Melbourne Rare Book Fair

"THE GREAT COLORPLATE BOOK OF THE NORTH PACIFIC" (Forbes). CHORIS (Louis). Voyage Pittoresque autour du monde ...

$250000

First edition. Rare coloured issue. 105 lithographed plates, folding map & 2 further maps. Folio. Contemporary diced calf with gilt border, rebacked, lightly worn, some toning and spotting to plates & pale dampstaining to final six, repaired tear one plate. Paris,1822. “One of the very valuable and fundamental works on Alaska, California, and the Hawaiian islands” (Lada-Mocarski).

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater

$5500

The Book Merchant Jenkins

First edition of the highly influential autobiographical account of De Quincey’s laudanum addiction. The foundation work of drug literature.

View More

Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Illustrated by Erroll Le Cain.

$3750

The Antique Bookshop & Curios

LE CAIN, Erroll (Illustrator) THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. ONE OF 100 COPIES. By Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Illustrations by Erroll Le Cain. Calligraphy by David Howells. Paper by Philip H.Rowson. Lond. The Arcadia Press. 1972. Folio. Hand-bound by Zaehnsdorf in quarter vellum with seaweed paper sides. 55pp. t.e.g. Calligraphic text on seaweed paper pages. Ten striking tipped-in colour plates by Erroll Le Cain. No.50 of 110 numbered copies signed by the illustrator, the calligrapher and the paper-maker. Fine in the slip-case. Particularly scarce.

J.R.R. Tolkien

ORCHARD BOOKSHOP

Various items of interest for the Tolkien fan, including an excellent set of The Lord Of The Rings [Second Edition, 1966]; all three De Luxe Editions of Tolkien works [LotR, The Hobbit, Poems & Stories]; and even a scale model of Gandalf from the Weta studio [New Zealand set creators for the epic movie franchise]!

Les Paradis Artificiels: Opium et Haschisch

$4000

The Book Merchant Jenkins

First edition of Baudelaire’s Artificial Paradises, on the drug experiences of hashish and opium and their relationship with creative expression, being accounts from within the walls of Le Club des Haschischins and a translation and adaptation of Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.

View More

Bony Buys a Woman By Arthur Upfield (Signed)

$350

The Antique Bookshop & Curios

BONY BUYS A WOMAN By Arthur Upfield Lond. Heinemann. 1957. First Edition. Scarce. Inscribed & signed by Arthur Upfield

City of Brisbane, Queensland.

$4750

Antique Print Map Room

Very rare, large c.19th hand coloured panorama of Brisbane depicting the wharves at Petrie’s Bight, from a vantage point near All Hallows School, by Albert Henry Fullwood (1863-1930).

View More

And Quiet Flows the Don | Mikhail Sholokhov

$3100

Somerset House Books

And Quiet Flows The Don by Mikhail Sholokhov (1934 First UK Edition, First Impression in April):8vo, 755pp. Obviously very scarce as a first edition and impression from April 1934, the wonderful patina of age is very obvious as the novel in four volumes traces the lives and struggles of the Cossacks of the Don River Valley during the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the terrible Russian Civil War for the White armies against the Red Bolsheviks. Originally published in a Soviet magazine in 1928-1932 and then in 1940.

View More

CHIVERS BINDING - TENNYSON, Alfred. Poetical Works.

$14100

Peter Harrington

A “vellucent” style binding, with delicately rendered Arthurian figures after Dorothy Carlton Smyth (1880-1933), the most prolific of Chivers’s female designers. Smyth was particularly involved with the Glasgow School of Art, who appointed her as their first female director. Her stained glass Tristan and Iseult, the subject of one of Tennyson’s Arthurian poems, garnered wide acclaim at the 1901 International Exhibition.

View More

Charles Troedel. The Melbourne Album, containing a Series of Views of Melbourne & Country Districts.

$12000

Kenneth Hince Old & Fine Books

Oblong folio, lithographed titling-wrapper on cream paper, bound in as title-page as issued, twelve fine tinted lithographed plates, Very rare: one of the short sets of twelve elegant tinted lithographs that make up Troedel's Melbourne Album of 1863-4, "perhaps the finest work of urban topography produced in Australia in the nineteenth century" (Wantrup). Notable contemporary artists including Nicholas Chevalier, Eugen von Guerard, Edward Gilks and Henry Gritten contributed to the Album.

Bonaparte, Napoleon: MILITARY BREVET, 1803, SIGNED 'BONAPARTE'.

$5000

Kay Craddock - Antiquarian Bookseller

Foolscap folio parchment sheet, with engraved letterhead 'Departement de la Guerre, Republique Francaise' incorporating an image of Marianne, wearing a feathered helmet and holding a lowered sword, seated leaning against the table of the Constitution above the words 'Bonaparte, Consul de la Republique'. *The document records the details of service of citizen Ambroise Melac, and 'in the name of the French people' orders other officers to recognize his qualities and rank.

View More

Susan Cooper - The Dark is Rising

Mount of Alex - Arapiles Mountain Books

Three novels in the Dark is Rising quintet by Susan Cooper, a contemporary fantasy series set in England and Wales, which incorporates British mythology such as the Arthurian legends and Welsh folk heroes. The Dark is Rising (2nd imp 1975, $275), The Grey King (1st ed. 1975, $350) and, Silver on the Tree (1st ed 1977, $150).

Chart of the N. and W. Parts of Bass’s Straits

$6750

Antique Print Map Room

Rare and important, early c.19th hand coloured engraved chart by Lieutenant James Grant who was given command of the Lady Nelson with the instructions to sail her to Sydney and hand her over to Matthew Flinders.

View More

Moby Dick

$39000

Mount of Alex - Arapiles Mountain Books

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. 1st edition. 1851. New York: Harper & Brothers. Cochran copy, ex-Fisk Memorial Library, Natchez, Mississippi.12mo. Original brown cloth gilt, publisher’s circular blindstamp upper board in bespoke clamshell case; pp. xxiv (last blank), 636 (last blank), [6 publisher’s catalogue)]. [Tanselle 2] Despite initial unfavourable criticism, there is good reason why Moby Dick often makes lists of the top ten books ever written. It contains the best exposition of Melville’s philosophical musings, every sentence loaded with import.

[Meiji Period Japanese Moveable Type].

$3500

Asia Bookroom

411 examples of Japanese wooden moveable type. The moveable type include kanji, hiragana, katakana and numbers both Japanese and Arabic. The pieces of wooden type shows some signs of use but overall a very good collection.

View More

The Beatles: A rare signed „Pixerama“ Foldbook.

$44700

KOTTE Autographs

The first four black and white portraits autographed individually in blue ballpoint by John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison; together with a concert programme, The Beatles Show, white covers with orange/black text.

View More

BEAUTIFUL NATURAL HISTORY ILLUSTRATIONS. CAPESTRO (Federico). [Three illustrated notebooks.]

$12500

Maggs Bros Ltd

Idrografia. Prospetto dei principali fiumi e laghi della Terra [e monti e vulcani]. Ms. in ink. 10 full page hand-coloured illustrations (9 on vellum), gold highlights throughout. Folio. Cloth-backed marbled boards. 36pp. “Premiato con diploma di 2o grada dalla Societa Patria in data 30 Novembre 1874.” [With:] Scienze naturali 1869. Gli ucceli. Ms. in black, red & blue ink. 39 hand-coloured drawings. Small folio. Cloth-backed marbled boards. 71pp. [And:] Storia degli animal di Capestro Federico A[nn]o 1869. Ms. in ink. 146 drawings. Small folio. Cloth-backed marbled boards. 108pp. 1874.

Neuromancer [Signed Ltd Ed]

$1250

ORCHARD BOOKSHOP

Published to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of this SF classic, this is one of only 200 copies. Signed by William Gibson, the man who coined the term "cyberspace"... welcome to the matrix! As-new copy.

View More

REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN [REMBRANDT], “THE FLUTE-PLAYER” (HET UYLENSPIEGELTJE), 1642, Etching and drypoint.

$36000

Sartoni Antique Prints

REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN (Leyden 1606-Amsterdam1669) “THE FLUTE-PLAYER” (HET UYLENSPIEGELTJE) 1642 Etching and drypoint DESCRIPTION: A young couple resting beside a stream, the man playing flute with an owl perched on his shoulder, the girl making a flower garland at left. Shepherds do more than their fair share of walking, but their lives also provide ample opportunity for relaxation... NOTE: Fourth state of four, without the face among the branches. Barstch 188, Hollstein Dutch 144, New Hollstein 211. Very good impression on 17th century [end of] laid paper.

View More

THE SECOND ENGLISH MIDWIFERY MANUAL. GUILLEMEAU (Jacques). Child-Birth or, the Happy Deliverie of Women.

$31000

Maggs Bros Ltd

First edition in English. Small 4to. 17 woodcut illustrations in the text. Contemporary limp vellum, title (twice) in early manuscript to the spine. London, by A. Hatfield, 1612. A very fine copy in contemporary vellum of one of the earliest English midwifery manuals.

Purdey's The Guns and the Family

$400

Sainsburys Books

History of the sporting shotgun and rifle maker firm, James Purdey & Sons. Limited to 250 copies, hand-bound in navy morocco, signed and numbered by the author and second generation proprietor, Richard Beaumont.

View More

Bradshaw Art of the Kimberley By Grahame L Walsh

$2300

The Antique Bookshop & Curios

Bradshaw Art of the Kimberley By Grahame L.Walsh Toowong. 2000. Oblong folio. Profusely illustrated in colour with ancient Aboriginal rock art.

Simon Raven, The Feathers of Death

$1250

Mount of Alex - Arapiles Mountain Books

Raven, Simon. The Feathers of Death. 1st edition,1959. London: Anthony Blond. 12mo. Original black cloth gilt in dustjacket; pp. 254. Inscribed by author to endpaper. Toning and spotting, jacket price-clipped. A very good copy. The author’s first book, a novel involving a same sex relationship in the British army. Simon Raven (1927-2001) is best known for his Alms for Oblivion series and his louche lifestyle, which features strongly in his work.