Highlights

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.

Uncommon work that appears to have ended up consisting of at least 14 volumes published over a few years from 1901. The book, in oblong format with decorative covers, contains 30 very nice, woodblock printed kimono designs with tissue interleaves numbered 151-180. Honda Kinnosuke of Unkindō in Kyoto published some of the most beautiful books in this genre. Kyoto. Honda Kinnosuke. 1902. 30 leaves of prints. 17.8 x 25cm. In very good condition with only minor wear. Tissue interleaves a bit darkened as expected and a couple with creases. Otherwise very good.

A detailed map of the state of Victoria. At the time of printing, Victoria was a relatively new colony, established in 1851. The discovery of gold near Ballarat and Bendigo a few months later set off one of the largest gold rushes in history, as settlers poured in to seek their fortunes. The map reflects the colony’s source of population and wealth, showing how settlements cluster around the gold fields.

A rare Chinese Communist anti-American propaganda poster printed double sided in red and black.

Classic woodblock printed book by Hokusai's first and best-known student, Totoya Hokkei (1780-1850). Nagoya. Kōgetsudō Bunsuke. Tempō 6 (1835). 36 leaves. 23 x 16.3cm. Very good. Wear and creasing to covers. Some thumbing and wear to first few leaves. Some neat notes written in margins of a few pages. Otherwise very good. In custom made, folding case.

Spectacular very large wall size format Alphonse Mucha Art Nouveau vintage poster made for the ‘8th Sokol Festival Prague.

Breton Par M. Precede d’un Précis Historique. (Uses, Costumes and Monuments of the Egyptians, Arabs and Syrians. Preceded by a historical summary.) 1814, Published by A Nerve. Paris. 8vo, brown boards with leather spines, with gilt decorations, red morocco in titles and volumes, gilt titles. Gilt edges, very bright, marbled pink endpaper, 6 Volumes (only 5 shown in photo). A most extraordinary set and worthy of a place in your collection.

London, Edward Stanford, 1879. Octavo, mounted photographic frontispiece 'Trout Pond at Ercildoune', folding map, index, very good in bright original decorated terracotta cloth, lettered in gilt, vignette of a salmon in silver on front board, lemon china clay endpapers, small lozenge binder's ticket on rear pastedown. 'Third Edition', preceded by a paper in the Zoological and Acclimatization Society of Victoria's 1878 annual report and reprinted by Sands & McDougall, as THE CALIFORNIAN SALMON, in the same year. Author’s presentation copy.

First edition of one of the landmark works of the English language.

Brown, Robertus. Normibergae: Leonardi Schrag, 1827 second edition. Octavo, Contemporary half calf and marbled boards, all edges coloured, a few light spots, very scarce. The Prodromus is considered a masterpiece of botanical literature and "has a two-fold importance in the history of systematic botany. Its primary purpose was to record succinctly the plants of Australia collected by Robert Brown himself in 1802 and 1805 when naturalist on Flinders' voyage together with plants collected earlier by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on Cook's first voyage (1768-71.)

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.

Tokyo. Okawa Jokichi. 1895. 56pp. 21.3 x 12.1cm. Good to very good. Covers a bit worn. Some darkening to edges. A few pages with slightly more darkening and one page with some staining. A couple of pages with minor separation at fold but only a couple of cm.