FAIR | Melbourne 2026

  • On the origin of species, by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. (1859)

    # 48245

    DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882)

    On the origin of species, by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. (1859)

    London : John Murray, 1859. First edition (with two quotations only, from Whewell and Bacon, on the verso of the half-title leaf). Octavo, original publisher’s gilt-lettered green cloth by Edmonds & Remnants of London with their binder’s ticket to rear pastedown (very slightly bruised at head and foot of spine, a couple of very small …

    $625,000.00 AUD Read more
  • William Barak and (?)Simon Wonga (holding boomerang). Coranderrk, c.1872.

    # 50507

    RUDD, Charles

    William Barak and (?)Simon Wonga (holding boomerang). Coranderrk, c.1872.

    [Melbourne : Charles Rudd, between 1891 and 1901]. Albumen copy print (from an earlier albumen print dating to around 1872), 160 x 120 mm; mounted on the photographer’s paper backing sheet, 230 x 190 mm, with series title ‘VICTORIAN SCENERY BY C. RUDD’ printed in the upper margin, the studio imprint in lower right margin …

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  • Album of the kings &​ queens of Victoria

    # 49978

    KRUGER, Johann Friedrich Carl (Fred), (1831-1888); [PERKINS, Horace]

    Album of the kings &​ queens of Victoria

    [Melbourne : compiled and published by H. Perkins & Co., The Gift Depot, c.1880]. Duodecimo, pink papered boards with gilt-stamped lettering and ornament, cloth spine; containing folding concertina of [12] panels with lithographic illustrations after Kruger’s photographic portraits of surviving leaders of Aboriginal tribes of Victoria, originally taken at various times between around 1866 and …

    $3,750.00 AUD Read more
  • [KAURNA WARRA] Ave Maria, sive Maria ab Angelo variis linguis salutata, cui omnia a se collecta scriptaque D D D, P. A. Pfister, S.J.

    # 48933

    PFISTER, Aloys (Louis)

    [KAURNA WARRA] Ave Maria, sive Maria ab Angelo variis linguis salutata, cui omnia a se collecta scriptaque D D D, P. A. Pfister, S.J.

    Chang-hai [Shanghai] : Mission catholique de Tou-cé-wei, 1882. Small quarto (260 x 180 mm), recent quarter morocco over marbled papered boards, spine with raised bands and contrasting title label lettered in gilt; lithographically printed manuscript on leaves folded in the traditional Chinese manner; title-leaf, pp. [340], 15 (index); partly unopened; both the title-leaf and the …

    $15,000.00 AUD Read more
  • 天文図解 Tenmon Zukai (= Illustrated Explanation of Astronomy)

    # 49135

    IGUCHI, Jōhan

    天文図解 Tenmon Zukai (= Illustrated Explanation of Astronomy)

    Osaka : Ganshōdō, 1897 (first published in Osaka by Itamiya Mohe Kaihan, 1689). Five volumes, octavo, original printed wrappers (lightly marked); printed title labels, 32, 31, 37, 64, 54 folding leaves, with 60 woodcut illustrations of astronomical diagrams, devices and star maps, including a volvelle in volume three; complete; housed in a modern slipcase. A …

    $7,500.00 AUD Read more
  • The Birds of Australia [with Supplements]

    # 46736

    MATHEWS, Gregory Macalister

    The Birds of Australia [with Supplements]

    With hand-coloured plates. London : Witherby & Co. [later H. F. & G. Witherby], 1910-1936. Seventy-five Parts and five Supplements (published between 1910 and 1925) bound in thirteen uniform volumes, thick quartos (360 mm tall), half crushed morocco over buckram by Walter Haydon of Norwich (his original signed binder’s receipt pasted on to the front …

    $40,000.00 AUD Read more
  • Madman's Island. (First edition, in dust jacket, with a signed presentation inscription by the author)

    # 49483

    IDRIESS, Ion Llewelynn (1889 - 1979)

    Madman’s Island. (First edition, in dust jacket, with a signed presentation inscription by the author)

    Sydney : Cornstalk Publishing Company, 1927. Octavo, bright original red cloth (slightly pushed at head of spine), lettered in black on upper panel and spine, in the original dust jacket with illustration by Edgar A. Holloway (edges slightly rubbed), advertisements of ‘Some interesting books’ to lower panel and flaps, printed advertisement for ‘The Famous Bellbird …

    $11,000.00 AUD Read more
  • The enchanted forest.

    # 50439

    OUTHWAITE, Ida Rentoul and OUTHWAITE, Grenbry

    The enchanted forest.

    London : A. & C. Black, 1921. The de luxe edition, limited to 500 numbered copies. Quarto, gilt-lettered and decorated white buckram (very lightly marked); illustrated endpapers, pp. 93 pp; illustrated with 16 colour and 15 black-and-white plates; occasional light foxing and offsetting, short tear to margin of pp. 61-62, else a fine copy. The …

    $2,750.00 AUD Read more
  • Kunyu quantu [A map of the whole world]

    # 50090

    VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623-1688)

    Kunyu quantu [A map of the whole world]

    [Korea, between 1860 and 1931; after the original map printed in Peking in 1674]. World map, printed by woodblocks in six sheets, each measuring 182.0 x 57.5 cm; expertly cleaned and lined by paper conservators on Japanese kozo tissue, traces of old fold lines; a superb example with full sheets, untrimmed. A monumental map of …

    $95,000.00 AUD Read more