Rare Books

  • The gates of dawn

    # 41925

    WALLER, Christian (née Yandell)

    The gates of dawn

    a book made for the young by Christian Waller. Melbourne : Gryphon Books, 1977. Quarto, boards bound in red cloth with gilt lettering (slightly bowed and flecked), an illustrated edition by Richard Griffin of the original edition by The Golden Arrow Press (1932), limited to 1000 copies, signed and numbered by Klytie Plate, art nouveau …

    $200.00 AUD Read more
  • [TRANSPORTATION] Court examen de l'etat politique de la Grande-Bretagne au commencement de l'année 1787;

    # 42007

    [WRAXALL, Nathaniel William, Sir, 1751-1831] and [FOX, Charles James, 1749-1806]

    [TRANSPORTATION] Court examen de l’etat politique de la Grande-Bretagne au commencement de l’année 1787;

    Traduit de l’anglais, de M. P., sur la septieme Édition. Par M. L. D. Paris : chez Hardouin & Gattey, 1787. Octavo (185 x 120 mm), disbound; pp. iv. [5]-76; a crisp, clean example. French translation of the seventh edition of a work attributed to Tory politician Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall, 1st Baronet (1751-1831), A short …

    $800.00 AUD Read more
  • Three years wanderings around the world

    # 41811

    [WELLES, C. W.]

    Three years wanderings around the world

    By an adventurer. Illustrated with steel engravings. Hartford, Connecticut : Hurlbut, Scranton & Co., 1864. Octavo, gilt-decorated cloth (dulled), engraved title page and frontispiece, pp. 358, scattered foxing. Originally published in 1859 as ‘Three years’ wanderings of a Connecticut Yankee in South America, Australia and California : with descriptions of the several countries, manners, customs …

    $150.00 AUD Read more
  • Qantas rising : the autobiography of the Flying Fysh (signed copy)

    # 41809

    FYSH, Hudson (1895 - 1974)

    Qantas rising : the autobiography of the Flying Fysh (signed copy)

    Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1965 (1966 reprint). Octavo, gilt-lettered cloth in dustjacket (edges lightly rubbed, slightly chipped at head of spine), pp. xii; [ii]; 296, photographically illustrated. Signed by the author on the title page. The first volume of the author’s three volume autobiography, documenting his role in founding Qantas, Australia’s national airline.

    $275.00 AUD Read more
  • I Freschi delle Loggie Vaticane inventati da Raffaele Sanzio

    # 16114

    VALENTINI, Agostini

    I Freschi delle Loggie Vaticane inventati da Raffaele Sanzio

    Illustrati per cura di Agostino Valentini. Rome : Agostino Valentini, [1855]. Folio, publisher’s illustrated papered boards (slightly marked but very good), engraved title page, pp. 42; [2]; 41 steel-engraved plates illustrating Raphael’s frescoes in the Vatican Loggia. Some very light, sparse foxing, else a very good clean copy.

    $750.00 AUD Read more
  • Map of Singapore

    # 41932

    Map of Singapore

    With compliments of Adelphi Hotel & Chanrai’s, Singapore’s only exclusive air conditioned men’s shop. Singapore : Chanrai’s, c. 1960. Folding map, printed in colour, 450 x 295, guide to Singapore and advertisements verso. Fine condition.

    $75.00 AUD Read more
  • Bushland tales

    # 17018

    MARTIN, Marianne

    Bushland tales

    Cover: “From the George Edwards radio production, The search for the Golden Boomerang.” Sydney : Winn &​ Co., 1945. Small quarto, original pictorial stiff wrappers, 40 pp, illustrated with [3] colour plates and black and white drawings in the text, a very good copy. Muir, 4854. “This book is the work of Miss Marianne Martin” …

    $45.00 AUD Read more
  • Albert Namatjira : souvenir portfolio : six watercolours painted in Central Australia by foremost Australian Aboriginal artist.

    # 41906

    NAMATJIRA, Albert (1902-1959)

    Albert Namatjira : souvenir portfolio : six watercolours painted in Central Australia by foremost Australian Aboriginal artist.

    Artarmon, N.S.W. : Legend Press, [circa 1980]. Publisher’s illustrated envelope (a few light stains and tears with tape repair), 185 x 235 mm, housing six colour reproductions of paintings by Namatjira, each 175 x 225 mm (sheet size), plus a seventh sheet with biographical information and b/w photographic portrait of the artist. Scarce. The second issue, …

    $75.00 AUD Read more
  • From another shore. Prose by Rudi Krausmann. Drawings by Brett Whiteley (signed presentation copy)

    # 41884

    KRAUSMANN, Rudi; WHITELEY, Brett

    From another shore. Prose by Rudi Krausmann. Drawings by Brett Whiteley (signed presentation copy)

    Sydney : Wild & Woolley, 1975. Octavo, illustrated wrappers with cover illustration by Brett Whiteley, pp. 78, illustrated throughout with drawings by Brett Whiteley. Signed presentation copy to Sydney bookseller Louella Kerr and her husband Australian author Gerard Windsor and their family, inscribed ‘For Louella et famille, Merry Christmas ’88, Rudi ’88’.

    $55.00 AUD Read more
  • Portrait of a veiled woman in velvet. Adelaide, circa 1880.

    # 40518

    SOLOMON, Saul

    Portrait of a veiled woman in velvet. Adelaide, circa 1880.

    Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 102 x 62 mm, verso with imprint of ‘S. Solomon, School of Photography, 51 Rundle Street, Adelaide’; print and mount are in superb condition. A magnificent head-and-shoulders portrait. Surely the sitter is a celebrity – possibly an actress?  

    $220.00 AUD Read more
  • Larrakia children posing on the branches of a dead tree, Port Darwin, circa 1920.

    # 40125

    Photographer unknown.

    Larrakia children posing on the branches of a dead tree, Port Darwin, circa 1920.

    Gelatin silver print photograph, 90 x 140 mm; verso inscribed in pencil ‘Port Darwin’; fine condition, unmounted. In spite of the fact that Port Darwin had officially became known as Darwin in 1911, we believe this photograph was taken by a visitor with a personal camera around 1920; they simply used the old nomenclature in …

    $250.00 AUD Read more
  • Woman seated beside a man standing and holding an axe. Brisbane, circa 1870.

    # 40440

    DUESBURY, Samuel

    Woman seated beside a man standing and holding an axe. Brisbane, circa 1870.

    Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 104 x 61 mm (mount); verso with wet stamp of ‘S. Duesbury, Photographer, Brisbane’; a superb print with rich tonal range, in excellent condition. Staffordshire-born photographer Samuel Duesbury was active in Brisbane from 1868. Along with Thomas Bevan, Daniel Marquis, and John Watson, he was one of the four …

    $1,250.00 AUD Read more
  • Jamaica-born Gertrude Colleton, daughter of Frederick Colleton and great-granddaughter of Admiral Richard Graves. Melbourne, November 1866.

    # 41181

    GAUL, John

    Jamaica-born Gertrude Colleton, daughter of Frederick Colleton and great-granddaughter of Admiral Richard Graves. Melbourne, November 1866.

    Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 101 x 61 mm (mount); verso imprinted ‘Photographed from life by Gaul, 75 & 77 Swanston St., Melbourne’ and with an extensive inscription in ink: ‘Gertrude Sophia Jane Plantagenet Colleton, only child of Frederick Nassau William Graves Colleton and great-grandchild of Admiral Richard Graves of Hembury Fort, County …

    $300.00 AUD Read more
  • Studio portrait of a soldier wearing the uniform of a colonial regiment. St. Kilda, Melbourne, late 1860s.

    # 40384

    VAN BERCKELAER, Isadore

    Studio portrait of a soldier wearing the uniform of a colonial regiment. St. Kilda, Melbourne, late 1860s.

    Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 103 x 63 mm (mount); recto and verso imprinted ‘I. Van Berckelaer High Street St. Kilda’; both the print and mount in excellent condition. A full-length portrait of a soldier in the uniform of the Victorian Military Forces. Under magnification, he is clearly wearing the VMF belt buckle with crown at centre …

    $200.00 AUD Read more
  • Bottersnikes and other lost things. A celebration of Australian illustrated children’s books

    # 42014

    O'CONOR, Juliet

    Bottersnikes and other lost things. A celebration of Australian illustrated children’s books

    Melbourne : The Miegunyah Press, 2009. Quarto, boards in dustjacket, pp. 262, thoroughly illustrated. An extensive insight into the history of children’s books in Australia, with detailed sections on great artists and authors such as Norman Lindsay, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, May Gibbs, Harold Gaze, Pixie O’Harris, Graeme Base etc. An essential reference book.

    $100.00 AUD Read more
  • Tree Song

    # 42047

    OPPEN, Monica

    Tree Song

    [Sydney] : Ant Press, 1991. Folding broadside with a designer binding of cloth bound boards with embossed design, 405 x 120 mm., letterpress with an original woodblock. Limited to 55 copies signed by the author-artist.

    $38.00 AUD Read more