Highlights

Each year our Exhibitors have wonderful items for sale. This year is no exception.

Our Exhibitors will be adding their highlights here over the next six weeks leading up to the Fair.

To see the highlights from each individual exhibitor click here: EXHIBITOR DIRECTORY HIGHLIGHTS


Mt. Dromedary and Inlet c1880 by James Howe Carse
$15000
At the Inaugural Arts Society of NSW Exhibition in 1880, James Howe Carse exhibited ten paintings mainly of scenes on the south coast of NSW, with another ten in 1883, two in 1884 and nine in 1885. According to Stephen Scheding, this painting could date from any of those years. Carse painted scenes of Bermagui, Tilba Tilba, Wallaga Lake, Mount Dromedary amongst others. This painting was also exhibited at Charles Nodrum Gallery in 2023 and was in private collection in NSW until 2018.
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Northmost Australia
$650
NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA. By Robert Logan Jack. Three Centuries of Exploration, Discovery and Adventure in and around the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, with a study of the narratives of all the explorers by sea and land in the light of modern charting, many original or hitherto unpublished documents... 2 vols. Melb. George Robertson & Co. 1922. Or.green cloth boards. xvi,366;xiv,403pp. A little foxing. 39 b/w plates. 17 folding maps loose in back pockets as issued. 1st Aust.ed. A very good set of a particularly scarce work on Queensland exploration.
Par Voltaire, Siècles de Louis XIV et de Louis XV
$450
Edition Stereotype dares le procédé de Firmin Didot. Published Pierre Didot, Paris 1803, 3 Vols. 32mo. Buff leather spine, with Pink insert title and green volume with gilt letters, and various gilt decorations, boards marbled, endpapers marbled, edges yellow with top faded, With owners ex libris Viet Valentin. Good-very good condition, silk bookmarks intact. Tom 1- II, 245pp lightly foxed, Tom III-IV 262pp edges lightly worn, interior bright with minimal marks, Tom V-VI 336pp. A beautiful small set.
Fishwives, Etaples c1910 by Hilda Rix Nicholas
$8500
Fishwives, Etaples is a pastel on paper (35.7 x 26.5 cm) dated circa 1910. Hilda was born in Ballarat, Victoria. She had a studio in the artists' colony at Etaples. With the declaration of war in 1914, she escaped Etaples to England. This piece was exhibited in her 1922 Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings of Australian Life and Landscape (No. 30, 15 gn) which toured provincial English galleries. These idealized images of the Australian 'country, its beauty and types of virile manhood', stimulated migration to Australia from northern towns disrupted by industrial unrest (Avenel Mitchell,1988)
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REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN (1606-1669) “THE FLUTE-PLAYER” (het Uylenspiegeltje), Etching & Drypoint, 1642.
$22000
REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN (Leyden 1606-Amsterdam1669) Dutch school “THE FLUTE-PLAYER” (het Uylenspiegeltje) 1642 TECHNIQUE: 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. It represents an amorous situation and Rembrandt... NOTE: Fourth state of four, without the face among the branches. Barstch 188, Hollstein Dutch 144, New Hollstein 211.
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1854 “AMÉRIQUE DU NORD” [Wall Map], ADOLPHE HIPPOLYTE DUFOUR.
$1380
Rare wall map of North America, which appeared in Andriveau-Goujon's Atlas Choix. Very unusual treatment of the Transmississippi West, including a misshaped Texas, Ozark District, Mandan District, Osage District, Massive Nebraska Territory. Early primitive attempt to depict Washington and Oregon Territiories, and a host of other fascination details. A highly detailed and scarce map. Text by Warin; engraved by Flahaut, contemporary hand colouring. Laid back on canvas and divided into 21 foldable quadrants; with the original very elegant marbled hardcover. Published by Andriveau-Goujon.
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George Eliot, Novels of George Eliot in Eleven Volumes, William Blackwood and Sons London 1875-1881.
$3500
Eleven volumes bound in ten, octavo; hardcover, half-bound in brown morocco with marbled boards, gilt rules, spine titles and decorations in compartments between five raised bands and marbled endpapers; 4,589pp. [470pp. + 486pp. + 158pp. + 330pp. + 430pp. + 504pp. + 621pp. + 612pp. + 382pp. + 303pp. + 293pp.], edges marbled, with decorated titles and 25 monochrome engraved plates. Minor wear; mild bumps and scuffs to the board edges and leather; some boards mildly rubbed; contemporary retailer’s bookplates to the first and last volumes. No dustwrappers. Very good.
Rainbow Lorikeet in a Suburban Garden 1978 by Peter Trusler
$8000
Rainbow Lorikeet in a Suburban Garden 1978 (25 x 34 cm) is part of Peter Trusler's Birds of Australian Gardens series which he worked on alongside authors Tess Kloot and Ellen M. McCulloch. Their collective four year commitment to study and research birds in Australia had a significant contribution to ornithological artistry and literature. Trusler uses a 'photographic' style in order to present every detail of colour to utmost value. The painting has been in The National Bank Collection of Modern Art from 1980 until 2022.
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CL201 2-Sir Joseph Banks Letter and Caricature
$6600
1790s–c1851. (1) Letter By Sir Joseph Banks, President Of The Royal Society, c1790s. One-page, two-sided manuscript handwritten in ink, 18.5 x 11.5cm (paper). Discoloration to edges, old folds. The letter, addressed to a Mr. Bellemy and signed “Jos Banks”, conveys Banks’ concerns about the delay in receiving minutes of the last meeting of the Royal Society, and whether they had been checked by the chairman. Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820) was president of the Royal Society from November 1778 to his death. The society, originally known as The Royal Society.
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HENRI PRIVAT-LIVEMONT; c.1898 “ALLEGORISCHE...", 2 Lithographic Allegory Cards.
$850
HENRI PRIVAT-LIVEMONT (Schaerbeek 1861- 1936) Belgian school “ALLEGORISCHE FRAUENGESTALTEN. DARSTELLUNG WEIBLICHER HANDARBEITEN” (Two Allegory Cards) [Allegorical Female Figures Representation of Female Handicraft] 1898 Technique: LITHOGRAPHY Two allegorical cards by Art Nouveau master Henri Privat-Livemont depicting two female figures, in a floral environment, in handicraft occupations. A good example of Privat-Livemont design. Original colour lithographs, blank at verso. From a series of 4 printed on one sheet published in Stuttgart by Hoffmann, c.1898. In excellent condition.
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1824 “CARTE DE LA NOUVELLE-HOLLANDE”; LOUIS CLAUDE DE SAULCES DE FREYCINET.
$2750
This is the 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 and his map of Australia was the first to show a complete coastline of the Continent before Matthew Flinders’s chart which was issued in 1814 due to his imprisonment on Mauritius Island by the French. In this version, Freycinet removes the Imperialist ambitious naming of “Terre de Napoléon” and Imperial French names for many parts of the coast...
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Norman Lindsay handwritten letter to Hugh McCrae c.1919
$595
LINDSAY, Norman. HANDWRITTEN LETTER TO HUGH McCRAE. Two leaves written in ink on both sides. n.d. but c.1919. To “Dear Hugh” and signed “Norman.” Norman speaks of his “personal affection” for Hugh and says that the longer he lives with his work the more he considers him a “great poet”. And “a greater poet than Burns because you have a rare spirit.” And much else in this regard. He says the he is doing some etchings for a work by Leon Gellert (Isle of San) but says he would be much happier doing a rare edition by “a truly great poet whose name is Hugh McCrae. Well why not?”
"ASIA"; ANDRÉ THEVET, 1575; Rare First Edition [First state of 3].
$4800
Rare and exquisitely designed 16th Century map of Asia, by the fantastically entertaining cosmographer André de Thevet. This important and beautifully composed woodcut map embraces all of Asia during the great early period of European exploration in South and East Asia. The depiction of these regions is ultimately based on Portuguese sources, who since Vasco da Gama's first voyage to India in 1498, had a virtual monopoly on the maritime knowledge of the Indian Ocean and East Asia. Showing "Partie de la Terre Australle", long before its recorded discovery.
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Across Australia
$495
SPENCER, Baldwin & GILLEN, F.J. ACROSS AUSTRALIA. 2 vols. Lond. Macmillan & Co. September, 1912. Or.cl. with gilt pictorial decorations on front boards and spines. xiv,254,2;xvii,261,2pp. 7 Colour plates, 365 b/w plates and two folding maps. A very good set. The second edition published three months after the first. The narrative of Spencer & Gillen's expeditions through Central Australia with much on the aborigines, their customs and their way of life. The expeditions were the beginning of modern Australian anthropological fieldwork.
Christina Stead, Seven Poor Men of Sydney.
$850
London, Peter Davies, 1934. Octavo, small contemporary bookseller's label on front paste-down, original blue cloth lettered in gilt on spine with decorated dustwrapper (bit sunned on spine), priced at 7/6, foxing on edges. First edition. Stead's first novel. Set in Sydney in the 1920s, the literary historian H.M. Green noted that 'it is full of glimpses of crowds and scenes and places; shabby, bedraggled, gaudy, or simply illustrative of episodes in ordinary everyday life, all of which are characteristic and alive.'
1979 ROBERTO MATTA, Chilean; “NYMPHEE”, Original Etching & Aquatint.
$1800
"Nymphee" is a colourful Roberto Matta etching from his portfolio “Requiem pour la Fin des Temps” . Signed and numbered in pencil with the publisher blind-stamps “George Visat” lower right and “Galleria dell’Incisione Milano” lower left. Etching and Aquatint printed in colour on "ARCHES" wove paper. Signed in pencil by the artist. Numbered 58/100 lower left; limited edition of 100. 420mm(H) x 320mm(L) [plate] 648mm(H) x 495mm(L) [sheet] Excellent impression on wove paper with watermark: “ARCHES France”. Besides a trace of humidityon the edge of lower right margin in excellent condition
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CL158 160-Paris [Images By Prominent Artists],
$8800
1937. French binding (unbound) with buckram covers with leather label, featuring 62 original etchings and two original colour woodcuts on inside cover and frontispiece, most etchings signed in plate, editioned 187/500 on colophon, 35.7 x 28cm. Minor wear and soiling to inside cover. The 62 etchings comprise 31 full-page and 31 half-page formats. Artists featured include Bonnard, Le Breton, Derain, Dufy, Laborde, Laboureur, Laurencin, Lhote, Marquet, Matisse, Segonzac, van Dongen, Vlaminck, Vuillard. Ref CL158-160
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AARON ARROWSMITH; UNTITLED 1811 [Two Sheets composing Oceania], Very Rare.
$3800
AARON ARROWSMITH (Winston 1750- London 1823) UNTITLED [Chart of the World on Mercator Projections] 1811 Technique:COPPER ENGRAVING, contemporary hand-colour. Two portions/sections of the scarce 1811 edition of the “Monumental World Map” by Aaron Arrowsmith showing updated discoveries. The two joinable sheets shows very detailed geographical informations including the south part of the Indian Subcontinent, South-East Asia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific Islands. South Australia is left untracked and blank waiting for the updating informations...
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Rhymes of Sydney. Sung by Colin Wills With Backgrounds by "Wep" [William Edwin Pidgeon].
$750
Sydney, Frank C. Johnson, 1933. Quarto, 48pp., black & white illustrations, neat modern inscription on half-title page, bright original colour pictorial wrappers. First edition. Very scarce Frank Johnson publication in uncommonly good condition. Wills & Wep's Sydney of the early 1930s, flappers, six-o'clock closing, and the Harbour Bridge &c. Pidgeon's striking illustrations include his useful & important drinking map of Sydney 'With Wep Where it's Wet'. A 'Magnificent souvenir of Sydney'.
"SPECIALKARTE VON AUSTRALIEN" [Special Map of Australia] In 8 Blättern von A. Petermann, 1871.
$1200
AUGUSTUS HEINRICH PETERMANN Technique: LITHOGRAPHY Scarce 8 sheets map of Australia by Augustus Petermann. Large map of Australia showing towns, river system, railways and telegraph lines and county boundaries. The map features the routes taken by a number of important overland explorers, during a time period when the interior parts of Australia were still largely unknown. Relief shown by hachures and spot heights with annotations on vegetation. Height loose joinable sheets. Published by Justus Perthes., Gotha, 1871; Tooley, R.V. (Australia) 1531. In perfect condition.
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Godfrey Charles Mundy, Our Antipodes: Residence and Rambles in the Australasian Colonies; With a Glimpse of the Gold Fields; in Three Volumes, Second Edition, Revised
$600
Revised reprint: three volumes, published by Richard Bentley, London, 1852. Octavo; full cloth decorated in blind, with gilt spine titles and upper board decorations; 1,246pp. with three engraved monochrome frontispieces, and 12 plates likewise. Rebound, using the original cloth; all volumes rolled and crushed with bumped corners and softened spine extremities; shelf wear and light rubbing to the boards and edges; spines sunned; text block and page edges mildly toned; endpapers replaced; some light offset to the preliminaries; some small repaired tears to a few early page edges. Very good.
“NOËL 1893" [Christmas 1893], EUGÈNE GRASSET.
$450
EUGÈNE GRASSET (1845- 1917) “NOËL 1893" [Christmas 1893] Technique: Lithography DESCRIPTION: Cover image for the French journal “L’ILLUSTRATION” of December 1893 by Art Nouveau’s master Eugène Grasset. The scene depicts female angels working in a cozy kitchen, peeling potatoes, stirring pots, preparing food while the Holy Mary is breastfeeding baby Jesus at bottom left. Perfect example of Eugène Grasset design. Original lithograph. Advertising text at verso. Signed on the stone at bottom left of the image. In perfect condition. Excellent impression & colour.
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Houses Under the Sea - Caitlin R. Kiernan
$750
In this remarkable collection the author has selected over two dozen of her best Lovecraftian tales ranging from 2000s “ Valentian ” to her more recent classic “ A Mountain Walked ” as well as including the complete Dandridge Cycle, as well as a new story, “ M Is for Mars. ” In short, this is a cornerstone volume for Kiernan fans and Mythos devotees alike. This edition is limited to 500 signed copies, each signed by Caitlín R. Kiernan, Michael Cisco, S.T. Joshi, and the artists: Piotr Jablonski, Richard A. Kirk, John Kenn Mortensen, and Vince Locke. Oversize at 6 ½ × 11 inches. 55
CL161 123-Russell Roberts (Aust., 1904-1999). [Flying Boat “Coogee VH-ABC”]
$1650
On Sydney Harbour At Rose Bay], c1938-1940. Silver gelatin photograph, photographer’s stamp with ambiguous negative number in ink verso, 43.7 x57.4cm. Slight surface loss, repaired tears, stains and discolouration to edges of image, some surface loss verso. Stamp includes “Russell Roberts Pty. Ltd. Fraser Uther Bldg., 6 Underwood St., Sydney. Negative number [62 or 32]. Photographic Department.” The flying boat Coogee VH-ABC was bought by Qantas Empire Airways in September 1938, then acquired by the RAAF in June 1940, nd
William Yarrell, A History of British Birds in three volumes, together with the two Supplements bound as one additional volume
$400
Four volumes, published by Jan van Voorst, London, 1843 and 1845. octavo; hardcover, full green calf, boards ruled in gold, gilt spine titles on brown labels between five raised bands, marbled endpapers with gilt dentelles and an olive ribbon, all edges marbled, with decorated title pages and many engraved illustrations. Mild wear; boards rubbed and edgeworn with scuffing to the hinges and spine extremities; spine labels to the first three volumes missing; text block top edges dusted; previous owner’s contemporary bookplates to the front pastedown of each volume. No dustwrappers. Very good.