Original Artwork from Rare Illustrated Books

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

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

Spectacular collection of costume designs for the theatre. Dated from 1938 through to 1940, this vibrant collection displays outfits ranging from the 17th century French courtiers of Versailles to ancient Manchurian dress robes for the emperor. Strange insects appear, a dancing creature made from seaweed, and a magnificent 16th century Elizabethan ruff. Each original watercolour has been signed… Read more about this item

Come away, O human child To the waters and the wild With a fairy, hand in hand..." -W.B. Yeats A charming drawing by Ethel Jackson Morris, inscribed with a passage of poetry by William Butler Yeats. A school of fantasy illustration emerged in Melbourne in the first part of the twentieth century, inspired by the work and… Read more about this item

This beautiful drawing, probably from the period when Gaze was serving in the First World War, shows a little boy at play. It is titled in pencil "Lonesome". Born in New Zealand in 1885, a whimsical artist with outstanding talent, Harold Gaze is one of the more elusive Australasian children's writers and illustrators. We know little with exactitude… Read more about this item

no date. Vibrant watercolour by British Australian illustrator, Peg Maltby (1899 - 1984). Peg Maltby, née Agnes Newberry Orchard, worked in England as an illustrator of chocolate-box lids before emigrating to Melbourne where she became a member of the Victorian Artists' Society holding successful exhibitions of her watercolours in the 1930s and 1940s. Maltby rose to fame with the… Read more about this item

1926. Rare signed bookplate by hailed master of the medium, Adrian Feint, featuring a portrait of the celebrated Australian artist, Thea Proctor, engraved with her initials. Hand-coloured wood engraving of a lady with a parasol, bookplate, 63 mm x 60 mm, signed in pencil lower right.