Highlights

Cartographer: Captain G.H. RICHARDS Publisher: BRITISH ADMIRALTY 1865 [1901] Engraving [engraved by J. & C. WALKER] Very interesting and detailed large plan of Melbourne and Hobson Bay. All pertinent nautical information as ports, docks, sea depths, sand bars, wrecks, as well as building, streets, parks etc are accurately named and tracked. As updated charts were offered for sale, the earlier outdated charts in the hands of mariners, pilots, ships owners and sailors were invariably discarded, subsequently making all British Admiralty issued hydrographic charts of the period rare

Catlin (George) NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. Being letters and notes on their manners, customs, and conditions, written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, 1832-1839. In two volumes. With three hundred and twenty illustrations, carefully engraved from the author's original paintings. John Grant, Edinburgh, 1926. First edition thus. *George Catlin (1796-1872) spent several years studying the languages and customs of native Americans, making copious notes and studies for his paintings. $3,500.00

“NOUVELLE-HOLLANDE; PORT-JACKSON: FAMILLE DE SAUVAGES EN VOYAGE.” 1824 Artists: SEBASTIAN LEROY [drawn by] & BOISSEAU & FORGET [engraved by] TECHNIQUE: Stipple engraving printed in colour [finished by hand-watercolour] Early and interesting depiction of natives Australians in Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour, N.S.W. An Aboriginal family in the foreground, walking past a camp in the background where another indigenous family is cooking an animal on an open fire.Without number 102; From first edition of: “Voyage autour du Monde" by Louis Freycinet.

First edition, Faber and Faber 1952, A very good copy in like dust jacket. David Jones second book.

STREHLOW, T.G.H. Songs of Central Australia. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1971. 4to, liv+776 pp. Colour frontispiece, musical notations, large folding colour map in rear pocket. Original boards in dustwrapper (minimally rubbed at head of backstrip). A near fine copy. One of only 500 copies printed, "The Author has set out on a task never before attempted...the analysis of Aboriginal songs as a fully-developed oral literature".

The initial ‘D’ is formed from an “ouroboros” - a circular symbol that depicts a snake or dragon devouring its own tail, representing the eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth. A bar border of Illuminations extends from the initial to the top of the page. Condition: This 770 year old leaf is very good/excellent condition. The script shows no ink loss and the illuminations retain vibrant colours. There is slight darkening of the vellum and a dozen of so small worm holes.

First edition, first printing, in the scarce and most collectible state with the uncorrected text error, erratum slip, and superfluous brushstroke on the calligraphic endorsement leaf. While first editions were issued in several states, "it is believed that copies with the text error... represent the earliest printed version" (Schiller, p. 37).

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.)

3. BONWICK, JAMES. The Last of the Tasmanians; Or, The Black War of Van Diemen's Land. With numerous illustrations and colour engraving. London, Sampson Low, 1870. 8vo; pp. viii, 400 + 16 (book catalogue); colour frontispiece, 2 other f/p. colour plates, 15 b/w. f/p. plates, a folding map of Tasmania; original green pictorial cloth decorated in gilt. Some light foxing to prelims, (including to the tissue-guard to the frontispiece), an otherwise excellent bright copy. First edition of one of Bonwick's most important works.

Two seminal maps of the Pacific: the earliest map focused on Alaska, the Northwest and upper California, and “the first printed map of Australia” (Tooley). In the map of North America the west coast is reasonably well delineated, and de Jode has chosen to include the mythical Strait of Anian separating America from Asia. The existence of a body of water between the two continents had been suggested but not proved when the map was made. Despite the channel between the continents, the figures populating America are outside tents and domed buildings which are distinctly Asian in appearance.

The first Jean Crespin, Lyon edition, of Virgil’s works, containing the re-used woodcuts prepared for the Johan Grüninger Strasbourg edition of Virgil, (1502). This edition is rightly acclaimed for its magnificent series of woodcut illustrations by the anonymous Late Master of the Grüninger Workshop.