Highlights

One of Shakespeare’s primary history sources. Woodcut illustrations of William the Conqueror's soldiers ransacking a village and Gentlemen submitting to King Malcolm's pleasure. Holinshed was Shakespeare's favourite and most trusted source and he used it for more than a third of his plays, including Macbeth, King Lear, Cymbeline and the English history plays such as Richard III. Condition: At best, fair antiquarian condition, but despite faults, the main body of text is complete and legible and the woodcuts are sharply printed.

ALPHONSE LEGROS [attributed to] (Dijon 1837- Watford 1911) French/British artist “PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN” c.1880 TECHNIQUE: Black pencil on thick blue paper. Nicely executed portrait of a unidentified gentleman. Profile bust lightly turning to the left looking towards the viewer. SIZE: 270mm(H) x 200mm(L) [sheet] CONDITION: Black pencil on thick blue paper. Mounted at the corners on a white paper sheet. Two small round spots: one below the portrait and a tiny one at left. Otherwise in excellent condition.

An American second mate's eyewitness account, embellished with his illustrations, of China in the wake of the First Opium War. Venturing east on a Jardine, Matheson specie and opium runner, he becomes an old China hand and an astute observer, writing of early colonial Hong Kong and Shanghai, trade arrangements, and the sights and sounds of the coast.

A nice set, published by Pierre Didot, Paris 1803, 3 Vols. 32mo. Buff leather spine, with Pink insert title and green volume with gilt letters, and various gilt decorations, boards marbled, endpapers marbled, edges yellow, owners ex libris Viet Valentin. Good-very good condition, silk bookmarks intact. Tom 1- II, 245pp lightly foxed, Tom III-IV 262pp edges lightly worn, interior bright with minimal marks, Tom V-VI 336pp light wear, inside bright.

Complete set of six lithographic views of colonial South Australia, by Edward Castle who came to South Australia in 1839 on board the Moffatt and took up land in the colony.

Pasteur's first major published work. PASTEUR, L [Louis (1822-1895)] Études sur le vin. Ses maladies causes qui les provoquent procédés nouveaux pour le conserver et pour le vieillir. Paris : L'imprimerie Impériale, 1866. First Edition. Octavo (235x155mm) half bound burgundy, pebble-grain morocco cloth, marbled boards, viii, 264pp; π⁴, 1-16⁸, 17⁴. Eleven (ten numbered) in text wood engravings, 32 out of text colour lithograpic plates. In French. An excellent First Edition of one of the fundamental and consequential texts of wine science.

Rare early c.19th watercolours by two artists; Jose S. Castillo and Joseph Pio Dominguez dated from 1836-1837 Santa Marta.

MORRILL, James. Sketch of a Residence among the Aboriginals of Northern Queensland for Seventeen Years. Being a narrative of my life, shipwreck, landing on the coast, residence among the Aboriginals, with an account of their manners and customs, and mode of living. Brisbane, Courier General Printing Office, 1863. 8vo.24pp. Recent quarter-morocco over cloth boards, a very good copy. First edition, Rare. Ferguson 13022.

Toronto: Wallrich Books, 1974. First Edition. Three serigraph works (38 x 28cm) screen printed on 90lb Kent paper by Coriander Studio, London for the publisher : an edition of 100 numbered copies and thirty copies Hors Commerce : each print signed in pencil by the author/artist, this being 36/100.

Tinted lithograph by Eugene Von Guerard (1812-1901). 1867. 315mm by 475mm (image) 460mm by 630mm(sheet). Blind stamp of Hamel and Ferguson to bottom of the sheet. From Von Guerard's 'Australian Landscapes, A Series of 24 Tinted Lithographs', published in Melbourne in 1867.

One of the most important Australian ornithological publications of the nineteenth century.

Turner, G.R. [George Reginald]. Young Man of Talent. London: Cassell and Company Limited, 1959. First Edition. 8vo. original blue boards gilt in dustwrapper priced 16/- net; pp. x, 290. A very good copy. The noted SF author's scarce first novel, based on his wartime experiences in New Guinea.