Highlights
Each year our exhibitors bring rare, beautiful and unusual items for sale.
Here are just a few of the exhibitors' highlights that were at the Fair in 2023!
There are a number of pages of highlights. To browse all the highlights - choose a page from the list below.
You can also check the highlights listed under your favourite booksellers in the exhibitor directory.
Although the 2023 Fair has now closed, some of these items may still be available from our Exhibitors if you wish to contact them.
Phillip (Arthur) THE VOYAGE OF GOVERNOR PHILLIP TO BOTANY BAY.
$12500
Phillip (Arthur) THE VOYAGE OF GOVERNOR PHILLIP TO BOTANY BAY, with an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson & Norfolk Island; John Stockdale, London, 1789. First edition. *The first official account of the First Fleet, compiled by the publisher, from Phillip's journal and reports. 'The importance of Stockdale's Phillip must not be underestimated. It offers a full record of events both on land and on sea in the first months of the settlement..." [Wantrup, pages 63-4]. $12,500
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Peter Trusler Yellow-bellied Sunbirds Nesting under a Queenslander, Watercolour, 26.5 x 18 cm
$8500
Peter Trusler's paintings for the book Birds of Australian Gardens (Rigby, 1980), are revolutionary, and rank among the finest Australian natural history paintings ever done.
In his Artist's Note (page 11) Peter says; 'Where possible I prefer to work from life. A number of the paintings are portraits of individual birds and all of the backgrounds and plants have been painted from actual specimens ... The paintings for the plates were executed with transparent watercolour and gouache.
Item #6569
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Potter, Beatrix, & others: CHANGING PICTURES: A Book of Transformation Pictures.
$1500
Potter, Beatrix, & others: CHANGING PICTURES: A Book of Transformation Pictures. Ernest Nister, London and E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, n.d.[1893]. First edition. One of three coloured illustrations on the upper board is an early (unattributed) picture by Beatrix Potter, of a rabbit opening a door to discover a Christmas basket of carrots and other vegetables. $1500
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Quinti Horatii Flacci Opera.
$2200
A grand edition of the works of Horace, set in a large typeface and with an elegant pictorial title-page engraved by Mellan after Nicolas Poussin. Poussin’s drawing was owned by George III and is in the Royal Collections today (Blunt, The French Drawings in the Collection of His Majesty The King at Windsor Castle, Oxford and London, 1945, 249).
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Tench (Watkin) NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION TO BOTANY BAY.
$15000
Tench (Watkin) NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION TO BOTANY BAY; with An Account of New South Wales, Its Productions, Inhabitants, &c. To which is subjoined, a List of the Civil and Military Establishments at Port Jackson. By Captain Watkin Tench, of the Marines. Printed for J. Debrett, London, 1789. First Edition. 'The earliest authentic account of the colony' [Wantrup, page 54]; an eye-witness account of the settlement at Port Jackson, by one of the participants. $15,000
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Nansen (Fridtjof) ESKIMO LIFE.
$1200
Nansen (Fridtjof) ESKIMO LIFE. Translated by William Archer. Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 1893. First edition. *In 1888 Nansen's team made the first successful crossing of Greenland's interior, spending several months living among the Inuit. The English translation includes revisions made by Nansen. The translator also 'requested and received Dr. Nansen's permission to suppress one or two especially nauseous details of Eskimo manners, which seemed to have no particular ethnological significance' [translator's preface]. $1,200
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Illustrated astronomy manuscript.
$22500
This charming astronomical manuscript by Henry Ferdinand Pelerin (c.1772-1825) epitomises the strong intellectual interest in natural sciences in the later Enlightenment. The intricate presentation of manuscript data, the expertise in illustration, and the intellectual rigour shown in the composition of this Album, display Pelerin’s advanced understanding of astronomy.
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The three voyages of Captain James Cook
$75000
London : 1771 - 1784. A magnificent set of the official account of Cook’s voyages, finely illustrated with maps and plates. Finely bound by the venerable London firm of Morell in the late nineteenth century, this exceptional collection of the complete set of voyages of Cook is distinguished by its full, wide margins and rich, dark impressions.
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Eliot (T. S.) FOUR QUARTETS.
$7500
Eliot (T. S.) FOUR QUARTETS. Pp. 54+[2](blank, colophon); narrow demy 8vo; qr. parchment with gilt rule, spine lettered in gilt, marbled papered boards; t.e.g., others uncut; within matching marbled papered slipcase, edges slightly rubbed; housed in a later custom made brown cloth wrap-around portfolio with ribbon pull and a matching brown cloth outer slipcase (a trifle marked) with gilt lettered black leather title label on spine; Faber & Faber, London, 1960. Edition limited to 290 numbered copies, signed by the author. $7500.00
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