Highlights

A sample book featuring 46 hand embroidered patterned samples for shawls, 2 swatches of uncoloured silk fabric and 32 silk colour swatches. Green cloth covered boards with gilt title and date on the upper cover, marbled endpapers, re-enforced at the inner hinges but otherwise firm and sound. An extremely attractive sample book with the colours bright and vibrant and measuring 20 x 30cm. Canton. 1928.

BIBLIOMANIA or BOOK-MADNESS. By Thomas Frognall Dibdin. Lond. Henry G.Bohn. 1842 (New edition) In spectacularly fine condition in a splendid full Cape Morocco binding by Riviere with an elaborately gilt spine, all edges gilt. Illustrated with woodcuts.

Treatise on the Diseases of Pregnant Women together with Observations on the Pregnancy and Childbirth of Women and on Their Diseases & Those of Newborn Children. Two establishing volumes in the science of obstetrics by Francois Mauriceau.

Folding chart, 41pp, paperback, 21 x 15cm, text browned throughout, tide mark on chipped and browned wrappers, spine worn with loss of paper covering. Still a sound copy. This small book contains six pieces on Australia by Shiga Shigetaka (1863 - 1927), a Japanese geographer and thinker who travelled widely in the late 19th century. He visited Australia in 1886 during his trip around the Pacific and published a book, Nanyo Jiji (Current Situation in the Pacific) in 1887.

C1808 A fine, early edition of Charles Smith's, scarce New General Atlas, tan Morocco bands on the spine and the title within a black leather panel with gilt lettering. Folio (408mm x 325mm.), C. Smith, 1808 on watermarked paper dated 1801, engraved title with 45 engraved maps with full original hand colouring. Minor water stain to upper margin of the map of Greece, 325mm x 408mm, Condition-Good.

THE WOOD ENGRAVINGS OF ROBERT GIBBINGS. With some Recollections by the Artist. Edited by Patience Empson. Lond. J.M.Dent & Sons. 1959. 4to. Or.cl. Clear dj. Xliv,355pp. Colour frontispiece & profusely illustrated with over 1,000 engravings. A pristine copy. Prospectus loosely inserted.

A charming miniature portrait of Elizabeth Flinders, the much-loved step-mother of the navigator Matthew. No other portrait of Elizabeth is recorded, making this a significant addition to the history of Flinders’ immediate family, not least because a small series of affectionate letters from him to Elizabeth is extant.

An accomplished landscape signed by Philip Gidley King (1758-1808), Governor of the penal colonies at Norfolk Island and New South Wales during the early years of settlement. The unidentified scene is executed in graphite on laid paper bearing the watermark of Government issue paper of the period 1790-1810. The drawing is skilled, especially in the treatment of topography and vegetation, with an attention to detail befitting a naval officer of the era. Original art by any of the first colonial Governors is enormously rare.

C1881 Mapmaker - Thomas Samuel Parrott (1842 - 1917) First edition of this rare large scale map, dated 1881 printed on two sheets, covering the area from the Hawkesbury River, to Botany Bay and inland to Blacktown based on the extensive surveys undertaken by Lieutenant Thomas Parrott under the directions of Colonel Scratchley, the Commissioner for defences. Hand coloured lithograph, laid on archival linen, 1105mm x 1515mm, Condition-Good.

[VERVE] Picasso at Vallauris. Essay by George Ramie. Translated by Serge Hughes. New York, Reynal & Company, 1959, first US edition: pp104, colour & b/w ills; folio, Picasso designed dust jacket. Text in English and French. Originally published in 1951 in France as a double number of Verve(25 & 26).

Colourful folding sugoroku, 56 x 76 cm, tiny nick lower margin, a very good copy. A sugoroku game created for New Year 1935 and published by the children's magazine Yonen Kurabu. This is an example of the 'self-improvement' genre of sugoroku, where the images in the game provide moral instruction about the importance of improving one's lot in life and contributing to the nation. Each square in the game depicts a person who (we are told) started from humble beginnings but, though dedication and hard work, achieved personal success and contributed to the wellbeing of society.