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Transformation: Turning Men into Beautiful Women
Read MoreTransformation
Manchester: Transformation, No date.Mail-order catalogue for Transformation, the English transsexual mail-order company founded in 1984 by Stephanie Anne Booth (1946-2016). The firm supplied clothing, cosmetics, prosthetics, wigs, and accessories for transsexual and cross-dressing clientele, and became one of the first British businesses to openly serve this market. Booth’s entrepreneurial ventures under the Transformation banner later extended to a gender identity clinic, a contact and dating magazine, and other related services. Her activities occasionally drew controversy, culminating in her arrest for running a bawdy house in connection with a massage service operated under the same name. This catalogue reflecting some of the risque aspects of her business, featuring titillating photography and fetishwear alongside transformation aids and fashion items.
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Bushwalking Around Sydney
Read MorePaddy Pallin
Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1959.Guidebook by the famed Australian bushwalker and camping equipment retailer Frank Austin “Paddy” Pallin. Pallin was a founding member of the Search and Rescue arm of the Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs NSW in 1936 and his chain of stores are still operating today.
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Les Fleurs du Mal
Read MoreCharles Baudelaire; Armand Rassenfosse; Henri Noulhac
Paris: Les Cent Bibliophiles, 1899.One of 115 numbered copies of the first, and widely considered the best, illustrated edition of The Flowers of Evil, being the chef d’oeuvre of Belgian artist Armand Rassenfosse, with nearly every page of the text illustrated with Symbolist colour etchings and nude women. This copy from the collection of actor and bibliophile Barry Humphries, with his bookplate; bound in a fine binding signed Noulhac 1918, with multi-rule borders and silk doublures framed with inlaid leather strips and flowers at the corners. Illustrated with a portrait frontispiece, throughout with hundreds of colour illustrations and tailpieces, as well as 6 plates and a page of text with tailpiece outside of the text. Bound at the rear is a Juin 1897 Specimen being the leaf of XX La Geante with an alternative tailpiece illustration and the chapter plate for Les Fleurs du Mal, an etched menu cover for a Les Cent Bibliophiles Dinner for Fleurs du Mal, 6 Mai 1901 by Rassenfosse, as well as 17 additional etchings by Evert van Muyden and other artists.
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The Idol: Opium, Heroin, Morphine and Their Kingdoms
Read MoreDr. Cantala
New York: Botwen Printing Co., 1924.Considered one of the scarcest books in all of psychoactive drug literature and one of the most important on opiate addiction, predicting the development of synthetic opioids by some 35 years. “Devoted to the medical and social uses of opiates, including sections on opium dens, needlemania, the psychology of the addict, the nature of opiate intoxication, love among addicts, etc. There are chapters on cocaine and hashish, and another on Dr. Cantala’s method of cure.” (William Dailey via Gertz: Dope Menace pp. 30). One of a small number bound in cloth with the original wrapper illustration mounted. 4 copies recorded in OCLC, all in the United States.
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Les Amours de Psyche et de Cupidon
Read MoreJ. De La Fontaine
Paris: Defer de Maisonneuve, 1791.The Loves of Psyche and Cupid by Jean De La Fontaine with colour illustrations based on paintings by M. Schall. One of the most striking editions of Fontaine’s adaptation of the story of Cupid and Psyche with coloured stipple engravings by Bonnefoy, Mme Demonchy, and Colibert after Jean-Frederic Schall. This copy with the advertisement leaf (often lacking) announcing the publication of Milton’s Paradise Lost, with an additional portrait engraving frontispiece by Edelinck after H. Rigault, and an original drawing dedication “quatre amis dont la connaissance avait commence par le Parnasse” [four friends whose acquaintance had begun at Parnassus]: La Fontaine, Racine, Moliere, and Boileau, in pen and Indian ink enhanced with gold and colouring on vellum signed L. Benard 1893, bound in a fine signed binding by the Paris bookbinder Salvador David (1859-1929).
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Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants. Or, An Herball of Large Extent
Read MoreJohn Parkinson
London: Tho. Cotes, 1640.Containing therein a more ample and exact History and declaration of the Physicall Herbs and Plants that are in other Authours, encreased by the accesse of many hundreds of new, rare, and strange Plants from all the parts of the world, with sundry Gummes and other Physicall materials, than hath beene hitherto published by any before; And a most large demonstration of their Natures and Venues. Shewing withall the many errors, differences, and oversights of sundry Authors that have formerly written of them; and a certaine confidence, or most probable conjecture of the true and genuines Herbes and Plants. Distributes into sundry Classes or Tribes. The monumental work of herbal medicine by the English herbalist and botanist John Parkinson (1567-1650) in which over 3,800 plants are described and illustrated by approximately 2,600 woodcut illustrations. Theatrum Botanicum was a standard reference for apothecaries for over a century after it was published.
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Remember, Be Here Now
Read MoreRam Dass
San Cristobel: Lama Foundation, 1971.First edition, first printing, of the psychedelic/yoga/philosophy/counterculture classic by LSD spiritualist Ram Dass nee Harvard Professor Richard Alpert.
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Weirdo No. 1
AU$200.00 Read MoreAdd to cartRobert Crumb
Berkeley: Last Gasp, 1981.“Picking up where Zap left off, Weirdo defined a new aesthetic for the ’80s, opening the way towards a new wave of comics literacy for a generation of outcasts, oddballs and revolutionaries. Weirdo #1, helmed by Robert Crumb, features comics from Crumb, satiric ads, photo-funnies from “Stomp” Gamos and Weirdo staff, Stanislav Szukalski, Bruce Duncan, Brueghel, a Sub-Genius spread and more!” (publisher’s blurb)
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A Manual of Homoeopathic Cookery, Designed Chiefly for the Use of Such Persons as Are under Homoeopathic Treatment.
AU$800.00 Read MoreAdd to cartThe Wife of a Homoeopathic Physician
London: G. Borwon, 1846.A cookbook for the burgeoning devotees of homeopathy.
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The Olive and Its Products
AU$550.00 Read MoreAdd to cartLewis A. Bernays
Brisbane: James C. Beal, Government Printer, 1872.A Treatise on the Habits, Cultivation, and Propagation of the Tree; and upon the Manufacture of Oil and Other Products Therefrom. Early publication on developing an olive industry in Queensland. Lewis Adolphus Bernays (1831-1908) was the first Clerk of the Queensland Legislative Assembly and as a foundation member of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society devoted to introducing exotic species for commercial purposes wrote a number of papers on economic botany. FERGUSON 6952.
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Les Ames du Purgatoire
Read MoreProsper Merimee; Hermann Paul
Paris: Rene Kieffer, 1929.The Souls of Purgatory, short story retelling of the myth of Don Juan, the first edition with fifteen watercolours by Hermann Paul. One of a numbered edition of 450 copies on wove paper (of a total edition of 480), this copy bound by French bookbinder Rene Kieffer (1875-1964) in a fine full leather binding with an elaborate star, heart, and chain blind design to both boards, with his ticket to the endpaper, the original wrappers bound in.
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Les Civilises
AU$800.00 Read MoreAdd to cartClaude Farrere; Henri Le Riche
Paris: Librairie de la Collection des Dix, 1926.French colonizers indulge in fornication, opium, and general debauchery in late 19th century Saigon (then French Cochincina, modern day Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam). One of 200 numbered copies of Arches vellum (of a total edition of 300), bound with the original wrappers.
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La Mort de Philae
AU$400.00 Read MoreAdd to cartPierre Loti; Geo Colucci
Paris: Editions Rene Kieffer, 1924.The Death of Philae (English title: Egypt), a tale set around the submerging of the island of Philae with the construction of the Aswan Low Dam on the river Nile. The first edition with illustrations by Geo Colucci. One of 460 numbered copies on vellum (of a total edition of 500), in a fine half leather binding signed Ch. De Samblax with the original wrappers bound in.
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Le Diable Amoureux
AU$400.00 Read MoreAdd to cartJacques Cazotte; Paul-Emile Becat
Paris: La Tradition, 1936.The Devil in Love. Occult romance first published in 1772. This the first edition with erotic illustrations by Becat. One of 450 numbered copies on Arches vellum (of a total edition of 500).
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Le Diable au Corps
AU$2,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartRaymond Radiguet; Paul-Emile Becat
Paris: Editions Georges Gullot, 1957.The Devil in the Flesh. The story of a young married woman’s affair with a teenage boy while her husband is away fighting in WWI. First published in 1923, this is the first edition with erotic illustrations by Becat, and with an introduction by Jean Cocteau. The superlative issue, one of 16 numbered copies on Japanese paper with an original signed drawing in pencil and white gouache, with the composition then hand coloured and signed by Becat, the 16 illustrations by Becat hand coloured by Jean and Paulette Monnier, followed by a suite containing the illustrations in black in two states, on Japanese paper and Rives vellum.
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Ars Amandi. L’Art D’Aimer
AU$1,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartOvide; Pierre Lievre; Andre Lambert
Paris: Le Livre du Bibliophile, G. & R. Briffaut, 1923.The Art of Love by Ovid, a new translation into French by Pierre Lievre and with illustrations by Andre Lambert. One of 404 numbered copies on Arches vellum (from a total edition of 500), this copy for Maurice de Smet de Naeyer, bound in half leather signed Weckesser.
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Les Sept Femmes de La Barbe-Bleue et Autres Contes Merveilleux
Read MoreAnatole France; G. A. Mossa
Paris: Librairie Des Amaterus, A. Ferroud. – F. Ferroud, 1921.Bluebeard’s Seven Wives and Other Wonderful Tales. France’s reinterpretation of the French folktale of Bluebeard. First published in 1909, this is the first edition with illustrations by Gustav-Adolf Mossa. One of 70 numbered copies on Japanese paper with the etchings in 3 states (from a total edition of 1,200). This copy from the collection of Australian actor and bibliophile Barry Humphries, with his bookplate, in a fine signed binding by Flammarion bookbinder Jean Vaillant.
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The Dog in Australasia
AU$1,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartWalter Beilby
Melbourne: George Robertson and Company, 1897.The first Australian dog breeder’s manual. FERGUSON 6885.
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Mandatory Masquerade
Read MoreTrina Beaumont
Sydney [Ulladulla]: The Seahorse Club of Australia, 1981.Illustrated novella published by Seahorse, Australia’s first transgender support organisation. Authored by Trina Beaumont (formerly Trina Taylor), long-time editor of the club’s newsletter, Feminique, and a media advocate for the organisation during the 1970s. At the time, Seahorse primarily served heterosexual men who enjoyed cross-dressing, presenting members as ordinary men who occasionally adopted female attire. The novella includes illustrations by Di Ward and represents a rare example of early Australian transgender literature and community-produced publishing. A single copy recorded in OCLC, at the State Library of New South Wales.
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Mushrooms, Russia and History
AU$14,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartValentina Pavolvna Wasson; R. Gordon Wasson
New York: Pantheon Books, 1957.The founding work of ethnomycology. One of 512 numbered copies. The Wassons’ central thesis divided cultures into “mycophilic” and “mycophobic” (those that embraced mushrooms and those that feared them), with Russia and the Anglo-Saxon world as the defining poles. Their investigations led to the study of psychoactive mushroom use in Mesoamerican religious ceremony, culminating in R. Gordon Wasson’s participation in a Mazatec velada with the curandera Maria Sabina in 1955. The resulting work bridges folklore, linguistics, botany, and anthropology, and laid the groundwork for the modern study of psychoactive fungi and later, entheogens. Produced at the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona under the direction of Giovanni Mardersteig, the edition is equally significant as a feat of book production, two large quarto volumes with 82 plates including 32 in colour, printed in a limited edition at the authors’ expense.