Highlights
Premier livre de l'histoire de la navigation aux Indes Orientales
$25000
Amsterdam : Cornille Nicolas, 1598. The first edition in French of the major account of the first Dutch voyage to the East Indies, which was undertaken by a fleet under the command of Cornelis de Houtman (1565-1599). This voyage would lead to the creation of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and result in Dutch colonisation and commercial monopoly of the Malay Archipelago that would endure for three centuries. Crucially, it paved the way for Dutch discoveries on the western and southern coasts of Australia, and New Zealand.
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Scare early work on Tuberculosis - Timothy Byfield 1685 - "Two Discourses: One of Consumptions, with their Cure"
$2850
"Two Discourses: One of Consumptions, with their Cure..."
Timothy Byfield, London, 1685. Complete, small 4to, [6], 31,[1].
This is the first and only edition of this scarce work on the treatment of consumption (now identified as tuberculosis). In the book, Timothy Byfield rejected traditional medical explanations for consumption and promoted his “new method” of cure.
Timothy Byfield (1651–1723) was an Irish physician educated at Cambridge who later practiced in both Ireland and London. He is best known for being regarded as one of the earliest physicians to patent a medicine: “Sal Volatile".
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Fleming (Ian) CASINO ROYALE.
$8500
Fleming (Ian) CASINO ROYALE. Pp. 218; cr. 8vo; handsomely rebound in full red morocco, lettered and ruled in gilt, with '007' in gilt at all corners of boards and 'James Bond' at centre of upper board; within marble papered slipcase; matching marbled endpapers; edges of leaves a trifle foxed; Jonathan Cape, London, 1953. First edition, first impression. Campbell 1007A; Gilbert A1.1 or A1.2 (Without the dust wrapper it cannot be determined if this copy is a first or second issue).
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15th Century Book of hours on parchment, Northern France
$22000
This is a beautiful book of hours from the last quarter of 15th Century produced in Northern France (possibly Artois). The book comprises 232 pages on parchment with one miniature and 13 floral and acanthal borders. The manuscript has evidence of ownership over several generations, with later 18th Century additions form the Alba family in Italy, and a highly personal 19th century binding. The binding inscription describes the book as a gift on New years day 1872 with the Occitan inscription “A year of Love and Happiness in Tuscany 1869”
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Carte Generale De La Nouvelle Hollande No. 1
$8750
The first issue (1811) of the first published complete chart of Australia from the accounts of Nicholas Baudin’s voyage of exploration that completed the charting of the southern coast.
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Relations de divers voyages curieux,
$62500
The first edition of each of the first four parts of Thévenot’s monumental work. Paris : Jacques Langlois, 1663-1664 [Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy, 1666] [André Cramoisy, 1672]. The maps include the famous Tasman map of Australia (Hollandia Nova) in its fifth state (with rhumb lines and the Tropic of Capricorn, and ’19’ added at top right). The importance of this map can hardly be overstated: it is a cornerstone of Australian cartography, both as the earliest obtainable map of the region as well as the predominant depiction by which the West would know the island for about a century.
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Ongeluckige voyagie, van’t schip Batavia, nae de Oost-Indien.
$165000
Amsterdam : Jan Jansz, 1647.
The first full account of the wreck of the Batavia, with the first printed European images of Australia, 'an especially outstanding rarity’ (Wantrup).
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Planisphère mobile
$3500
Paris : chez Bachelier, 1847. This rare scientific instrument is a portable, adjustable star chart that displays exactly which stars and constellations are visible in the sky at any given date and time, and which can be used without any prerequisite mathematical knowledge. It was designed by Ginot Desroys (or Des-Rois), a female scientific instrument maker and author of a number of works on astronomy and geography.
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A General Chart of the Indian and Part of the Pacific Oceans, Shewing the Various Passages to & from China, Australia, New Zealand, &c. Carefully Constructed & Compiled from the most approved Observations and Modern Surveys, by J.S. Hobbs, F.R.G.S. Hydrog
$7950
Magnificent 2m wide hydrographic wall chart of the sea routes for the eastern trade. Very detailed hydrographic chart on four sheets, first published in 1873,
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The Sydney Gazette, and New South Wales Advertiser. Vols I – II, 1803-1805.
$325000
The earliest work printed in Australia that a collector can acquire, printed on the printing press which arrived on the First Fleet. The origins of printing and journalism in Australia : the most significant collection of early issues of Australia's first newspaper in private ownership.
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The First Modern Scientific Journal Printed in Asia - Batavia (Jakarta) 1779 - "Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap der Konsten en Wetenschappen"
$9000
The “Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap" was printed in Batavia (Jakarta) by the VOC printer Egbert Heemen. Printed in 1779, it is regarded as the earliest modern scientific journal printed in Asia.
This first volume contains a wide range of scholarship produced in the Dutch East Indies, including reports on smallpox inoculation in Batavia, botanical classification of Malay plants, and agricultural studies on sugar production. This copy is missing pages 1-4, but retains its original decorative boards.
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Carte réduite des Détroits de Malaca
$6750
A fine and exceptionally scarce first state of Bellin’s important chart of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, engraved for the Dépôt de la Marine.
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A rare fourteenth-century medieval casket for a Book of Hours
$40000
This is an excellent example of a distinct corpus of book boxes from Catalonia (northeastern Spain), usually associated with the later fourteenth century. Made of wood, the exterior has typical incised leather decoration in a whorl pattern. The rosette decorations on the wrought-iron reinforcements are found on virtually all the known extant examples. The tawed leather interior, with its gently curved angles and smooth surface, is indicative of the precious contents which the container was designed to protect.
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Chart of the N. and W. Parts of Bass
$6750
Rare and important, early c.19th hand coloured engraved chart of Bass Strait and the Victorian Coast by Lieutenant James Grant who was given command of the Lady Nelson with the instructions to sail her to Sydney
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Carte Reduite De L’Ocean Oriental
$2450
Rare, large scale French navigational chart by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin extending from Africa to Australia and the Philippine archipelago .
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Asia and its Islands
$8500
Rare c.18th six sheet hand coloured wall chart of Australia and Asia by Laurie and Whittle published on 12th May 1794
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Madman’s Island.
$11000
Ion Idriess' very first book, set in far North Queensland, signed by the author, in its original dustjacket. Of the 2200 copies printed in 1927, only 300 were sold, the rest presumably pulped. A legendary rarity in Australian literature.
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Fore edge painting: Ellis (George) SPECIMENS OF THE EARLY ENGLISH POETS;
$7500
to which is prefixed, an historical sketch of the rise and progress of the English poetry and language. With a biography of each poet, &c. In three volumes, each with a fine fore-edge painting beneath the gilt. Henry Washbourne, London, 1845. Fifth edition, corrected. *The fore-edge paintings are portrait busts of Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, and William Shakespeare. The bindings were executed for W. Boyne, Leeds, in 1850. William Boyne (1814-1893) was a collector of engravings and books, and a notable numismatist with an extensive collection of over 30,000 coins and tokens.
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Calyptorhynchus Banksii
$23500
Magnificent and rare, c.19th original hand coloured lithograph of the Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo by John Gould from his epic series, The Birds of Australia and Adjacent Islands, published for the author, printed by Richard and John E. Taylor, London 1848.
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Caesar (Gaius Julius) THE COMMENTARIES OF CAESAR
$20000
translated into English. To which is prefixed A discourse concerning the Roman art of war. Engraved frontispiece portrait, plus 85 plates numbered to 86. Contemporary calf, the boards lightly scuffed and rubbed, the spine quite worn; Printed for J. and R. Tonson [& others], London, 1753. First edition. *From the library of David Levine, Sydney, with his bookplate on the upper pastedown below the earlier bookplates of Finsborough Library and Francis Colman.
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A Dictionary of the English Language
$35000
A pleasing example in original, unrestored binding of the first edition of Johnson's landmark dictionary - the first standard English dictionary. These massive volumes are rarely encountered in a fully contemporary binding due to the stress placed on the hinges and joints by the sheer weight of the text block in each volume. As Fleeman notes: '... few copies survive in booksellers' boards, and all such have restored spines, for when standing upright, the contents are too heavy for the binding cords'.
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Abel Janszoon Tasman’s Journal of His Discovery of Van Diemens Land and New Zealand in 1642 with Documents Relating to His Exploration of Australia in 1644.
$4750
“The most comprehensive account of Tasman’s life and achievement; ” (Schilder, Australia unveiled, p.157) of which only 200 copies were printed.
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