Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Member of ANZAAB - Australia

Douglas Stewart Fine Books Pty. Ltd. is an antiquarian bookseller based in Melbourne, Australia. Our showroom is in High Street, Armadale, a precinct famous for its antique dealers, art galleries and bookshops. We buy and sell books both locally and around the world, working closely with clients to understand their collecting priorities and to source appropriate material. Our clients include libraries, galleries, museums, private collectors and fellow members of the trade. Since 2009 we have also exhibited regularly at leading international book fairs.

Douglas began buying and selling books in 1995, while still in high school. He is a member of the major international trade associations, and his business is conducted according to their high ethical standards. For many years Douglas has been a Board member of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian Booksellers (ANZAAB); he is also a Mentor for the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.

Douglas is currently the President of ANZAAB.

Our stock at Douglas Stewart Fine Books is diverse: we have rare books across all fields, but our strengths are in travel and exploration – particularly of Australia and the Pacific – and Australian art. In addition to rare books, we deal in all types of heritage material, including photographs, manuscripts, maps and globes, and fine art. Every month we issue a new online catalogue of New Acquisitions, and recommend that you join our email list to be the first to see what’s available. Please do not hesitate to contact us regarding any works you see online – we are always happy to assist with your enquiries.

Last, but not least, we buy books – from important single items to entire libraries – and we’d be pleased to provide advice on the best way to sell your collection.

Highlights

A massive Spanish manuscript choir book in Latin

$38500

[Spain? : circa 1700, with additions to at least 1767]. An extremely large manuscript choir book (75.5 x 57.5 x 15.5 cm). An early eighteenth century Spanish Graduale Romanum, or Roman Gradual (the second of two volumes), with thick wooden boards and iron fittings, containing music and text for the proprium missal (proper of the mass), including a Peruvian credo and with an index to both volumes at the end arranged mostly alphabetically under five headings for the introits, graduals, tracts, alleluias, offertories and communions.

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An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales

$22000

London : T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1798 – 1802. First editions. Two volumes, quarto, finely bound circa 1880 by J. H. & A. Ashworth of Leeds. The first edition of Judge Advocate David Collins’ journal of the First Fleet, with its striking series of plates illustrating Aboriginal people and their customs based on the sketches of Thomas Watling, supplemented by the rare second volume which describes the development of the colony in its first thirteen years.

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A natural history of the birds of New South Wales

$55000

London : Henry H. Bohn, 1838. A fine example, in original condition, of one of the rarest illustrated works of Australian natural history.

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A portrait miniature of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Brisbane, sixth Governor of New South Wales, 1821-1825

$95000

A fine portrait of a distinguished administrator whose political and social legacies were of immense importance in the shaping of the Colony of New South Wales. Portraits of such significant early Australian figures are of the utmost rarity. [Attributed to Nathaniel Plimer, probably 1803-1804]. Portrait on ivory, in its original nine-carat gold mount, 70 x 53 mm; verso of mount engraved ‘Lieutt Coll Thoms Brisbane’; the sitter is portrayed with his hair powdered and wearing a white shirt, scarlet coat with gold epaulettes and black stock.

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The three voyages of Captain James Cook

$75000

London : 1773 - 1784. A magnificent set of the official account of Cook’s first voyage, finely 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 voyages of Cook is distinguished by its full, wide margins and rich, dark impressions.

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A leaf from the Gutenberg Bible

$220000

[Mainz : Johannes Gutenberg, circa 1454-55]. A LEAF FROM THE FIRST WESTERN BOOK PRINTED BY MOVABLE TYPE, THE GUTENBERG BIBLE. “[The Gutenberg Bible] has never been surpassed. Of all the arts, printing at its birth reached perfection more nearly than any other.” – A. Edward Newton

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Cary’s pocket globe agreeable to the latest discoveries

$18500

[London : J. & W. Cary, c. 1791]. First edition of a pocket globe by John Cary, and first known to show the tracks of several First Fleet ships.

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A Correct Globe with the Trade Winds [and] A Correct Globe with ye New Constellations of Mr Hevelius 1710.

$65000

[London : H. Moll, over against Devereux Court in the Strand, 1719]. Globe, 12 hand-coloured engraved paper gores, clipped at a latitude of 70 degrees, with two polar calottes, over a papier mâché and plaster sphere, housed in a shagreen over paste-board clamshell case. The globe includes information on Dampier’s voyage of 1679–1691 labelled “Cap.t Damp(ier) tract round ye world” as well as updated coastlines based on his discoveries, and records of trade winds based on his treatise on the subject. Very rare, no copy in Australian collections.

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