Melbourne Rare Book Fair

Fraz Kafka: Autograph letter signed ("K"). [Prague, December 1921].

$134000

To his close friend, the physician Robert Klopstock, about mutual friends, including Irene Bugsch, who, to Kafka's great joy, had recently been accepted by the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.

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Salmon at the Antipodes: Being an Account of the Successful Introduction of Salmon and Trout into Australian Waters. By Sir Samuel Wilson.

$1750

Kenneth Hince Old & Fine Books

London, Edward Stanford, 1879. Octavo, mounted photographic frontispiece 'Trout Pond at Ercildoune', folding map, index, lemon china clay endpapers, bright original decorated terracotta cloth, lettered in gilt, vignette of a salmon in silver on front board, small lozenge binder's ticket on rear pastedown, near fine copy. 'Third Edition'. Presentation copy.

Purdey's The Guns and the Family

$400

Sainsburys Books

History of the sporting shotgun and rifle maker firm, James Purdey & Sons. Limited to 250 copies, hand-bound in navy morocco, signed and numbered by the author and second generation proprietor, Richard Beaumont.

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“CARTE DE LA NOUVELLE-HOLLANDE”; LOUIS CLAUDE DE SAULCES DE FREYCINET.

$2750

Sartoni Antique Prints

“CARTE DE LA NOUVELLE-HOLLANDE” 1824 Cartographer: LOUIS CLAUDE DE SAULCES DE FREYCINET (Montélimar 1779- Loriol-sur-Drôme 1841) Technique: COPPER ENGRAVING Rare updated version of Freycinet’s seminal map of Australia which was first issued in 1807 in a larger format in the accounts of the French expedition under the command of Nicholas Baudin. Freycinet was the cartographer for the expedition...

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THOMPSON, Theophilus. Chess Problems.

$73200

Peter Harrington

Scarce first edition of the author’s sole work, marking the starting point of chess book publishing in African American history. Born into slavery in Maryland, Thompson became a house-servant following his emancipation and learned the game in 1872 after meeting John Hanshew, later the editor of the Maryland Chess Review. Thompson published this collection of 101 prodigious problems the next year, aged 18.

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI, "LA TOMBA DI NERONE" [THE TOMB OF NERO]; From "GROTTESCHI".

$2750

Sartoni Antique Prints

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI (Mogliano Veneto 1720-Roma 1778) Italian school "LA TOMBA DI NERONE" [THE TOMB OF NERO] c.1750 TECHNIQUE: Etching, Burin, Drypoint & Burnishing DESCRIPTION: "The Tomb of Nero", from the series called “I GROTTESCHI” (Grotesques). In 1750 Piranesi collected in a miscellaneous volume published at the expense of the editor Giovanni Bouchard a collection of the works engraved by him up to that moment, some already published, others unpublished. The volume was published with the title serie "Opere Varie di Architettura Prospettive Grotteschi..."

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REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN [REMBRANDT], “THE FLUTE-PLAYER” (HET UYLENSPIEGELTJE), 1642, Etching and drypoint.

$36000

Sartoni Antique Prints

REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN (Leyden 1606-Amsterdam1669) “THE FLUTE-PLAYER” (HET UYLENSPIEGELTJE) 1642 Etching and drypoint DESCRIPTION: A young couple resting beside a stream, the man playing flute with an owl perched on his shoulder, the girl making a flower garland at left. Shepherds do more than their fair share of walking, but their lives also provide ample opportunity for relaxation... NOTE: Fourth state of four, without the face among the branches. Barstch 188, Hollstein Dutch 144, New Hollstein 211. Very good impression on 17th century [end of] laid paper.

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日本画スケッチ集. [Collection of Japanese Sketches].

$1250

Asia Bookroom

A delightful collection of Japanese ink drawings and watercolours of Japanese gardens, trees and blossoms. The delicate hand-coloured scroll of plum blossoms and maples demonstrates both aesthetic sensitivity and horticultural interest, with varieties carefully named. The bamboo studies are nice exercises in brush technique, while the panoramic scroll of a garden landscape, stretching nearly four metres, offers a rare visual impression of spatial planning and garden flow. Together, these pieces offer insight into Japanese garden design and botanical study during the late Edo period.

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"THREE ABORIGINAL CHILDREN", B. E. MINNS.

$330

Sartoni Antique Prints

BENJAMIN EDWIN MINNS (Dungog, 17 November 1863 – Taronga Zoo, 21 February 1937) "THREE ABORIGINAL CHILDREN" 1926 ETCHING & AQUATINT DESCRIPTION: Original etching by B.E. Minns depicting 3 indigenous Australian children sitting on their knees in the outdoor with an arrow and a boomerang at right. Signed by the artist in pencil lower right and on the plate. NOTE:Etching and aquatint on copperplate printed on cream laid paper Signed by the artist in pencil lower right and on the plate. SIZE: 124mm(H) x 173mm(L) [plate] 202mm(H) x 254mm(L) [sheet] CONDITION: In perfect condition.

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A Selection of Gollancz SF Classics

Mount of Alex - Arapiles Mountain Books

Victor Gollancz, the publishing house, strongly associated with Science Fiction and Fantasy literature was originally founded in 1927 and became a prominent UK publisher, particularly through its imprint Gollancz Science Fiction. Notable authors published under the imprint include Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert, J.G.Ballard and Ursula Le Guin. Strugatsky, Arkady & Boris, The Snail on the Slope. 1st UK edition, 1980, $350 Heinlein, Robert A., Time for the Stars. New edition, 1985, $50 Mitchison, Naomi, Memoirs of a Spacewoman. 1st edition, 1962, $250

Alasdair Gray, Lanark

$750

Mount of Alex - Arapiles Mountain Books

Gray, Alasdair. Lanark. A Life in 4 Books. 1st thus ‘Definitive Edition’,1985. Edinburgh: Canongate. 8vo. Original black cloth gilt in dustjacket; pp. [viii (last blank)], 562 (last blank), illustrated and decorated throughout by the author. No. 747 of a limited edition of 1000 copies, numbered, signed and additionally inscribed by Alasdair Gray. A little sunning and spotting, a very good copy. The author’s first book, a novel written over a period of almost thirty years, combining realist and dystopian surrealist depictions of his home city of Glasgow. First assembled in one book in 1981.

Les Paradis Artificiels: Opium et Haschisch

$4000

The Book Merchant Jenkins

First edition of Baudelaire’s Artificial Paradises, on the drug experiences of hashish and opium and their relationship with creative expression, being accounts from within the walls of Le Club des Haschischins and a translation and adaptation of Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.

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Rushcutter’s Bay, Looking South 1896 by Phillip Lee (1865 - 1909)

$4500

Bridget McDonnell Gallery

Phillip Lee 1865 - 1909 painted “romantic views of Australian scenery, notably coast scenes on the Illawarra Plains, the summit of the Bulli Pass, the Home of the Black-fish, Hawkesbury River, Fairy Bower, Manly, and the Blue Mountains." Refer SMH 27, March 1896. His painting 'Native Sports 1880' was acquired by the NGA in 1969. 'The Pass, Bulli 1898' and 'Cascades at Fitzroy Falls, Moss Vale 1898' were sold by the Bridget McDonnell Gallery in 2006.

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Horace (Quintus Flaccus) QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS.

$5500

Kay Craddock - Antiquarian Bookseller

[Text in Latin]. Joannis Baskerville, Birminghamiae, 1762. First Baskerville edition. *Formerly from the library of Jeanne-Annette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1721-1764), the chief mistress of French King Louis XV. Madame de Pompadour was an influential patron of the arts and accumulated an extensive library of over 3,500 books on topics including history, philosophy, theology, music and poetry. Many were bound for her by the leading French bookbinders of the time.

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CHIVERS BINDING - TENNYSON, Alfred. Poetical Works.

$14100

Peter Harrington

A “vellucent” style binding, with delicately rendered Arthurian figures after Dorothy Carlton Smyth (1880-1933), the most prolific of Chivers’s female designers. Smyth was particularly involved with the Glasgow School of Art, who appointed her as their first female director. Her stained glass Tristan and Iseult, the subject of one of Tennyson’s Arthurian poems, garnered wide acclaim at the 1901 International Exhibition.

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The Karla Trilogy | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley's People | John Le Carre

$1800

Somerset House Books

All First editions and First UK impressions. Together, the trilogy is in a near-fine state overall. Arguably the greatest works of fiction dealing with the Cold War ever written, unified by the ubiquitous Smiley and his Russian equivalent Karla.

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Thunderball | Ian Fleming

$2100

Somerset House Books

First Edition, First Impression of the ninth book in the James Bond series, or the first in the Blofeld trilogy, is excellent for the ardent Bond followers in such a good state.

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The Origin Of Species By Means of Natural Selection | Charles Darwin

$2950

Somerset House Books

According to the well-credentialled Forum Auctions in London:- “The printing of 1876 is the final text as Darwin left it. The issue was limited to 1,250 copies only. This number is as small as any, being equalled only by that of the first edition and is remarkably hard to come by (Freeman pp 80-81 of F401)" So, this copy is a very good example of the Sixth 'Eighteenth Thousand' Edition but note: the actual print number as quoted has recently been disputed elsewhere and possibly may have been as many as 2000 copies. Still, very scarce with about 150 years of age patina.

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雙六式國史早わかり. [Sugoroku - Quick View of Japan's History].

$650

Asia Bookroom

Large colour folding sugoroku game, 93 x 125cm. This unique and visually rich sugoroku-style educational chart was published in 1927 in Shizuoka by Yamamura Azusa. Intending to present Japanese history through the lens of the imperial lineage, Yamamura sought to make the subject accessible and engaging for children by structuring it as a game. Using the familiar sugoroku board format, he transforms historical chronology into a path of progress, starting with the mythological creation of Japan by the sun goddess Amaterasu at the centre of the chart.

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Salvador Dali, Hidden Faces

$150

Mount of Alex - Arapiles Mountain Books

1st thus, revised translation, 1973. London: Peter Owen. 8vo. Original black boards gilt in dustjacket; pp. i-xiv, 15-320 (last blank), with illustrations by the author. A near fine copy. The famous surrealist artist’s only novel, written in 1944, describing the intrigues of a group of eccentric aristocrats whose extravagant lifestyle symbolises the decadence of the 1930s

Baynton (Barbara) HUMAN TOLL.

$3000

Kay Craddock - Antiquarian Bookseller

Duckworth & Co., London, 1907. First edition. *The author's copy, so stated in ink, presumably in her hand, on the upper free endpaper beneath the armorial bookplate of her third husband, Lord Headley. Human Toll was Baynton's only novel, and this copy is offered with the scissor-style lorgnette she used for reading, as recalled by her great granddaughter, Penne Hackford-Jones in Barbara Baynton: Between Two Worlds.

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AUSTEN, Jane - TEMPLE BOOK CLUB. Remarkable manuscript archive of a private subscribers’ library.

$62700

Peter Harrington

An intriguing collection of book lists, invoices, and receipts from the Temple Book Club, which operated between 1812 and 1819, a period during which first editions of works such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park were acquired at discounted rates and circulated among its members, a select group of barristers from one of London’s Inns of Court.

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