[MILITARIA] Illustrated diary of Gunner Ramon Mascord, A.I.F., New Guinea, 1942-43

MASCORD, Ramon Enslin Ernest (1913-1983)

# 4495

AN IMPORTANT HANDWRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED DIARY BELONGING TO AN AUSTRALIAN SERVICEMAN IN NEW GUINEA DURING THE KOKODA TRACK CAMPAIGN. PRIOR TO ENLISTING IN 1940, RAMON MASCORD WAS A COMMERCIAL ARTIST IN SYDNEY. AFTER THE WAR HE WENT ON TO BECOME A BOOK ILLUSTRATOR AND ALSO ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S FOREMOST EXPERTS ON SPIDERS, RENOWNED FOR HIS FIELD COLLECTING OF AND PUBLICATIONS ON AUSTRALIAN ARACHNIDS. HIS WARTIME DIARY CONTAINS ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE GRAVES OF AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS AND SCENES OF NATIVE LIFE, AS WELL AS NEW GUINEA FAUNA, MOST NOTABLY A WONDERFUL DEPICTION OF A BIRD-EATING SPIDER, …

Photographic portrait of a soldier of the New South Wales Volunteer Rifles, circa 1863

GLAISTER, Thomas Skelton (1825-1904)

# 4436

Albumen print photograph with hand colouring, carte de viste format, 104 x 63 mm, verso with imprint of T. S. Glaister, 253 Pitt Street, Sydney, the albumen print in excellent condition, the mount with some mild toning at the edges. Thomas Glaister's studio was located at these premises between 1863 and 1870.  The uniform worn by the unidentified soldier in this portrait bears the New South Wales Volunteer Rifles' distinctive shamrock design on the cuff. The Volunteer Rifles, formed in 1854, were the first colonial volunteers in New South Wales, and at the time this photograph was …

[MILITARIA] Letters home from Trooper W.V. Weaber, 9th Light Horse Regiment, AIF, Egypt, 1917-18.

WEABER, William Victor (1881-1918)

# 4401

An archive of handwritten correspondence from Trooper William Weaber of the 9th (and later 10th) Australian Light Horse Regiment, AIF, 26th Reinforcement Morea Group, which embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia on board RMS Morea on 26 February 1917 and served in Egypt and Palestine. 3272 Private William Victor Weaber was a 35 year old sheep farmer from Kojonup, Western Australia, who left behind his wife Eleanor (Nellie) and their baby to go and fight for King and Country. The archive comprises 21 letters to his mother back home in Kojonup, dating from February 1917 to May 1918, the …

Wellington and Blücher meeting after the Battle of Waterloo

MACLISE, Daniel (after)

# 4369

From the original wall painting in the Palace of Westminster. Art Union of London, 1875.  Etching and engraving, 410 x 1215 mm, housed in a magnificent original Victorian bird's eye maple timber frame, with gold slip and original glass. This enormous panoramic engraving, after the original painting in Westminster, shows the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian Commander Blücher meeting at the end of the battle, the dead and dying surrounding them, as Napoleon's army is routed. A grand and handsome engraving in the original frame.  …

[MILITARIA] Unpublished manuscript poems by soldiers of the Australian 2/8th Field Regiment, 1940-41

Anon.

# 4299

Single sheet of octavo size Australian Salvation Army notepaper, recto with printed Red Shield Services letterhead, verso with two manuscript poems in pen, both signed 'The Boys' and with a further entry: 'Just a few dottys from the boys of 2/8', two horizontal folds, toning and light soiling, but intact and entirely legible, a miraculous survivor considering that the sheet must have been kept folded in a soldier's pocket or inside his notebook for at least a year of the war. The 2/8th Field Artillery Regiment was raised in the eastern States of Australia during 1939-40 and …

Vixen A nuclear test, Woomera, South Australia, June 1959

[United Press Telephoto / Chicago Tribune]

# 4240

Press photograph from the archives of the Chicago Tribune newspaper, image 160 x 220 mm, which includes typed caption: 'Woomera, Central Australia: Australian soldier overlooks the desolate rocket range here, where British will test atomic materials in the near future. Huts and buildings in background are the only ones in hundreds of miles'; verso with newspaper cutting and date stamp JUN 5 1959 and United Press Telephoto / Chicago Tribune stamp. The print, on glossy paper, is in good condition, with a couple of small blemishes in the sky area at left and some faint vertical …

[MILITARIA] Official photographs of the prototype for the New Zealand Medal, circa 1869.

Photographer unknown.

# 4112

Two albumen print photographs, each 101 x 63 mm, versos with impint of 'Mitchell. Military Bookseller, 39, Charing Cross', and manuscript 'New Zealand' within a printed cartouche. Both in fine condition. This pair of cartes de visite appear to be official photographs of an as yet to be awarded New Zealand Medal. They show the obverse and reverse of the medal. The space within the laurel wreath was intended for engraving the recipient's dates of service. The official website of the New Zealand Defence Force gives the following information about the New Zealand …

Atomic bomb test, Monte Bello Islands, Western Australia, 16 May 1956

Photographer unknown.

# 3706

Amateur photograph, gelatin developing out paper, 80 x 100 mm, verso with contemporary inscription in pen: Monte Bellos 1st of the series - 16th May 1956 - from 12 miles. A small surface mark to the left side of the print, otherwise fine condition. An extremely rare photograph taken by a British serviceman who witnessed the atomic bomb tests in the Monte Bello Islands off the coast of northwest Western Australia in 1956. The British Government had conducted its first series of nuclear tests in Australia in the Montebello Islands in 1952,  and these were followed over the next decade …

Society of Artists’ Exhibition, 1932. Sculpture for the Anzac Memorial Building, Hyde Park, Sydney,

Society of Artists, Sydney.

# 3652

N.S.W. [Sydney : The Society, 1932]. Large octavo, pictorial card wrappers, staple bound (staples rusted), [16] pp, illustrated, an excellent copy. Scarce catalogue, beautifully designed and printed by Ernest Shea, showcasing Rayner Hoff's monumental sculptures commissioned for the Anzac Memorial Building. Hoff was assisted by several other srtists including Eileen McGrath. …

Atomic bomb test, Maralinga, South Australia, October 1957

Associated Press [Photographer unknown]

# 3452

Press photograph from the archives of the Baltimore Sun newspaper (image 200 x 170 mm; overall dimensions 250 x 200 mm), with date stamp verso (JUL 30 1963), and accompanying description: 'British bomb blasts off. Mushroom cloud, rising over Australia in October 1957, represents England's membership in the atomic community. She had set off her first atomic device five years earlier.' The photographic print was made in 1963, but is a photograph of the original print with a typed caption placed beside it. The British Government had tested its first nuclear weapon in Australia at the …

Atomic bomb test, Monte Bello Islands, Western Australia, 1952

Associated Press [Photographer unknown]

# 3451

Press photograph from the archives of the Baltimore Sun newspaper (image 150 x 205 mm; overall dimensions 210 x 250 mm), with date stamp verso (OCT 25 1952), and accompanying description: 'This official photo, one of a series released for the first time today by British Information Services, shows one of the final stages of the first  British atom bomb detonation at Australia's Monte Bello Islands on Oct. 3rd. This view of the atomic cloud shows it spreading over a fifty-mile sea area to the north within 30 minutes of the blast.' The photographic print was made in 1952, but is …

French carabinier, circa 1850

Anon.

# 3329

Watercolour on paper, 130 x 75 mm, matted and framed. A finely rendered full-length portrait of a French carabinier from the Crimean War era. …

[POSTER] Army mobile selection team visits here ... to enlist men for our new Army.

Australia. Commonwealth Military Forces.

# 3328

Early 1960s. Poster, 500 x 370 mm, colour lithograph and line-cut, printed in green, yellow and black ink, depicting soldier wearing a helmet with Australian Military Forces Rising Sun badge, another badge incorporated into the design at lower left. Fine. …

[MILITARY; JUDAICA] Letter to an Australian soldier in Changi P.O.W. Camp, Singapore, 1943

[CAROL BRIGHTFIELD]

# 3313

Single sheet, 110 x 205 mm, typescript, addressed to N.X.65739 Pte. Brightfield. F.F. Malai Camp [Changi], from Mrs F. Brightfield, Moorilla St., Dee Why, Sydney. New South Wales. Australia; dated 19/9/43. Clean and legible, with original vertical folds. Dearest Fred, Received your card last Monday. Taken fifteen months to get here. Worth waiting for. Glad you are well, dear. We are all well. Chin up, for ever yours, Carol.  Following the surrender of Singapore to the Imperial Japanese Army in February 1942, Australian soldier Pte. Fred Brightfield was incarcerated in the notorious …

[LA PEROUSE; COOK] Navigation, poëme en huit chants, avec des notes historiques et géographiques

Esménard, J. (Joseph), 1767-1811

# 3253

A Paris : Chez Giguet et Michaud, 1805 (An XIII). First edition. Two volumes, octavo, fine full speckled calf, spines with gilt decoration and contrasting labels with gilt lettering, engraved frontispieces (arrival of Cleopatra at Tarsus and the shipwreck of La Pérouse, this plate with a waterstain), lxxi [1] 243 [1], 391 [1] pp. A very good set. A poem divided into eight chants, or cantos, written in the style of a Classical epic, which eulogises the great navigators throughout history. The eighth canto sings the praises of voyagers to the South Seas: Malaspina, Wallis, Byron, …

Atomic bomb test, Monte Bello Islands, Western Australia, 16 May 1956

Associated Press [Photographer unknown]

# 3240

Press photograph, 210 x 180 mm, verso with date stamp MAY 17 1956, and paste-down newspaper clipping from an American newspaper: 'Near Monte Bello, off West Australia - This cloud took shape yesterday. The British Supply Ministry announced an "atomic device" had been detonated'.  The British Government tested its first nuclear weapon in Australia at the Montebello Islands off the coast of northwest Western Australia in 1952, which was followed over the next decade by numerous tests in both South Australia and the Monte Bello Islands. The press photograph we offer here shows the …

Des lauriers de France à nos amies d’Australie

BEAUVOIR, Ludovic Marquis de (1846-1929)

# 2823

Paris : Éditions Pierre Roger, 1931. Quarto, original printed wrappers (front wrapper with seam tears at head and foot, water stain affecting upper edge of covers and majority of leaves), PRESENTATION COPY, WITH FULL PAGE DEDICATION ON FRONT FREE ENDPAPER FROM DE BEAUVOIR'S WIDOW TO MONSIEUR ET MADAME AYME (possibly the French writer Felix Aymé and his wife), 196 pp, illustrated. The nineteenth century French traveller published a famous account of his round the world voyage of 1865-67 in Voyage autour du monde : Australie, Java, Siam, Canton, Pékin, Yeddo, San …

[MILITARY; WORLD WAR ONE] You can fight too - with your money. Subscribe to the Liberty Loan.

# 2558

[s.l. : Commonwealth Government of Australia, 1917]. Advertising stamp, 51 x 39 mm. Fine. The Liberty Loan was raised in late 1917 by the Commonwealth Government to assist in the war effort. The design of the stamp incorporates the Red Ensign, the Australian flag of this period. …

Sonnets to the unknown soldier

[LINDSAY, Norman]. STEWART, Douglas

# 2495

Frontispiece by Norman Lindsay. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1941. Octavo, gilt-lettered papered boards, endpapers foxed, Lindsay frontispiece,  29 pp., inscribed on the front free endpaper to Mr. Arnold Wall by Douglas Stewart.  …

Night Flight and Sunrise.

[NOLAN]. DUTTON, Geoffrey.

# 2204

Melbourne and Adelaide: Reed and Harris, 1944. Octavo, 40 pages, pink endpapers, original boards in Sidney Nolan illustrated dustjacket (lightly rubbed but a superb example). The first published volume of this important Australian author’s work, much of which was based on his experiences during the Second World War. Frontispiece portrait of the author and a very early Nolan illustrated dustjacket. Printed in an edition of only 300 copies (COWLEY, Des, A checklist of Reed & Harris Publications, in The La Trobe Journal No 64, Spring 1999, p. 47). …

Psychiatric aspects of modern warfare

[NOLAN]. ELLERY, Reg S.

# 2195

Melbourne : Reed & Harris, 1945. Octavo, cloth in dustjacket with Sidney Nolan resproduction on front panel, a fine copy of a scarce Reed & Harris publication which focusses on the lunacy of Nazi psychology during the second world war. …

[HAWAII; MARITIME; MILITARIA] German internee sailors from SMS Geier, Honolulu, 1916

Photographer unknown

# 1866

A group of 3 (three) privately taken silver gelatin photographs (137 x 87 mm each), each printed on thick postcard stock with AZO box verso, with contemporary inscriptions in pen verso in German Sütterlin Kurrent script, two bearing place and dates of Pearl City, Honolulu, 1 January 1916, and the third Honolulu 14 March 1916, the latter also annotated S.M.S. Geier. (The ship's name SMS Geier can also be clearly read on the sailors' hatbands). The photographs are in very clean condition with no blemishes. These informal and relaxed group portraits were taken by a …

[MILITARY; TOBRUK; MELBOURNE] Archive of AUBREY HICKES LAWSON GIBSON

# 1783

AUBREY HICKES LAWSON GIBSON (1901-73). A FILE OF OFFICIAL & PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE, REPORTS AND COMMUNIQUÉS, MANY OF THEM MARKED SECRET AND CONFIDENTIAL, COMPILED BY LT. COL. A. H. L. GIBSON and relating to his military service in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Tobruk from April 1941 to May 1944. The file, contained in manila covers and marked A.I.F. File 1, comprises more than 180 items, mainly typescript folio pages, but including manuscript correspondence.  Melbourne-born Aubrey Gibson (1901–73) was a Major in the Militia at the outbreak of the Second …

[POETRY] On the death of a discharged soldier

# 1212

Who Died on board the S.S. Clyde, Mid-Ocean, from Colombo to Australia, December 9th, 1884. [No publisher], single sheet (260 x 195 mm), printed on one side; tiny amount of silverfish damage at left hand edge, otherwise clean and fresh. An anonymous funeral poem commemorating an unnamed soldier. The wording of the poem suggests the soldier had seen active service in India and was on his way to reside in Australia. No other recorded copy. …

[MILITARY] Ypres Cloth Hall

FULLWOOD, A.H. (1863-1930)

# 1085

[Prior to August 1914]. Watercolour with pencil, 105 x 130 mm, initialled lower left, signed and titled below mount. Provenance: Bridget McDonnell Gallery, Melbourne (1997); previously acquired from Lott and Gerrish, London. A. Henry Fullwood arrived in Sydney from England in 1883. As a commercial illustrator he worked for various journals including The Bulletin, as well as painting in the artistic circle of Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton. After re-locating to Europe he exhibited in both London and Paris. During World War One he painted alongside Streeton and Roberts at Wandsworth Hospital, …

[ARTIST POSTCARD] At duty’s call, it’s hard to say goodbye (1914-18)

# 985

Chromolithographic postcard (138 x 87 mm), written message verso; "Printed in Great Britain" (WB 635/2). An English postcard which came from a New South Wales family album. The poignant message is from a young woman to her beloved, who has enlisted to fight in the Great War. "I am buying a thing each week to put away for when we get married. I wish you were only here with me now for good, I often pray to God to spare you once more for my sake, how I long for you to come back to your own true love....I am yours forever Sweetheart, Nellie." …

[NEW GUINEA] Royal Papuan Constabulary, c 1914

Photographer unknown

# 752

Silver bromide photograph, 280 x 400 mm (in original board mount). Verso with picture framer's label of F.W. Evans, Sydney Road, Brunswick. An impressive, large format group portrait showing native police in full uniform with their rifles. (The sergeant is back row, far left). Although the precise location of this photograph is unknown, the seated Australian gentleman is most probably a District Officer. The Royal Papuan Constabulary had its origins in the late nineteenth century under Australian colonial administration. Personnel were recruited from many parts of Melanesia: it has been …

Poilus et Boches

DUCROS, A.

# 604

Unpublished manuscript poem to accompany the air Je m’balance. [France], 1914-1915. Folio, hand-decorated paper wrappers, cover with original watercolour of a scene from the trenches, 4pp. Patriotic lyrics, penned in a fine calligraphic hand, which sing the praises of the French soldiers fighting in defence of their homeland in the early part of World War I. The French infantrymen were affectionately known as Poilus (hairy ones); the Germans were referred to as Boches (cabbages or blockheads). “Glory to the Poilus, all fearless knights beyond reproach! Glory to the Poilus, valiant …

Handwritten invitation to a party in Kure, Japan, during Australian military occupation 1948

[MILITARIA]

# 174

The YWCA of Kure invite you to a Japanese afternoon on Sat 20 Nov 3.00 to 4.30 pm. This Function is part of our YWCA world fellowship week. Japanese paper with decoration 235 x 115mm with manuscript invitation (to Mrs Argyle), written vertically and folded in the Japanese manner. The Australian forces formed the bulk of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force stationed in Japan to assist in reconstruction between 1946 and 1952. Kure, located close to Hiroshima, was Japan’s main port, and the headquarters of the forces. This invitation, which borrows the Japanese style, was possibly for …