Natural History

  • Illustrating the Antipodes. George French Angas in Australia and New Zealand 1844-1845

    # 50803

    JONES, Phillip

    Illustrating the Antipodes. George French Angas in Australia and New Zealand 1844-1845

    Canberra : National Library of Australia, 2021. Quarto, boards in dustjacket, pp. 380. illustrated. A very good copy. George French Angas (1822-1886) spent 18 months sketching and observing in Australia and New Zealand between 1844 and 1845. It was a period of decisive and irreversible cultural change. The young Angas excelled at capturing the minute …

    $50.00 AUD Read more
  • Feather and Brush : three centuries of Australian bird art

    # 50778

    OLSEN, Penny

    Feather and Brush : three centuries of Australian bird art

    Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, 2001. Quarto, boards in dustjacket (light handling marks), pp. 228, a very good copy. This volume traces the 300-year history of bird art in Australia, from the crudely illustrated records of the earliest European voyages of discovery to the diversity of artwork available at the start of the 21st century. There …

    $85.00 AUD Read more
  • Commonplace book compiled by a young Melbourne woman (1867-78) with later entries by her daughter (1889-1890).

    # 49803

    EMBLING, Sabina Howitt [&] SINGLETON, Violet Etta

    Commonplace book compiled by a young Melbourne woman (1867-78) with later entries by her daughter (1889-1890).

    An astonishing artefact of Melbourne social history, in which the intimate voices of two young women – a mother and daughter from one of the city’s most elite families of the second half of the nineteenth century – cry, whisper and sing from the pages, after having been lost to history for over 130 years. …

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    Reserved
  • The birds of Australia, comprising three hundred full-page illustrations with a descriptive account of the life and characteristic habits of over seven hundred species.

    # 49358

    BROINOWSKI, Gracius (1837-1913)

    The birds of Australia, comprising three hundred full-page illustrations with a descriptive account of the life and characteristic habits of over seven hundred species.

    Melbourne : Charles Stuart & Co., 1890-1891. Six volumes, bound in three, folio, full roan lettered and ruled in gilt, edges rubbed and joints a little cracked, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, contemporary owner’s wet stamp to title page of first volume, unpaginated, 303 chromolithographed plates, text sheets, tissue guards; occasional spots of foxing but …

    $3,750.00 AUD Read more
  • Tropical nature, and other essays

    # 50571

    WALLACE, Alfred Russell (1823 - 1913)

    Tropical nature, and other essays

    London : Macmillan and Co., 1878. Second edition. Octavo, gilt-lettered green cloth (lightly marked, bruised at head and foot of spine), armorial bookplate of Thomas Merthyr Guest (1838-1904) to front pastedown, hinges slightly cracked, pp. xiii; [iii]; 356; (1 – catalogue); (blank), occasional light foxing, a very good copy of a book difficult to find …

    $800.00 AUD Read more
  • My feathered friends

    # 50570

    WOOD, Rev. J. G.

    My feathered friends

    With illustrations by Harrison Weir. London : G. Routledge, 1858. Octavo, gilt pictorial cloth by Leighton, lightly rubbed, armorial bookplate to front pastedown, owner’s name to title page, pp. xii; 396, wood engraved illustrations, a fine copy. Includes the cassowary, emu, falcon, kestrel, kite, ostrich, parakeet, etc.  A charming work.

    $220.00 AUD Read more
  • John and William Lewin

    # 50669

    LEWIN, John and William

    John and William Lewin

    Sydney : Josef Lebovic Gallery, 1989. Quarto, illustrated wrappers, stapled, pp. [16], black and white illustrations, foreword by Sandra Warner, a couple of spots of foxing, a very good copy.

    $25.00 AUD Read more
  • Ferdinand Bauer : the Australian natural history drawings

    # 50549

    NORST, Marlene J.

    Ferdinand Bauer : the Australian natural history drawings

    Melbourne : Lothian, 1989. Quarto, illustrated wrappers, some light edge wear, pp. 120, illustrated.

    $35.00 AUD Read more
  • The guinea pig, or domestic cavy for food, fur, and fancy. Illustrated. (With a gift inscription and pen sketches by H. G. Wells)

    # 50135

    CUMBERLAND, C. (Charles) [WELLS, H. G., 1866-1946]

    The guinea pig, or domestic cavy for food, fur, and fancy. Illustrated. (With a gift inscription and pen sketches by H. G. Wells)

    London : L. Upcott Gill, [1886]. First edition. Octavo (190 x 130 mm), publisher’s decorated green cloth over boards, the upper board with gilt lettering and guinea pig device (both boards rubbed and lightly marked, corners a little worn), spine with gilt lettering and device (very heavily faded and frayed at ends); front pastedown with …

    $3,500.00 AUD Read more
  • Tree Fern, Botanical Gardens, Sydney (1856-1860)

    # 50397

    MORESBY, Matthew Fortescue (1828-1918)

    Tree Fern, Botanical Gardens, Sydney (1856-1860)

    Wet plate collodion print, 200 x 155 mm, signed in the negative lower left ‘M. F. Moresby’; on section cut from a mid-19th-century album leaf, with the photographer’s pencilled caption on the mount below the image: ‘Tree Fern, Botanical Gardens, Sydney’; the print has excellent clarity and tonal range, and is in very good condition; …

    $1,800.00 AUD Read more
  • Norfolk Id. Pine, Bot: Garden, Sydney (1856-1860)

    # 50449

    MORESBY, Matthew Fortescue (1828-1918)

    Norfolk Id. Pine, Bot: Garden, Sydney (1856-1860)

    Wet plate collodion print, 220 x 265 mm, signed in the negative lower left ‘M. F. Moresby’; mounted on a section cut from a mid-19th-century album leaf (glued at top right and bottom right corners only), with the photographer’s caption in ink across the bottom of the image: ‘Norfolk Id. Pine, Bot: Garden, Sydney’; the …

    $1,400.00 AUD Read more
  • Three views in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, New South Wales, c.1890.

    # 50372

    [NEW SOUTH WALES. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE]

    Three views in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, New South Wales, c.1890.

    Three large format albumen print photographs, each 230 x 280 mm, with captions in the negative; one print with a couple of nicks to top edge, otherwise all in fine condition, unmounted.

    $75.00 AUD Read more
  • "New Zealand ferns collected for Miss Grahame by her friends at Hazelbank, Auckland, 1860".

    # 49927

    [CIRCLE OF THE GRAHAME FAMILY]

    “New Zealand ferns collected for Miss Grahame by her friends at Hazelbank, Auckland, 1860”.

    [Auckland, New Zealand : s.n., 1860]. Handmade album. Octavo (190 x 120 mm), the covers taken from a copy of The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott (Edinburgh : A. & C. Black, 1857), of limp tan cloth with decoration in blind and gilt device to front and rear; the book’s original pastedowns and endpapers …

    $2,800.00 AUD Read more
  • [THYLACINE; GOLD RUSH] Display of gold from the Colony of Victoria at the International Exhibition, London, 1862

    # 40072

    LONDON STEREOSCOPIC & PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPANY

    [THYLACINE; GOLD RUSH] Display of gold from the Colony of Victoria at the International Exhibition, London, 1862

    London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company, 1862. Stereoscopic albumen print photograph, 80 x 80 mm each image (arched format), on yellow mount 84 x 173 mm; recto with printed title: The International Exhibition of 1862: No. 141 – N. E. Transcept, and Australian Gold Case; under magnification, the sign on the case reads: The Stamping Machine / Victoria …

    $850.00 AUD Read more
  • The History of Japan : giving an Account of the Antient and Present State of Government of that Empire; ... together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam.

    # 48351

    KAEMPFER, Engelbert (1651-1716)

    The History of Japan : giving an Account of the Antient and Present State of Government of that Empire; … together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam.

    London : for the Publisher, and sold by T. Woodward and C. Davis, 1728. First edition in English, second issue (with the ‘Second Appendix’). Two volumes, folio, contemporary full speckled calf with double gilt rule (boards a little scuffed), expertly rebacked with new spines in period style, spines in compartments with raised bands, contrasting leather …

    $12,500.00 AUD Read more
  • The origin of species (1892)

    # 49891

    DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882)

    The origin of species (1892)

    by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London : John Murray, 1892. Sixth edition, with additions and corrections (forty-third thousand). Octavo, original publisher’s gilt-lettered green cloth (corners a little rubbed, slightly bruised at head and foot of spine, small stain to lower board) original endpapers (lightly …

    $950.00 AUD Read more