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Public Fitting
AU$2,500.00 Read MoreAdd to cartTim Johnson
Sydney: Tim Johnson, 1972.A 1972 artist’s book by Sydney conceptual artist (now painter) Tim Johnson (1947-), containing 40 full page black and white street photographs which show the wind lifting the skirts of women on the streets of Sydney. Produced during his time as co-founder of one of Sydney’s first artist-run spaces, Inhibodress, alongside Mike Parr and Peter Kennedy, the work forms a key part of Johnson’s early-1970s investigations into public space, social conditioning, and eroticism. While the images might initially appear voyeuristic (see upskirt), they are best understood through the lens of his contemporaneous performances, Disclosure and Fittings. Those live works staged situations to expose and analyze unconscious “sexual mores” and “sex-role conditioning”, manipulating participants’ clothing in a gallery, provoking direct responses. Public Fitting explores similar themes through the “found performance” of the street, framing the wind as an unwitting collaborator and the women’s reactions as unscripted data on social behaviour. Published alongside a Super 8 film of the same name (featuring different images as compared with the film in the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane), the film’s duration underscores the work’s non-erotic, analytical dimension. In contrast, the book’s static images are more readily misread as purely voyeuristic. This copy bears a later manuscript title on the spine, “Public Fitting – XXX”, a direct annotation of the work’s perceived erotic content, demonstrating the very social-sexual condition the artist sought to examine. Beyond this conceptual framework, the work also serves a vidid record of women’s fashion in early-1970s Sydney, an era dominated by the miniskirt. The edition size is unstated, though several sources, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, state that 200 copies were produced. This copy with an additional folded sheet containing 5 further small images of a woman’s underwear (perhaps from a different source), the artist’s stamp with his 54 Albermarle St address, and the contemporary signature Micheal [Mansell?] dated 17th/4/72.
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Julie, ou J’ai Sauve ma Rose. Par Madame de C***.
Read More[Felicite de Choiseul-Meuse?]; [Madame Guyot?]
A Hambourg, et se Trouve a Paris: Chez les Marchands de Nouveautes, 1807.Possibly the first sapphic novel written by a woman, over a century before Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness. The vivid depiction of lesbian love lends to the warning on the title page, “La mere en defendra la lecture a sa fille” [The mother will forbid her daughter to read it], and led to the novel’s censure in 1825 and on the ruling of obscenity and its order of destruction in 1827. First published in 1807, this is a well survived example of the second edition, differing from the first with the French spelling modernized, published in 1820 or 1821 but with the same 1807 imprint of the first edition. Sometimes attributed to Felicite de Choiseul-Meuse, and also to Madame Guyot, both have been refuted. PERCEAU 6-2, PIA pp. 662-3, GAY Vol. IV pp. 196.
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The Expected Good End, in Three Parts
AU$10,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartS. M. Ish Yeminy
London: L. Alexander, 1800.Rare Anglo-Sephardi Judaica theological work linking Jewish messianic exegesis with Enlightenment-era cosmopolitanism. Part 1 (and the only published) of a planned three part work by the Sephardi rabbi and Freemason Solomon Mordecai Ximenes; Containing, The Birth of Jacob, his Dream of the Ladder, his Commandments, and his several prophetic Blessings to his Posterity; and various future Events promised by the Prophets. ROTH, Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica p. 332 19a. Provenance: Signature and label of the Sydney lay preacher G. P. Beyfus, label of Mr. Pulver, library call number to spine matching others from the collection of the Rabbi L. A. Falk Memorial Library, The Great Synagogue Sydney (deaccessioned with no other library markings).
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Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
AU$1,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartTerry Pratchett; Neil Gaiman
London: Victor Gollancz, 1990.First edition, first printing, in a full leather modern art binding by Queensland bookbinder Karen McGuire.
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Lucifer
AU$400.00 Read MoreAdd to cartStephen Skinner; Neville Drury
Sydney: The Lucifer Publishing Company, 1968.One shot Australian underground newspaper edited by Stephen Skinner with artwork by Neville Drury, Bob Smith, C. Foley, and Michele. Writings include an experiential report on the psychedelic STP (DOM), Bob Dylan’s film Don’t Look Back, Flying Saucers, Alchemy, and more.
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The Edible Mollusks of Great Britain and Ireland with Recipes for Cooking Them
AU$500.00 Read MoreAdd to cartM. S. Lovell
London: Reeve & Co., 1867.The definitive work on the subject of edible snails, shellfish, oysters, mussels, etc. This copy with the Reeve & Co. 24 page 1867 catalogue of publications in Botany, Conchology, Entomology, Chemistry, Travels Antiquities, etc. at the rear.
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La Fille aux Yeux d’Or
AU$2,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartHonore de Balzac; Almery Lobel-Riche
Paris: Le Livre du Bibliophile, G. & R. Briffaut, 1923.The Girl with the Golden Eyes. An aristocratic libertine becomes obsessed with a beautiful woman and sets about seducing her. Alas, his conquest uncovers a hidden lesbian relationship and he finds himself entangled in a web of erotic obsession and fatal jealousy. First published in 1835, this is the first edition with illustrations by Almery Lobel-Riche. One of 40 numbered copies on Japanese paper with the etchings in 3 states and an original drawing by Lobel-Riche (from a total edition of 500). This copy in a fine signed binding by H. Jacquet.
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Armed with Madness
AU$3,250.00 Read MoreAdd to cartMary Butts; Jean Cocteau
London: Wishart & Company, 1928.Experimental novel based on the myth of the Holy Grail. A one time student of Aleister Crowley, Butts is credited as a co-author of the 1912 Magick (Book 4). In 1921 she spent time at Crowley’s Abbey of Thelema, not enjoying her stay, and departing with a drug habit. Armed with Madness explores the relationships (including homoeroticism and bisexuality) and ritualism among a group of young bohemians living at a country home. Considered a masterpiece of Modernist prose. One of 100 numbered copies of the Deluxe Edition on handmade paper with illustrations by Jean Cocteau.
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The Economic Consequences of the Peace
AU$2,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartJohn Maynard Keynes
London: Macmillan and Co., 1919.First edition, first printing of the highly influential economics work published in the wake of WWI, establishing Keynes’ as one of the world’s leading economists.
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Coffee: Its History, Cultivation, and Uses
AU$1,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartRobert Hewitt, Jr.
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1872.19th century history of coffee. Brief mention of Australia’s potential as a coffee growing region, as well a global listing of tariffs on coffee, including Australian colonies. This copy signed by the author, and with the world map, A Chart of the Globe Showing the Several Places Where Coffee is or May be Produced and Where it is also used together with The Telegraph Lines in operation or contemplated for completing the Circuit of the Globe, considered the first American map on coffee.
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Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide, or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and Its Respiration
AU$6,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartHumphry Davy
London: J. Johnson, 1800.Researches, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide. Published when Davy was only 22, outlining his experiments with nitrous, coining the term laughing gas, and suggesting to its anesthetic qualities, which were not regularly used in medicine for many years to come. A landmark work in chemistry and anesthesia. Provenance: Pencil signature of British crime writer and anaesthetist William Stanley Sykes (1894-1961) with three lines of pencil annotation to front free endpaper.
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Groups of Fruit, Accurately Drawn and Coloured After Nature, with Full Directions for the Young Artist: Designed as a Companion to the Treatises on Flowers and Birds.
Read MoreGeorge Brookshaw
London: For William Stockdale by Augustus Applegath and Henry Mitton, 1817.The rare first edition of the second part of the three part treatise on natural history painting by the English artist and author of Pomono Britannica, George Brookshaw (c.1751-1823). Each plate: Apples, Apricots, Cherries, Currants, Pears, Plums; is presented in two states, un-coloured and with hand-colouring, and each is accompanied by 1 or 2 pages of instructive text. This copy complete, but with the plates bound in alphabetical order, rather than the order of the instructive text.
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Salome. Drame en un acte.
AU$4,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartOscar Wilde
Paris and Londres: Librairie de L’Art Independant and Elkin Mathew et John Lane, 1893.First edition, one of 600 copies, the title page device by Felicien Rops. MASON 348. This copy rebound in a fine signed art nouveau binding by Hatchards, Piccadilly, without the wrappers, with a plentiful quantity of blank leaves at the rear to allow for the binding design.
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Les Paradis Artificiels: Opium et Haschisch
AU$4,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartCharles Baudelaire
Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1860.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. CARTERET I:126. This copy rebound in a fine half leather binding without the wrappers.
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Condoman Says: Don’t Be Shame Be Game. Use Condoms!
Read MoreDepartment of Health, Housing and Community Services, Aboriginal Health Workers of Australia (Queensland)
Queensland: Department of Health, Housing and Community Services, Aboriginal Health Workers of Australia, No date.Early/mid 1990s issue of the iconic Aboriginal HIV/AIDS awareness campaign poster (the earliest issues captioned USE FRENCHIES! instead of condoms). Originally conceived in 1987 by Aunty Gracelyn Smallwood and a small team of Aboriginal health workers in Townsville, Queensland, Condoman became one of the most successful Australian sexual health campaigns.
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Handbook of Australian Fungi
AU$1,500.00 Read MoreAdd to cartM. C. Cooke
London: Williams and Norgate for the Departments of Agriculture in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobarton, 1892.The first monograph on Australian fungi by English botanist and mycologist Mordecai Cubitt Cooke (1825-1914). Containing descriptions of 2079 species of macrofungi, microfungi, and slime moulds (or myxomycetes), of which 377 figures are illustrated across 36 plates. The samples which the handbook are based on were supplied by Ferdinand von Muller, Flora Martin, F. M. Bailey, Sven Berggren, and others, and shipped to Cooke in England. This distance limited the accuracy of the work, nevertheless, as the first volume devoted to the subject its historical import cannot be understated and remains a key work in any Australian mushroom collection.
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Listen, Little Man! A Document from the Archive of the Orgone Institute
AU$400.00 Read MoreAdd to cartWilhelm Reich; William Steig
New York: Orgone Institute Press, 1948.First edition in the English language of Reich’s antiauthoritarian classic calling for direct action by the working class. Translated by Theodore P. Wolfe. Illustrated by William Stieg. Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) was an Austro-Hungraian-American doctor and psychoanalys, and is one of psychiatry’s most radical figures. In the late 1950s many of his books were burned by order of the court in one of the largest cases of modern censorship making early editions of his work scarce.
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Homonopolis: The Most Gayotic Game
Read MoreStef de Knegt; Alexander M. Kroner
Amsterdam: Studio Fab / Identity Games International, 1994.Dutch Gay Monopoloy adaptation. Differing form the American Gay Monopoly published in 1983 (and much better rated according to Board Game Geek). In Homonopolis players travel around a triangular board cruising the gay bars and venues of Amsterdam. Instead of building houses and hotels players purchase barkeepers and backrooms. Jail is replaced with an SM Cellar where instead of Just Visiting you are Just Peeping Through the Glory Holes. Everything you might expect . The rulebook and the board are bilingual in Dutch and English. At 138 pages the book goes well beyond explaining the game, delving into the gay history of the Netherlands as well as an extensive directory of services, illustrated throughout by photographs of gay Amsterdam in the 1990s and with advertisements for a colourful assortment of local gay businesses that sponsored the production of the game.
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Songs of Central Australia
Read MoreT. G. H. Strehlow
Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1971.“The first complete account of the poetic heritage of the aboriginal people of Central Australia; an analysis of aboriginal songs as fully-developed oral literature, and their evaluation as authoritative documents of aboriginal religion” (from original prospectus). One of the scarcest and most sought after works on Aboriginal life. “You could describe it as the Torah of Central Australia.” (Barry Hill)
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The Bells and other Poems
Read MoreEdgar Allan Poe; Edmund Dulac
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1912.The deluxe edition of the poems of Edgar Allan Poe featuring The Bells, The Raven, and others. Illustrated with 28 tipped in colour plates and additional vignettes by Edmund Dulac and published in a numbered edition of 750 copies signed by Dulac.