Rare Books
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# 18666
Maker unknown.
Aboriginal King’s Brass Plate (1820). “King Taptalla II.” King of the Terrara Tribe, Shoalhaven River, New South Wales.
[Title from mid nineteenth-century manuscript note]. Brass breastplate or gorget, crescentic, maximum diameter 140 mm, anterior with engraved lettering KING TAPTALLA II, foliage motif repeated at each of the upper corners, emu and kangaroo dos-à-dos at the centre (design only partially completed); diagonal cut mark running from lower left to upper right edge; the surface has been …
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# 18640
THEVENARD, Antoine-Jean-Marie, Vice-Amiral (1733-1815)
[D’ENTRECASTEAUX EXPEDITION] Autograph letter signed by Vice-Admiral Thévenard, advising Roussillon that he is to be appointed surgeon and naturalist on d’Entrecasteaux’s expedition in search of La Pérouse.
Manuscript in ink on bluish watermarked laid paper, folio (310 x 200 mm); place and date ‘Paris, le 9 Juillet 1791’; signed ‘le Ministre de la Marine, Thévenard’; addressed (at foot) to ‘M. Roussillon’; scattered foxing. Vice-Admiral Antoine-Jean-Marie Thévenard (1733-1815) was Minister of the Marine between May and September, 1791. In this letter, he advises …
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# 18639
HAMELIN, Emmanuel, Amiral (1768-1839)
[BAUDIN EXPEDITION] Autograph testimonial signed by Hamelin, commander of Le Naturaliste, written for one of his junior officers.
Manuscript in ink on bluish laid paper, 195 x 160 mm; place and revolutionary date of ‘Paris 1er thermidor an 11’ [20 July 1803], signed ‘Capitaine de frégate Commdt. Eel. Hamelin’; wet stamp of the Collection Deséglise; some foxing. Provenance: Collection Deséglise, France (late 19th – early 20th century), housed in the original Deséglise manila folder with manuscript …
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# 18024
Maker unknown.
Grand jeu de la géographie avec costumes coloriées
[France] : s.l., s.n., circa 1820. Carnet of thick blue card, 110 x 75 mm, with hand coloured engraved title label depicting inhabitants from the four corners of the world, containing 25 hand coloured cards on blue paper backing, each depicting a male and female inhabitant from a different region, with accompanying descriptive text. Fine condition. …
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# 18235
Elizabeth Ann THORNE (née BISDEE) (1821-1910), attributed
A suite of watercolours of Australian wildflowers. Sydney, 1865-1870
Late nineteenth century scrap album, large quarto (330 x 270 mm), original cloth boards, the upper board with blind embossed Art Nouveau decoration and lettering in blue and gilt (rubbed); front pastedown with a twentieth-century bookseller’s typed description taped down: ‘A Botanical Album from the 19th Century / Eighteen fine botanical watercolours of Australian flora …
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# 16314
DERMÉE, Paul; TZARA, Tristan; BRETON, André; APOLLINAIRE, Guillaume; DELAUNAY, Robert, et al.
Dada and Surrealism : an archive
A collection of ephemeral publications, 1917 – 1960s. Dada and Surrealism – both diffuse artistic, literary and intellectual movements – were defining stages in the history of Modernism. Dada took shape in 1916 in Zurich at the famous Cabaret Voltaire, emerging in the work of artists and poets such as Tristan Tzara and Hans Arp. …
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# 18725
TWYDELL, T.
A map of the world
[Title from manuscript cartouche]. Lincoln : T. Twydell, 1812. Manuscript and watercolour map on paper laid down on board, 485 x 710 mm (image), surface soiling, old edge tears, large central tear and small loss to the margins. A spectacular and unique manuscript map of the world in two hemispheres, with detailed decorative border and …
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# 18722
GUIGNES, Chrétien Louis Joseph de (1759-1845)
Dictionnaire Chinois, Français et Latin. Publié d’après l’ordre de sa majesté L’Empereur et Roi Napoléon le Grand.
Paris : l’Imprimerie Impériale, 1813. First edition. Thick folio (435 mm x 279 mm), contemporary cat’s paw calf, boards with gilt fillet borders, spine with raised bands and red morocco label lettered in gilt; all edges stained red, marbled endpapers, first blank with armorial bookplate of the Duc de Luynes, Chateau de Dampierre; pp [6], lvi, …
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# 18242
ANDREWS, Roy Chapman (1884-1960), et al.
Natural History of Central Asia.
New York : The American Museum of Natural History, 1918 – 1943. A rare complete set of all published volumes of Natural History of Central Asia and the Preliminary Reports. Central Asiatic Expeditions of the American Museum of Natural History, under the leadership of Roy Chapman Andrews. Preliminary contributions in geology, palaeontology and zoology 1918 …
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# 18721
FORSTER, Johann Georg Adam (1754-1794)
[COOK] Vom Brodbaum
[Kassel] : [privately printed], 1784. First edition. Small quarto, contemporary half sheep over papered boards (rubbed), spine with raised bands, gilt ornament and contrasting title label lettered in gilt Artocarpus (a little worn), all edges stained red, front free-endpaper with ownership inscription of the German botanist Ernst Nolte dated 1817, pp [ii], 47, with 2 …
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# 18724
MANNING, James
Model of the Earth
London : J. Manning, c.1860. Miniature globe, 1¾” (45mm) diameter, twelve gores with hand colour, two axis pins, in the original decorative cardboard box with brass mount rings; the globe in fine condition, the box with a mild amount of wear. A miniature globe from the mid nineteenth-century, with Alaska still marked as Russian Territory …
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# 18737
石川俊之(流宣) [Ishikawa Toshiyuki (Ryūsen)]
萬國総界圖 (万国総界図) [Bankoku Sōkaizu] [Map of the Whole World]
Edo (Tokyo), Japan : 須原屋茂兵衛 [Suharaya Mohē], [1708] (Hōei 5). Woodblock print with yellow colors added by hand, 1315 x 595mm, original covers and title slip; complete. An early Japanese map of the world. Japan is displayed in the centre of the map, which is oriented so that east [東] is at the top of the …
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# 18703
OUTHWAITE, Ida Rentoul (1888 - 1960)
Elves and fairies have thee in their keeping
[Also known as Fairy Music]. Watercolour on card, 290 x 360 mm, initialed in ink lower centre ‘I.R.O’, titled in pencil lower left. A stunning watercolour painted by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite as an illustration for the book of verse by her sister Annie Rentoul, Elves and Fairies (1916), but not included in the final publication. Exhibited …
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# 18716
ARAGO, Jacques Étienne Victor (1790-1855)
[FREYCINET] Chamorro people performing a Spanish paloteo (stick dance). Agana, Guam, 1819.
Watercolour and pencil on artist’s paper, 296 x 398 mm (sheet), signed and dated in ink in lower margin right ‘Js. Arago fecit, 1819’; inscribed by the artist in ink in the upper margin centre ‘Guham, 1819’, and in the lower margin centre ‘Danses exécutées à Agana, appelée dans le pays Le bâton habillé’, and in …
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# 18715
ARAGO, Jacques Étienne Victor (1790-1854)
[FREYCINET] A Cape Malay slave carrying rooibos bushes. Cape of Good Hope, 1818.
Watercolour and pencil on watermarked laid paper, 353 x 274 mm (sheet), signed and dated in ink in image lower right ‘Js. Arago fecit, 1818’; inscribed by the artist in ink in the upper margin centre ‘Cap du bonne Espérance’, and in the lower margin centre ‘Hottentôt / Les esclaves hottentôts dont les maîtres sont contents …
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# 18752
MIRO, Joan (1893-1983)
Sculpture in ceramic by Miró and Artigas, December, 1956
New York : Pierre Matisse Gallery, 1956. Quarto, black wrappers with original lithograph by Miró, pp. 24, illustrated in black-and-white, interview with the artist by Rosamond Bernier, central four page folding colour lithograph by Miró; a mint copy. ‘The cover and center insert are original lithographs specially engraved for this catalog by Joan Miró and printed in France …