Prices in AUD. Shipping worldwide. Flat rate $8 postage per order within Australia. International by weight calculated at checkout. Read full terms.
-
Codex Seraphinianus (2 Volumes)
Luigi Serafini
Milano: Franco Maria Ricci, 1981.The first edition of the ever mysterious Codex Seraphinianus by Italian artist Luigi Serafini (1949-). Possibly an illustrated encyclopaedia of an alternate universe, Serafini has alluded that it is perhaps all just the thoughts of a cat passed through his hand. The Codex is written in an imaginary language and illustrated phantasmagorically throughout. This being the true first edition published in 2 volumes by Italian art publisher Franco Maria Ricci. This copy numbered 2295 and signed by Serafini to the colophon of volume 2, with the original trilingual letter from the editor laid in, together with a FMR catalogue, several photocopied Italian newspaper clippings related to the Codex, as well as the deluxe edition of the only published volume of literary criticism in English on the Codex Seraphinianus, Confronting Serafini by Jordan Hunter (2017), all housed in the original shipping cartons. Confronting Serafini is a 36 page book hand-bound with treated pages from the 2013 Rizzoli edition of the Codex, signed and numbered in a limited edition of 10, of which this is number 10.
-
Miserable Miracle (La Mescaline)
Henri Michaux
Monaco: Editions du Rocher, 1956.The accounts, observations, and literary manifestations of Henri Michaux (1899-1984), Belgian born French poet and artist, while on mescaline. Associated with the Tachiste movement in the 1940s and 1950s, Michaux was one of the original 20th century artists to take drugs and make art. This copy has been finely bound in full leather by Queensland bookbinder Karen McGuire, with a design based on one of Michaux’s drawings. One of the standard edition of 1,500 numbered copies, of which this is 1,256.
-
Light Through Darkness
Henri Michaux
New York: The Orion Press, 1963.The accounts, observations, and literary manifestations of Henri Michaux (1899-1984), Belgian born French poet and artist, on mescaline, psilocybin, and marijuana. Originally published in French in 1961, then translated into English by Haakon Chevalier and first published in America in 1963. Associated with the Tachiste movement in the 1940s and 1950s, Michaux was one of the original 20th century artists to take drugs and make art. This copy in a fine signed full leather binding by Queensland bookbinder Karen McGuire based on the original jacket design.
-
Songs of Central Australia
T. 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)
-
Dictionnaire Universel Francois et Latin, Vulgairement Appele Dictionnaire de Trevoux (8 Volumes)
[Dictionnaire de Trevoux]
Paris: Compagnie des Libraires Associes, 1771.The final and most comprehensive edition of the Dictionnaire de Trevoux, so nicknamed because of its original publication in the town of Trevoux. The original 1704 edition, assumed to be directed by the Jesuits, was largely derived from the 1701 edition of Antoine Furetiere’s 1690 Dictionnaire universel. From the much expanded second edition it became widely used and was a major inspiration for Ephraim Chamber’s 1728 Cyclopaedia and the 1751-72 Encyclopedie, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers.
-
Wine and Wine Countries; A Record and Manual for Wine Merchants and Wine Consumers
Charles Tovey
London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1862.On wine and related beverages around the world, including a section on the burgeoning Australian winemaking trade. This copy with the bookplate of Australian winemaker Max Lake.
-
Handbook of Australian Fungi
M. 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.
-
[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT] From the Bhagavdgita, Fechner, etc.
Ernest Yarrow Jones
[England]: Ernest Yarrow Jones, No date.12 pages of 20th century illuminated manuscript bound in hand painted wrappers by the English artist Ernest Yarrow Jones (1872-1951), as identified by a laid in note recording the booklet as a gift from the artist to Jessie [Gilbert]. The text comprises short extracts from the Bhagavdgita and Gustav Fechner’s On Life After Death illustrated with numerous detailed initials and miniature paintings.
-
New York Nowhere: Meditations and Celebrations, Neurology Ward, The New York Hospital
Geoffrey Dutton; John Olsen
Melbourne: The Lytlewode Press, 1998.One of 30 deluxe copies from the total edition of 175 numbered copies signed by John Olsen and Robert Littlewood containing ten original signed etchings by John Olsen. The deluxe issue bound in brown kangaroo leather by Friedhelm Pohlmann also contains a tipped in sheet of original manuscript by the poet, ten original photographs of the artist and the poet signed by the publisher, five pieces of typescript correspondence hand signed by the publisher, 2 additional unsigned Olsen etchings, and an envelope containing a CD of Dutton reciting his poem. The recording of the CD made only weeks before Dutton’s death. New York Nowhere was Dutton’s last literary work, reflecting on the poet’s stroke and recovery in a New York hospital. Also included is the original prospectus and The Australian Magazine Dec 12-13, 1998 with the cover story on this work.
-
The Bells and other Poems
Edgar 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.
-
Les Freres Zemganno
Edmond de Goncourt; Auguste Brouet
Paris: Edite par F. Gregoire, 1921.Goncourt’s Naturalist exploration of the evolution of French literature through the acrobatic artistry of two circus brothers, also echoing and exploring his own love and loss of his inseparable brother (and literary partner) who passed some years prior. Originally published in 1879, here for the first time with numerous illustrations by Auguste Brouet. The illustrations include 15 full page etchings, a half-page etching on the half-title, and a vignette on the title, all signed in the plate, together with a further 51 illustrations in the text. This copy extra illustrated with 4 original signed drawings by Brouet mounted at the beginning, and finely bound in a signed full leather binding by Ganape, RD, dated 1925, and with the bookplates of Yvan Lamberty and B. Le Dosseur.
-
Suck: First European Sexpaper
William Levy; Heathcote Williams; Germaine Greer; Susan Jansen; Lynne Tillman; Jim Haynes; Willem de Ridder
London and Amsterdam: Joy Publications, 1969-74.A complete set of Suck, touted as the first European sex newspaper tasked with creating “a new pornography which would demystify male and female bodies”. Launched in London in 1969 before moving to Amsterdam to avoid England’s anti-obscenity laws. Heathcote Williams in his Suck manifesto declares “SUCK is Group Sex, Police Sex, Animal Sex, Teeny Sex, One Armed Bandit Sex, Geriatric Sex and Cosmic Sex”, highlighting the nothing is off-limits approach of the editorial board. Though Suck was no mere porno rag, as Australian feminist writer and Suck co-founder Germaine Greer told the academic journal Women’s Studies International Forum, Suck was “a new kind of erotic art, away from the tits ‘n’ ass and the peep-show syndrome.” Greer’s involvement helped push a wave of radical feminist pornography, though she fell out with her co-editors and resigned after they published a photograph of her naked with her legs over her head, not because of the nudity, but the context of its publishing, which is outlined in Greer’s resignation letter printed in the final issue. Greer’s involvement was not the only tip to a radical cause with noted contributors including William S. Burroughs, Valerie Solanas, Michael McClure, W. H. Auden, Guillaume Apollinaire, Maurice Girodias, and many others. Primary editors were William Levy, Heatcote Williams, Germaine Greer, Susan Jansen, Lynne Tillman, and Jim Haynes, with art direction by Willem de Ridder.
-
Expedition Antarctique Belge. Au Pays des Manchots: Recit du Voyage de la Belgica
Georges Lecointe
Bruxelles: Societe Belge de Libraire, 1904.Account of the captain of the RV Belgica, the second in command of the first Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897-1899. Considered the first expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, it was the first expedition to spend the entire winter in the region. Trapped in the ice for a year, they were ill prepared, the polar night driving a number of the crew mad and with scurvy setting in they were forced to subsist on penguin (largely considered inedible). Despite the challenges much scientific data was gathered including around 700 rock samples, for the first time meteorological observations were recorded for a full Antarctic year, and 188 new animal species were discovered. This superlative copy bound in full vellum with leather labels and decorative endpapers, and with a bound in manuscript letter dated 26 July 1904 from Lecointe to Madame Van Halteren requesting her to give the book to her daughter, Miss Van Halteren, signed by Lecointe, also with his monogram stamp and the stamp of the Royal Observatory of Belgium.
-
Ecole Pratique des Accouchemens.
J. B. Jacobs
A Gand: Chez J. F. Vander Scheuren, 1785.First French translation of the important Dutch obstetrics manual by Jan Bernard Jacobs (1734-1790). At the time of its appearance, it was one of the most complete treatises on the art of childbirth and remained a standard work into the middle of the nineteenth century being described as a pearl of scientific production from the last years before the French Revolution.
-
Caught Looking: Feminism, Pornography & Censorship
F.A.C.T. Book Committee
New York: Caught Looking, Inc., 1986.First edition, first printing, self published by the Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce Book Committee: Kate Ferguson Ellis, Nan D. Hunter, Beth Jaker, Barbara O’Dair, and Abby Tallmer. FACT formed as a group of feminists opposed to the anti-pornography ordinances written b Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon and in oppositions to the feminist group Women Against Pornography (WAP). Caught Looking is filled with images from 100 years of pornography accompanied by numerous essays providing a balanced view of feminism, pornography, and censorship exploring the questions: What is the role of sexually explicit language and images in women’s sexual arousal and pleasure? What role do images play in the control of women? How can the attempt to control women, which is at the heart of sexism, be most effectively subverted? Would violence diminish if violent images were removed from our culture? How can we incorporate our need for sexual speech and freedom of sexual expression into our feminist thinking and goals?
-
Ah! Nana (Complete Set, 9 Issues)
Janic Guillerez; Marjorie Alessandrini; Anne Delobel; et al.
Paris: Les Humanoides Associes, 1976-1978.Complete set of the French women’s comic magazine Ah ! Nana which evolved out of and was published by the comic book publishing house of Moebius (Jean Giraud), Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet, and Bernard Farkas, Les Humanoides Associes. During a staff lunch of their magazine Metal Hurlant (the original of the English adaptation Heavy Metal), Jean-Pierre suggested to the women present (including his wife Janic Guillerez who became chief editor of Ah! Nana) to create a women’s magazine and feminist newspaper. Ah!Nana ran for nine issues, each with its own theme, coming to a short end following the magazine being banned to minors after the publication of the eighth issue devoted to homosexuality. This led the editorial team to go all in on the ninth and final issue, devoting it to incest, leading to the French censorship Commission banning the publication, labelling it pornographic.
-
L’Homme qui a perdu son Ombre
Adelbert de Chamisso; Bernard Naudin
Paris: A. M. Peignot, 1913.French translation from the original German of Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (English: The Man with No Shadow) by the exiled French aristocrat, poet, and botanist, Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838). The story follows Peter Schlemihl who sells his shadow to the Devil for infinite money. The first edition with 15 engravings by French artist Bernard Naudin (1876-1946) limited to 100 numbered copies, this being one of 75 copies on Van Gelder paper, in a signed fine binding by Bernasconi with the original wrappers bound in. Peter Schlemihl was Naudin’s first major project after giving up painting to devote himself exclusively to printmaking.
-
Chiang Kai-shek
Hollington K. Tong
Taipei: China Publishing Company, 1953.The revised edition of Tong’s biography of the Chinese leader. Tong was a journalist and diplomat, serving as the Ambassador of the Republic of China to Japan when this edition was published later as the Ambassador to the United States. This revised edition, published 16 years after the first edition, condenses the story of Chiang Kai-shek’s life pre-1936, which was covered at length in the two volume first edition, and focuses on the epic years which followed, 1937-1953. This copy inscribed by Tong in Tokyo, 1953, to the polyglot Boris Strjeshevsky, an officer in the Imperial Russian Army that fled to China where he learned English and Chinese and taught Russian to the Chinese, before moving to Japan in 1939 where he learned Japanese and taught languages, before finally moving to Queensland, Australia, where he taught Russian at the University of Queensland.
-
The Story of an Athlete (A Picture of the Past)
H. C. A. Harrison
Melbourne: Alexander McCubbin, No date.Autobiography of one of the pioneers of Australian rules football, AFL.
-
The Getting of Wisdom
Henry Handel Richardson
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1931.First published in 1910, this is the first US printing of the 1931 revised edition of Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson’s Australian coming of age novel set in an 1890s Melbourne all-girls boarding school. In the original jacket illustrated by Paul Wenck.