Recent Arrivals from Rare Illustrated Books

Stuttgart: Ehlingen bei Stuttgart, 1898. Second Edition. Dr. von Ahles [1829 -1900] was a German professor in botany at Suttgart's Technical University from 1866 to 1896 when he became Rector of the University, retiring in 1899. Title translates as "Commonly distributed edible and noxious fungi with some microscopic enlargements and explanatory text for school and home use." Octavo, bound… Read more about this item

Melbourne: Lothian Publishing Company, 1916. With an essay by James MacDonald and some remarks on Australian art by the artist. Frederick McCubbin (1855-1917) was an Australian artist and an outstanding member of the Heidelberg School of Australian impressionism. A student of Eugen von Guerard, McCubbin's paintings remain iconic images of pioneer life in the wilderness. They were keystones… Read more about this item

Sydney: Sun Newspapers, 1928. The annual Ginger Meggs adventure book that became an Australian institution. "Some magic human touch endears The name of Ginger Meggs He bears us backwards down the years On sturdy freckled legs: Against adversity we find Him always fighting fair. Men love him for the honest mind Beneath the tousled hair." [Poem from… Read more about this item

Elizabeth (Betty) Deans Paterson (1894-1970) was an artist, cartoonist and book illustrator, born in Melbourne. The talented and beloved younger sister of Esther Paterson, with whom she often collaborated, one of Paterson's other most notable collaborations was with Australian author Ivan Southall. Together, they worked on several books, including "Ash Road" (1965), which won the Children's Book of the… Read more about this item

1907, Sydney. Beautiful photograph of the Society of Artists selection committee having a picnic on the floor of the art gallery in 1907 picturing (from left to right) Julian Ashton, Mrs Norman Lindsay, Harry Weston, Will Dyson, Norman Lindsay, Young Souter, Sydney Long, and D.H. Souter. The panel of watercolours on the wall was the first ever… Read more about this item

1982. Charming engraving by Pixie O'Harris depicting a young girl engaging with an elf sprite and a koala in a tree. Numbered 71/75. Pixie O'Harris, whose real name was Rhona Olive Pratt, was an Australian artist and children's book illustrator. She was born on July 22, 1903, in Cardiff, Wales, and later immigrated to Australia. O'Harris… Read more about this item

A rare offering of a beautiful watercolour by Pixie O'Harris painted to illustrate the publication "Pearl Pinkie and Sea Greenie" (Angus & Robertson, 1935) Early works such as this one rarely come to market. Pixie O'Harris's second book, "Pearl Pinkie and Sea Greenie: The Story of Two Little Rock-Sprites" is a dainty example of magical storytelling, a vibrant and exciting underwater… Read more about this item

Original aquatint by Pixie O'Harris, signed and dated 1978 and numbered 4/10. Pixie O'Harris MBE (born Rhona Olive Harris; 15 October 1903 - 17 November 1991) was a Welsh-born Australian artist, newspaper, magazine and book illustrator, author, broadcaster, caricaturist and cartoonist, designer of book plates, sheet music covers and stationery, and children's hospital ward fairy-style mural painter. She… Read more about this item

Tokyo: Kokkeido, 1920. First Edition. A rare work by a celebrated female Japanese artist, Mizuno Hidekata (1875- 1944). Hidekata was one of the first popular professional female ukiyo-e artists, specialising in genre scenes and the reappraisal of Bijin (pictures of beautiful women), also working on illustrations for Sh jo Sekai, Jogaku Sekai, among other magazines. Hidekata studied under Mizuno… Read more about this item

London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1925. First Edition. The Merry Piper is an exuburant and rambling adventure by Harold Gaze (1885-1962). Born in New Zealand, Gaze came to Melbourne in 1918 and stayed until 1921, producing a vast quantity of high quality work during a short space of time. He published four books in 1919 alone. Many of the… Read more about this item

London: James Carpenter, 1843. Fifth edition of this beautifully produced but practical guide to colour in painting, which uses works by old masters such as Titian, Van Dyck and Rubens as a guide. The author, John Burnet (1784 - 1868) was a Scottish engraver and painter who exhibited with the Royal Academy and was awarded a fellowship with the… Read more about this item

London: William Clowes & Sons, 1886. First Edition. Thomas Riley. With sections on the individual states of Australia, promoting Victorian gold and wine, the minerals of Queensland and New South Wales, pearls from Western Australia, and the goats and merino sheep of South Australia. Also includes a study of the architecture of India, and with mentions of 16th century… Read more about this item

Lilydale, Victoria: Mannagum Press, 1987. Signed Limited Edition. Collector's issue of the first edition from the Australian Art Manuscript Series. Compiled and introduced by Andrew Mackenzie, foreword by Kathleen Mangan. This scholarly work includes an essay on the artists work, short biography, all Manifold Estate mural panels reproduced in full colour, newspaper notices of Wither's work, index to paintings… Read more about this item

London: Bancroft & Co, no date. A delightful example of the work of renowned Czech illustrator and paper engineer, Vojtech Kubasta (1914 -1992). Originally born in Vienna, Kubasta trained as an architect in Prague yet barely practiced, his career interrupted by the invasion of Nazis in the Second World War. Kubašta turned his fine engineering skills towards the… Read more about this item

Adelaide: Rigby, 1962. Signed First Edition. A beautifully presented selection of the artist's work in watercolour. Limited edition signed by the author. Quarto, original biege linen boards with gilt embossed leather label, twelve tipped colour plates and one in black and white, a few marks to boards, embrowning to endpapers otherwise a fine copy.

St. Petersburg, 1903. First Edition. 31 plates of designs, plans and photographs of dachas, printed recto only, 3 illustrated section titles, 3 leaves text including title page, publisher's illustrated card covers, designed by Ivan Bilibin, re-attatched and somewhat marked. Very uncommon.

Adelaide: Rigby, 1962. Limited edition of 600 copies, of which this is No. 535. Signed by the author, with introduction and commentaries by Robert Campbell. Edition of 600 copies signed by Campbell. Quarto, bound in original cloth with gilt square leather onlay, in the publisher's slipcase, 35pp, 12 tipped colour plates; slipcase shows wear, a fine copy.

Sydney: Methuen, 1983. First Edition. A founding member of the modern art movement in Hungary (born 1884), this monograph commemorates his Australian period. Quarto, bound in orange cloth with original dustwrapper, 50 colour plates plus black & white illustrations, a fine copy.

New York: Aperture Inc, 1965. The Flame of Recognition. His Photographs accompanied by excerpts from Daybooks & Letters. Edited by Nancy Newhall. Quarto, original red cloth, black & white plates throughout, dustjacket worn but otherwise a very good, fresh copy.

Sydney: Ure Smith for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1960. First Edition. Max Dupain. Significant exhibition catalogue of Drysdale's work with photographic portrait plate and endpapers by Max Dupain. Small square quarto, twelve plates in colour and twenty-four in black & white; interview, descriptive text and chronology, endpaper photo-sequence by Dupain; original black cloth, very good copy… Read more about this item