Asia Bookroom

Member of ANZAAB - Australia

Asia Bookroom is a large open shop specialising in books on Asia with smaller sections on the Middle East and the Pacific. Our stock ranges from antiquarian and secondhand books through to ephemera, prints and maps and even some new books. We sell to private customers and institutions around the world. Join our mailing list to receive tailored offerings of new arrivals in your particular area of interest and visit our shop next time you are in Canberra.

Highlights
Gsell, Emile. - [Saigon] No. 2.
$450
[Saigon]. [Circa 1866]. Albumen silver photograph 19.8 x 26.6 cm, image inscribed "No. 2." lower right, mounted on stiff card, 20.1 x 26.6 cm, a trifle wrinkled, but in good condition. Emile Gsell learned photography in the military and probably arrived in Saigon with the French Expeditionary force. His studio in Saigon was in operation from 1866 until his death there in 1879. Gsell was fortunate to join the 1866 Ernest Doudart de Lagrée (1823-68) Expedition along the Mekong and was able to make photographs of Angkor Wat in Cambodia and become the first to market views of the ruins.
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Case of Small Japanese Character Movable Type Sorts.
$700
[Circa 20th Century]. One case of cast metal very small movable type sorts for Japanese kanji, hiragana and katakana, case 13.5 x 13.5 cm, the type 2.2 x 05 x 0.5 cm, 25 columns x 25 rows of sort specimens; in very good condition. Fine examples of Japanese type.
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Wheeler, Charles. - Colonel Chih Wang.
$1850
[Circa 1942]. An original coloured chalk portrait of Colonel Chih Wang - The board measures 34.5. by 27.5cm. A coloured chalk (pastel) portrait of Colonel Chih Wang (later Major General Chih Wang) by noted Australian artist, Charles Wheeler, circa 1942, together with a colour copy of the portrait as it appeared in 'The Australasian', October 16,1943. Wheeler who won 'The Archibald Prize' in 1933, was commissioned to do a series of portraits of figures relating to WWII in the Pacific that were eventually printed in ’The Australasian’. Fully signed C. Wheeler.
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[Thomas Cook]. - Cook's Handbook for Tourists to Peking, Tientsin, Shan-Hai-Kwan, Mukden, Dairen, Port Arthur, and Keijyo (Seoul).
$2250
Thos. Cook & Son. Yokohama. 1913. 3 folding black and white maps, 5 full page black and white maps, black and white photographic plates, 122pp. 12 full page advertisements and adveristements on both endpapers. A near fine copy in bright original cloth boards. 18 x 12.4cm. A very scarce guide particularly in such good condition. First published in 1910 under a slightly different title.
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Japanese Propaganda Leaflet Dropped on British Troops.
$425
[Circa 1942]. Small airborne propaganda leaflet printed on one side only featuring a colour illustration. Appears to have been dropped during the Malayan Campaign. 14.6 x 19.8 cm, creased and marked on the reverse. Image still very clear and strong. Airborne colour propaganda leaflet urges the British troops to surrender to Japan. The rather oddly worded text reads: "Iron-rationed. Stranded. Nothing but dog biscuits. Day after day, positively. How about a dish of salad like this? For a change of diet.. just a change of mind".
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People Print & Paper Exhibition Poster: A National Library of Australia Travelling Exhibition Poster Celebrating the Books Of Australia 1788-1988.
$750
National Library of Australia. [Sydney]. (1989). Original printed poster to accompany a travelling exhibition held throughout Australia as part of the Bi-Centennial celebrations, this particular poster advertises the exhibition at the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, to open on 11th January 1989. ' Celebrating the Books of Australia'. 84 x 59cm. A large striking image of a Lionel Lindsay woodcut, depicting a sulphur crested cockatoo munching through an old book. Poster design by Debbie McLeod SLNSW.
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White, Patrick. - ヴォス : オーストラリア探険家の物語. 2巻. [Vosu. Ōsutoraria tankenka no monogatari. 2-kan].
$200
サイマル出版会. [Saimaru Shuppankai]. 東京. [Tokyo]. First Japanese Edition. 1975. 2 volumes. Volume 1: 279pp; Volume 2: 300pp, 20.8 x 15.2 cm. A very good set in the original dustjackets with red silk ties. Translated into Japanese by a well known Japanese academic specialising in Australian literature, Ochi Michio Michio, in 1975. The award of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1973 to Patrick White triggered interest among Japanese readers in Australian literature.
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Kitajima. - 結核予防. [Kekkaku yobō]. [Tuberculosis Prevention Poster].
$950
内務省社会局保険部. [Naimu-shō Shakai-kyoku Hoken-bu]. 東京. [Tokyo]. (Circa 1925). Large coloured lithographed poster, 108 x 79cm. Poster has been folded and is now creased but still very striking. Scarce. This Japanese government poster was published to raise awareness for the prevention of tuberculosis. It bears the campaign slogan "Train your body!" in Japanese. The artists style is strong and dynamic as the young men wrestle like sumo wrestlers while in the background an industrial area with smoking chimneys can be seen.
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