Literature
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# 45174
[Anon.]
An elaborate “cobweb” (or “beehive”) valentine with pull-string mechanism, 1840s.
[UK : s.n., 1840s]. Paper bifolium (255 x 205 mm), the front with embossed decorative border and central hand-coloured lithographed design of flowers with a pull-string mechanism lifting up to reveal two birds and the legend ‘Mutual Love’; above and below is a lithographed two-stanza poem: ‘Think not, oh! Think – this trifle vain,/ That …
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# 45541
UNDSET, Sigrid [LAPTHORN, Mabel Dickinson, Australian artist]
Jenny
/ Roman door Sigrid Undset. Geautoriseerde vertaling uit het Noorsch door H. J. Smeding. Amsterdam : J. M. Meulenhof, 1932. Third printing. Thick octavo (215 x 160 mm), publisher’s cream-coloured cloth over boards with illustration in green to upper board signed in the image by the artist, M. D. Lapthorn; in the original dust jacket …
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# 43711
RAYNER, Hewitt Henry (1902-1957)
[MELBOURNE] “Child, when my ship comes in” : unpublished manuscript of an autobiographical novel based on the artist’s childhood in Melbourne before the Great War.
[London, UK : H. H. Rayner, 1935-38]. Three unbound manuscript drafts for the same work, entitled “Child, when my ship comes in”, all handwritten in fountain pen by Rayner on foolscap folio paper (ruled and unruled); Draft I. with the address 13 Great College Street, dated April 1935, 168 pages, with the subtitle ‘An Autobiographical …
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# 45460
BRONTE, Charlotte and Anne.
The novels of the sisters Bronte
Edinburgh : John Grant, 1924. The Thornton edition. Twelve volumes, octavo, original gilt-decorated cloth (a few corners slightly bumped, internally clean), top edges gilt, fore edges uncut, illustrated with numerous plates. A fine set of the collected works.
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# 45608
GLEESON-WHITE, Sarah
Ray Mathew : an Australian for life
Canberra : NLA, 2005. Square octavo (205 x 185 mm), pictorial French flaps, pp. 38, illustrated in b/w; includes interview with Mathew by Kate Jennings; an excellent copy. A homage to the Sydney-born poet, novelist, playwright, scriptwriter and critic Ray Mathew (1929-2002), who left Australia in 1960, near to return. He lived and worked in New …
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# 45569
J. C. WILLIAMSON THEATRES LTD.; AUSTRALIAN ELIZABETHAN THEATRE TRUST
[MELBOURNE; THEATRE] “Hamlet”, by William Shakespeare. (Season commencing 23 July 1957, at the Comedy Theatre)
Melbourne : J C. Williamson Theatres Ltd., 1957. Theatre programme. Octavo (215 x 140 mm), stapled wrappers, pp. 26, b/w photographic illustrations of the leading cast members, advertisements; a very good copy. Melbourne actress Zoe Caldwell (1933-2020) was a rising local star when she played Ophelia in this production at the Comedy Theatre; she went …
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# 45568
MINERVA THEATRE
[SYDNEY; THEATRE] Minerva Theatre magazine programme. (For “French Without Tears”, season commencing 23 May 1940)
Sydney, NSW : Whitmarks Pty. Ltd. [for Minerva Centre Ltd.], 1940. Small quarto (240 x 185 mm), original pictorial wrappers, staple bound; 20 pp, with photographic portraits of actors Aileen Britton, Don Nicol, Lloyd Lamble, Jane Conolly, and Charles Norman, and many fabulous advertisements for Kings Cross and Sydney businesses; a fine copy. Programme for …
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# 45576
"WULLA MERRII" (pseud.)
[QUEENSLAND] The Fire Stick : incidents in the shearer’s strike : a tale of Australian bush life.
[s.l.] : [s.n.], [1893]. Octavo, illustrated boards (minor rubbing), recent bookplate to front pastedown, pp. 223; a very good copy. A novel set against the 1891 Queensland Shearer’s Strike. This dispute between unionised and non-unionised shearers is regarded as a direct precursor to the formation of the Australian Labor Party. The novel is written from …
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# 45575
JACKSON, Gladys (1881 - ?)
Under the banyan. (Signed presentation copy)
Hong Kong : privately printed, 1925. Octavo, lettered flushcut cloth wrappers (lightly stained and edge worn), presentation inscription to the front free endpaper ‘With love and best wishes, Gladys Jackson. Hong Kong, Feb. 1929’. pp. [iv]; iv; [ii]; 114, light foxing to preliminaries else very good. Includes a number of poems relating to the Great …
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# 44665
McCRAE, Hugh (1876-1958)
Voice of the forest : poems. (Presentation copy for George Mackaness)
Sydney : Angus & Robertson Ltd., 1945. First edition. Octavo (185 x 125 mm), printed pale green wrappers with flap folds; frontispiece portrait; pp. xii, 48; foreword by R. G. Howarth; a presentation copy inscribed on page 1 by Hugh McCrae for bibliophile Dr. George Mackaness and his wife Alice: ‘To G. and A., with gratitude …
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# 45480
STONE, Walter (editor)
A McCrae miscellany : Georgiana Huntly McCrae, George Gordon McCrae and Hugh Raymond McCrae : their books, manuscripts, letters and drawings in the Library of Harry F. Chaplin. (Chaplin’s copy)
Surry Hills, NSW : The Wentworth Press, [1967]. Series: Studies in Australian Bibliography – No. 16. Small quarto (260 x 210 mm), specially bound in royal blue cloth with gilt-lettered spine, pastedown with bibliophile Harry Chaplin’s bookplate designed by Norman Lindsay; front free-endpaper with a tipped-in unpublished poem in manuscript in ink by Hugh McCrae, …
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# 45492
LAWLOR, Adrian (1889-1969)
[MODERNISM] Arquebus
Melbourne : The Ruskin Press, 1937. First edition. Octavo (220 x 145 mm), publisher’s printed card wrappers with French flaps (edges and spine sunned); pp. 218; bottom and fore-edges uncut, contents clean. ‘In 1921 Lawlor began writing literary articles, poetry and stories which were published in a variety of journals including the Bulletin, Vision and New Triad. Having achieved …
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# 44898
VAN GULIK, Robert
The Lacquer Screen. A Chinese detective story.
Kuala Lumpur : Art Printing Works, 1962. First Edition. Octavo, illustrated wrappers (spine a little sunned, toning to edges of lower wrapper), pp. [viii]; 185, illustrated, a very good copy.
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# 44873
SHERARD, Robert Harborough
The real Oscar Wilde (William J. Sowden’s copy)
To be used as a supplement to, and in illustration of “The Life of Oscar Wilde”. London : T. Werner Laurie, c. 1916. Colonial edition. Octavo, original paper wrappers (a few old stains, repaired chips to spine and lower joint), pp. xvi; 432, colour frontispiece, light handling marks. From the collection of Australian author William …
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# 44919
KNIGHT, Charles
Half hours with the best authors
London : George Routledge, 1852. Four volumes bound in two, octavo, full polished calf, lightly marked, spines in compartments with raised bands, gilt tooling, contrasting Morocco title labels, marbled edges and endpapers, bookplates to pastedowns, engraved title pages, frontispieces, pp. [iv]; 312; 312; iv; 312; iv; 315, presenting inscription from the Library Committee of Charterhouse …
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# 44871
DICKENS, Charles
Master Humphrey’s Clock
With illustrations by George Cattermole and Hablot Browne. London : Chapman and Hall, 1840-41. Three volumes, octavo, full polished calf (corners bumped), spines in compartments with raised bands, gilt ornamentation, contrasting morocco title labels, lettered in gilt, a couple of the joints repaired, gilt dentelles, top edges gilt, marbled endpapers, previous owner’s name on preliminary …