Highlights
Each year our exhibitors bring extraordinarily rare, beautiful and unusual items for sale.
Here is a selection of the items offered in 2025 by our exhibitors. These may still be available for purchase. If interested, contact the respective exhibitor directlyCloser to the 2026 Fair, new highlights of what will be on offer in 2026 will be posted. Bookmark this page and visit again to see the 2026 highlights.
City of Brisbane, Queensland.
$4750
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).
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![[Flemish Book of Hours]. Book of Hours (use of Rome).](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/mpeche@inlibris.com/img-bn61059-c.jpg)
[Flemish Book of Hours]. Book of Hours (use of Rome).
$267000
An outstanding, unpublished Book of Hours with 14 high-quality illuminations, produced around the year 1500, at the apogee of Flemish book illumination. The quality of illumination is remarkable, both in the borders and the full-page miniatures. The execution is neat and flawless. At least three different miniaturists worked on the illumination cycle of this precious Book of Hours. One main hand, however, executed almost all of the images, even the small ones, excepting only the Holy Face at the beginning and King David in Prayer towards the end of the book.
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Ex Libris of Yasushi Ohmoto by Cliff Parfit
$395
The Ex-Libris of Yasuhi Ohmoto. By Cliff Parfit
Tokyo. English Centre. 1982.
16 tipped-in colour bookplates.
Signed by the artist.
Fine in cloth case.
Grecian and Chinese Architecture Hardy Wilson
$900
Grecian & Chinese Architecture
By Hardy Wilson. 1937
No.93 of 100 copies.
50 tipped-in plates
Horace (Quintus Flaccus) QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS.
$5500
[Text in Latin]. Joannis Baskerville, Birminghamiae, 1762. First Baskerville edition. *Formerly from the library of Jeanne-Annette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1721-1764), the chief mistress of French King Louis XV. Madame de Pompadour was an influential patron of the arts and accumulated an extensive library of over 3,500 books on topics including history, philosophy, theology, music and poetry. Many were bound for her by the leading French bookbinders of the time.
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Machiavelli (Niccolo) THE WORKS OF THE FAMOUS NICOLAS MACHIAVELLI, CITIZEN AND SECRETARY OF FLORENCE.
$10000
Written originally in Italian, and from thence newly and faithfully translated into English. John Starkey, London, 1675. *The first English edition of Machiavelli's works. The translation has been attributed to Henry Neville (1620-1695), author of The Isle of Pines. Includes Nicholas Machiavel's Letter to Zanobius Buondelmontius in vindication of Himself and His Writings, which was by Neville, not Machiavelli. Other works include The History of Florence; The Prince; and The Art of War.
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![[HOOKER (Joseph Dalton), his copy] HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE. Chart of the South Polar Sea.](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/mark@maggs.com/259958_02.jpg)
[HOOKER (Joseph Dalton), his copy] HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE. Chart of the South Polar Sea.
$25000
First edition, first issue. Measuring 632 by 842mm. A little toned with old folds with ms. annotations in blue and red ink, small ink stain to upper margin, a couple of small, closed tears. London, Hydrographic Office, published according to the Act of Parliament, and sold by R.B. Bate [price] 2s.6d, June, 1839.
An important copy of this rare map, owned by Joseph Dalton Hooker, assistant surgeon aboard HMS Erebus on James Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition of 1839-43.
Bradshaw Art of the Kimberley By Grahame L Walsh
$2300
Bradshaw Art of the Kimberley
By Grahame L.Walsh
Toowong. 2000.
Oblong folio. Profusely illustrated in colour with ancient Aboriginal rock art.
Lolita | Vladimir Nabokov
$530
This is the First UK Edition of Lolita, which is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The protagonist and narrator is a French literature professor who moves to New England and writes under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. Remarkably scarce.
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Boyle (Roger, Earl of Orrey) A TREATISE OF THE ART OF WAR.
$4500
Printed by T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringham, London, 1677. First edition. Wing O499; ESTC R200. *The frontispiece portrait of a warlike Charles II astride a horse, with troops in military formation and a battle fleet in the background, was engraved by Abraham de Blois. Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery (1621-1679), was an Anglo-Irish soldier and politician who held senior positions under the Commonwealth and later under Charles II. This work includes chapters on choosing, educating and disciplining soldiers, the ordering of garrisons, the marching and camping of an army, and battles.
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The Beatles: A rare signed „Pixerama“ Foldbook.
$44700
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.
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Nova, et Integra Universi Orbis Descriptio.
$65000
Oronce Fine’s famous double cordiform map of the world is acknowledged as being one of the most striking and influential world maps published in the c.16th.
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The three voyages of Captain James Cook
$50000
A magnificent set of the official accounts of Cook’s voyages, comprehensively 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 the voyages of Cook is distinguished by its full, wide margins and rich, dark impressions.
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![GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI, "LA TOMBA DI NERONE" [THE TOMB OF NERO]; From "GROTTESCHI".](https://rarebookfair.com/assets/catalogues/sartoniprints@yahoo.it/PIRA-Grottesque1.jpg)
GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI, "LA TOMBA DI NERONE" [THE TOMB OF NERO]; From "GROTTESCHI".
$2750
GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI
(Mogliano Veneto 1720-Roma 1778)
Italian school
"LA TOMBA DI NERONE"
[THE TOMB OF NERO]
c.1750
TECHNIQUE: Etching, Burin, Drypoint & Burnishing
DESCRIPTION:
"The Tomb of Nero", from the series called “I GROTTESCHI” (Grotesques).
In 1750 Piranesi collected in a miscellaneous volume published at the expense of the editor Giovanni Bouchard a collection of the works engraved by him up to that moment, some already published, others unpublished. The volume was published with the title serie "Opere Varie di Architettura Prospettive Grotteschi..."
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John Harris, Navigantium atque itinerantium bibliotheca: or, A Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels. Consisting of above six hundred of the most authentic writers.
$17000
London, T. Woodward, et al., 1744 - 1748. Two volumes, thick folio, titles in black & red, complete with 61 maps, charts, and plates.
The second edition of Harris's great collection of travels, preferred for its new maps prepared by Emmanuel Bowen. The most notable is Bowen's version of the Thévenot Tasman map, "A Complete Map of the Southern Continent surveyed by Capt. Abel Tasman". This is the first English map of Australia (and the first map of Australia since Thévenot in 1663).
A Winter Ship
$5750
Plath’s first independently published poem - one of only 60 copies. Depicting a desolate scene across an unnamed harbor, this beautifully produced booklet is a true literary treasure.
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An Austen family copy of the first edition in beautiful Regency binding. AUSTEN (Jane). Emma.
$100000
First edition. Three volumes. 12mo. Contemporary tree calf, single-rule gilt border, flat spines elaborately panelled in gilt. London, John Murray. 1816.
From the library of Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen (1829-1893), Jane Austen’s grand-nephew. It is uncommon to find Jane Austen titles in contemporary bindings and even more so with such intimate provenance.
The Insane Root: A Romance of a Strange Country by Mrs. Campbell Praed.
$1500
New York, Funk & Wagnalls, [1902]. Octavo, frontispiece with tissue guard, paper tanning but very good in original eucalypt grey ribbed pictorial cloth, bottom & fore-edges uncut. Second US impression in the year of first publication with fantastic mandrake root design on upper board and spine. Noted for her Australian romances, The Insane Root, with its body swapping theme, is one of several Rosa Praed novels dealing with the occult and spiritualism &c. Very scarce in any contemporary edition. Bleiler, 1337.
The Great Sermon Handicap by P.G. Wodehouse.
$1500
London, Hodder and Stoughton, [1933]. Duodecimo, very good in original gilt-lettered and decorated crimson boards with pictorial dustwrapper (slightly chipped), marbled endpapers. First separate edition. McIlvaine, A49a. Charming small format edition with dustwrapper in uncommonly good condition of the quintessential Jeeves & Bertie story: '"Well, all I can say," he cried, "is that it's a bit thick! Preaching another man's sermon! Do you call that honest? Do you call that playing the game?"'
CHIVERS BINDING - TENNYSON, Alfred. Poetical Works.
$14100
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.
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Inheritors: a Novel by Brian Penton.
$850
Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1936. Demy octavo, small bookseller's label on front pastedown, very good in original bright burgundy cloth lettered in gilt on spine with Norman Lindsay dustwrapper, few blemishes but in uncommonly good condition. First edition. Second volume of Penton's unfinished trilogy. Published as Giant's Stride in the UK. Very scarce with the fabulous Lindsay dustwrapper.
The Birds of Australia
$750000
London : printed by Richard and John Taylor for the author, 1848.
The first comprehensive survey of the birds of Australia, with hand-coloured illustrations and descriptions of 681 species, 328 of which were new to Western science and which Gould was the first to describe.
The finest of all Australian colour plate books, and Gould’s ‘greatest achievement’ (Wantrup).
Provenance:
Sir Edward Charles Stirling (1848-1919), Director of the South Australian Museum 1895 - 1913
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