A love letter to the Mona Lisa?

A signed love letter of the young Duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1469-1494) to his future bride, Isabella of Aragon (1470-1524). Sforza was later a confidant of Leonardo da Vinci; Isabella is considered by art historian Maike Vogt-Luerssen to have been the model for Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. Bifolium, 300 x 210…

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[FITZROY’S COPY] Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty’s ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836, describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagle’s circumnavigation of the globe.

Commander of the Beagle Captain Robert FitzRoy’s own copy of the first edition of Darwin’s first published book, one of the cornerstones of modern biological science, as well as one of the great travel narratives of the modern age. A complete set bound, as was the fashion, into library calf bindings,…

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Ivorytype portrait of Laura Lilias Scratchley, wife of Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Scratchley, Melbourne, January 1863.

This masterful portrait of the beautiful Laura Lilias Scratchley, sister of Thomas Alexander Browne (the author ‘Rolf Boldrewood’), was created when she was 19 years and 4 months old, soon after her marriage to Lieutenant-Colonel Scratchley of the Royal Engineers (later Sir Peter Scratchley, colonial administrator). It is an extremely rare Australian example – the…

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Voyage de découvertes aux terres Australes. Exécuté par ordre de sa Majesté l’Empereur et Roi, sur les corvettes le Géographe, le Naturaliste, et la goélette le Casuarina, pendant les années 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804.

Rare complete set, in contemporary bindings, of the official account of the Baudin voyage. One of the most important and famous descriptions of Australia ever published, it also contains the first published complete and fully detailed map of Australia, Freycinet’s Carte générale de la Nouvelle Hollande, along with many significant charts of the southern…

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[MANUSCRIPT] Campagne de la Corvette à Voiles l’Alcméne. Commandée par Mr. Coudein, Capitaine de Frégate, à destination des Mers du Sud et Océanie.

An important, unpublished first-hand account of the voyage of the French naval corvette Alcméne in the South Seas, 1848-1852, including extended descriptions of the loss of crew members to cannibalism in New Caledonia in 1850, and of the vessel’s infamous shipwreck at Kaipara on the west coast of New Zealand in 1851, whilst en route…

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An important archive of photographs of Aboriginal subjects by police photographer W.T. Lingwood Smith, South Australia and Central Australia, circa 1900.

William Thomas Lingwood Smith was a Detective Photographer in the South Australian Police Force from 1888 until his retirement in 1922. As early as 1894 he also pioneered fingerprinting in Australia, becoming an expert in the Criminal Investigation Branch of the South Australian Police Department. The quality of his little-known, non-commercial…

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An album of photographs documenting Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition, 1910-1913; [together with] A manuscript plan of the Discovery, and two letters of Scott relating to the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04.

1. A rare photographic chronicle of the most celebrated expedition in the history of polar exploration, Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, officially known as the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913. Album of press photographs by various English and New Zealand agencies, 1910-1913. Small folio (310 x 220 mm), original…

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View of the Blue Mountains, 1847

Watercolour on paper, laid on old card, 155 x 230 mm, very small areas of loss (3 x 8 mm; 2 x 15mm) to left and right edges from removal of old mount, signed J. Skinner Prout lower left and dated 1847. John Skinner Prout was born in Plymouth in…

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Gilbey’s. Foundation of a 1000 drinks

[London : Gilbey’s, c. 1950]. Diecut book shaped like a cocktail shaker, illustrated wrappers (rubbed), pp. 34, illustrated. Attractive promotional book of cocktail recipes.

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New Acquisitions August

MARINETTI, Filippo Tommaso, 1876-1944; RUSSOLO, Luigi, 1885-1947; BOCCIONI, Umberto, 1882-1916, et al.

Futurism : an archive

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A 2 inch terrestrial pocket globe by J. Lebeque & cie., circa 1870

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DICKINSON, William

[MANUSCRIPT] “Barque Gipsy Queen” Journal of a Passage from Liverpool to Port Philip [sic] & Sidney [sic], New South Wales in the years 1848 & 9. By William Dickinson, Cabin Passenger. David Roy, Commanding.

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LINGWOOD SMITH, William Thomas, 1860-1933

An important archive of photographs of Aboriginal subjects by police photographer W.T. Lingwood Smith, South Australia and Central Australia, circa 1900.

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Featured Acquisitions - Australian Art

This month’s Featured Acquisitions is a collection of over 200 works on Australian Art. One highlight is a presentation copy of Hugh McCrae’s Idyllia, illustrated with five original etchings by Norman Lindsay, gifted to his daughter Rose and retained in the family for nearly a century. Also featured are Donald Friend’s personal copies of some of his rarest works, books with original drawings and graphics by Brett Whiteley, Russell Drysdale, Bruno Leti, Sydney Ure Smith, Tim Storrier, Sidney Nolan, Lloyd Rees and others, a good collection of works illustrated by Norman Lindsay, some rare Arthur Streeton catalogues and a wide range of general Australian art monographs and exhibition catalogues.

With prices from $20 to nearly $20,000, there is something here for everyone interested in Australian Art.

Happy browsing

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