Modern Australian Aboriginal art. (Limited deluxe edition, signed by the artists)

With a foreword by T.G.H. Strehlow. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1952. Folio, quarter crushed morocco with gilt rule over green cloth (sunned at fore-edges), spine with gilt lettering and rule; top edge stained blue; front free-endpaper with original owner’s names ‘C.C.T. & M.L.M. Hazelwood, Weonga’; the deluxe edition, containing two additional coloured plates and strictly limited to 130 numbered copies (this is copy number 15), the limitation page signed by Rex Battarbee and the artists Albert Namatjira, Edwin Pareroultja, Otto Pareroultja, Reuben Pareroultja, Walter Ebatarinja, Enos Namatjira, Oscar Namatjira, Henoch Raberaba, Richard Moketarinja and Ewald Namatjira; pp. [viii]; 55; 23 tipped-in colour plates including frontispiece, and a further 12 tipped-in black and white plates; foxing to front and rear endpapers and half-title, otherwise clean throughout, a very good copy in the rare original publisher’s cardboard slipcase (somewhat foxed, as usual).

Scarce and desirable edition of Battarbee’s landmark work on the Arrernte (Aranda / Arunta) watercolour artists. First published in 1951, this deluxe edition of 1952 is a lavish production bound in quarter morocco, the text printed in a larger font on fine paper, the plates tipped-in, and signed by the artists involved. This is the only deluxe edition book to feature Albert Namatjira and other artists of the Hermannsburg School, and it includes photographs of the artists painting and of ad hoc exhibitions of their watercolours at the Mission.