books

Well-bound copy of Campbell's Crown Lands of Australia with inscription from the author to the previous owners, The Geelong Mechanic's Institure.

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THE FIRST DEPICTIONS OF THE CONSTELLATIONS IN A PRINTED BOOK. HYGINUS (Gaius Julius). Poetica astronomica.

$51400

Maggs Bros Ltd

First illustrated edition. Title on a2 printed in red, 47 half-page woodcuts of the constellation and planet figures, partially coloured by an early hand. 4to. (57 leaves (lacks first blank), 31 lines, gothic type, a few words in greek. Late 19th century calf-backed boards, spine with red and green labels lettered in gilt. Venice, 1482.

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..."

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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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