Highlights

JACOB DE GHEYN III (Leiden 1596-Utrecht 1644) Dutch School c.1618 Etching “Triton Blowing on a Conch”, produced between 1616 and 1620, is a little printmaking gem from the period of Dutch Mannerism. The wiry, muscular torso of the sea god, half human and half fish, is presented in lost profile. This exotic mythological figure sparked De Gheyn’s creative imagination and inspired him to an Arcimboldo like design. NOTE: Very rare first state of two. I/II, before Hondius excudit [Hh exc.]; Bartsch 18, New Hollstein 19.

The ‘Arcano de Mare’ is one the “greatest atlases of the world” (Wardington). This sumptuous atlas, first published in 1646 when its author, Robert Dudley, was 73, was not only the first sea atlas of the world, but also the first to use Mercator’s projection; the earliest to show magnetic deviation; the first to show currents and prevailing winds; the first to expound the advantages of ‘Great Circle Sailing’ – the shortest distance between two points on a globe; and “perhaps less importantly the first sea-atlas to be compiled by an Englishman, all be it abroad in Italy” (Wardington).

An uncommon women's suffrage birthday book, published to fundraise for the Scottish Council of the Women's Freedom League, compiled by Eunice Murray, future president of the WFL in Scotland and the first Scotswoman to stand for parliament. It comprises contributions from a number of significant Scottish suffragettes including Helen Fraser, Alexia Jack, and Anna Munro.

Extra-illustrated with 8 original signed drawings (4 full page and 4 vignettes) in pencil, pen, ink, and pastel by Georges Villa in a fine binding signed Yseux SR de Thierry-Simier.

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.

August Pollak (1838-1903) A wonderful painting of an "Oriental Woman”, in the guise of Cleopatra wearing the goddess Neckhbet (Vulture) head-dress with a suggestion of a cobra at the brow.  Fine gold earrings and a beautiful necklace adorn her, with the sensuous somewhat fragile beauty of the imagined Cleopatra. Pollack was an Austrian artist, many of his paintings are of still lives, sensuous women or whimsical studies of children with cats, he is known for his oriental subjects. His paintings have about them a Fusilian mystery. The painting could be a study for a larger work.

A spectacular wall map of astonishing beauty made at the beginning of the Dutch Golden Age. The present map draws on the cartography of Luis Teixeira (fl 1564-1613), whose name appears in the large banner title. He was a Portuguese cartographer from a famous mapmaking dynasty. He worked in Lisbon and the Portuguese colonies, but was also a friend of and collaborator with Dutch cartographers, contributing a map of Japan to Abraham Ortelius’s atlas. Ortelius and Cornelis Claesz published five of his maps between them, and all were specifically advertised as based on his work.

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

Paris: Internationale Situationniste, 1958-1969. First Edition. Twelve stapled softcovers : metallic paper covers in different colors : C.&c. : two supplements to no. 10 and one to no. 11. Covers vary from very good (no. 8) to fine (nos. 1 & 4). Complete collection, first edition EXCEPT, as usual, for No. 2 which is a second edition (1962). The original no. 2 (1958) was produced in a very limited run hence the 1962 reprint which is notorious for the "peeling" of the silver metallic cover. (14959)

Sydney, N.S.W. Bookstall Co., 1909. The account of Birtles' ambitious bicycle journey around Australia, in which he covered 8300 miles over thirteen months, with illustrations from his photographs

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.

This first edition of “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess, published by Heinemann in 1962, is a highly collectible item. The book is in good condition, bound in chocolate brown cloth with silver titles on the spine. The original, price-clipped magenta dust jacket, designed by Barry Trengrove, shows some spine fading, edge browning, and minor chipping but is now protected by a clear archival cover. Light flecking on all edges, with excellent condition text, makes this copy a valuable addition to any collection.