Rare books from Douglas Stewart Fine Books

San Francisco : NFS Press, 1977. First edition. Quarto, lettered wrappers (very slightly rubbed), pp. 56, illustrated. Signed by the artist on the title page and dated 1978. A fine copy, housed in a custom clamshell box, lettered on the spine. The rare first edition. In 2015 a facsimile was printed (which sold out), and the following summary is taken from the publisher's description: 'Hal Fischer's Gay Semiotics: A Photographic Study of Visual Coding Among Homosexual Men (1977) is one of the most important publications associated with California conceptual photography in the 1970s. The photographs in Gay Semiotics present the codes of sexual orientation and identification Fischer saw in San Francisco's Castro and Haight Ashbury districts, ranging from such sexual signifiers as handkerchiefs and keys to depictions of the gay fashion “types” of that era — from “basic gay” to “hippie” and “jock.” Gay Semiotics also features Fischer's critical essay, which is marked by the same wry,… Read More

Sydney : Cornstalk Publishing Company, 1925. First edition. Quarto, publisher's decorated cloth (rubbed along lower edge upper board), dust jacket with colour illustrations (very slight rubbing to extremities), pictorial endpapers, contemporary gift inscription in pencil to half-title, title page (small wet stamp of previous owner), pp. 79; (1), coloured panelled illustrations throughout; a fine copy. 'Rare: the earliest publication of the Bib and Bub comic strips in book form, collecting May Gibbs's contributions to the Sydney Sunday News that had begun in August 1925. Gibbs was one of the few 'classic' Australian children's authors and illustrators to have published in this form, being quick to learn from the success of her contemporaries Jim Bancks and Syd Nicholls in this format and to see the commercial potential of her own unique Gumnut creations in the newspaper medium. The present two part collection was re-issued in one volume in 1926 and followed by four sequels, 1927 -- 1932: Further… Read More

with the discoveries which have been made in New South Wales and in the Southern Ocean, since the publication of Phillip's Voyage, compiled from the official papers; including the journals of Governors Phillip and King, and of Lieut. Ball; and the voyages from the first sailing of the Sirius in 1787, to the return of that ship's company to England in 1792. Illustrated with seventeen maps, charts, views & other embellishments, drawn on the spot by Captains Hunter, & Bradley, Lieutenant Dawes, & Governor King. London : John Stockdale, 1793. Quarto, later half calf over marbled papered boards ruled in gilt (rubbed), spine in compartments with gilt ornament and maroon leather title labels lettered in gilt; edges stained yellow, marbled endpapers, engraved frontispiece, pp (ii) (engraved title page and blank verso), [vi] (list of subscribers); [ii] (list of plates and blank verso), [viii] contents; 583, with 5 maps and charts (2 large folding) and 10 engraved plates (complete); frontispiece and title and… Read More

: being the adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and his friends Bill Barnacle & Sam Sawnoff. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1918. Quarto, quarter blue cloth over papered boards (waterstain to upper and lower edges of upper board), in fine original illustrated dust jacket (a couple of light stains, very minor chipping to head and foot of spine, expert paper restoration to splits to folds verso), plain cream endpapers (lightly foxed), previous owner's name to front free endpaper, book label of James Fairfax, colour title page, 171 pp, illustrated throughout by Lindsay, waterstain across the lower and upper margins of the text block, else a clean and well presented copy of the first edition in the original dust jacket. The Magic Pudding is without doubt the most famous Australian children's book ever published, and for nearly a century has never been out of print. The iconic characters of Bunyip Bluegum, Sam Sawnoff, Bill Barnacle and of course the Pudding have delighted children and adults for nearly a… Read More

Carefully revised. Commencing at £3 and terminating at £4. 5s 9d per ounce. Melbourne: Sands and Kenny, 1857. Sextodecimo, cloth bound blind-embossed boards with gilt lettering to upper board, 218 pp, one gathering with soiling and wear from use, most liking during mining activities, advertisement endpapers, charming contemporary ownership inscription of a gold miner 'A. Stevenson, Peg Leg, Maldon', a very good example. The Victoria Gold Ready Reckoner published by Sands & Kenny (bearing this imprint as the sole publisher) is only known in one edition, from 1857. Only two copies are recorded, held in the National Library of Australia and the State Library of Victoria, it was unknown to Ferguson. A variant 1857 edition, bearing the joint imprint of T & W Brown of Geelong alongside Sands & Kenny of Melbourne, was sold by us to a private collector in 2013. Upon dissolution of the partnership of John Sands and Thomas Kenny in 1861, Sands formed a partnership with Dugald McDougall and a handful of… Read More

Fourteen reproductions in colour from original oil paintings, and 16 half-tone plates reproduced in black and white; with essays by Douglas Stewart and Norman Lindsay. Sydney : The Shepherd Press, 1945. Quarto, gilt-stamped papered boards in decorated paper dustjacket, colour and black and white plates (creasing to a few corners), in the original slipcase. Some very light handling marks, a fine copy. The deluxe edition, limited to 115 copies signed by the artist. The deluxe edition contains 14 additional reproductions of drawings not present in the standard edition, which was printed in an unsigned edition of 1000 copies. It is also printed on better paper and is in a deluxe binding with different jacket design. Scarce.  

in two parts; the first containing Leonhart Rauwolff's Itinerary into the Eastern countries; as Syria, Palestine, or the Holy Land, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Chaldea, &c. Translated from the High Dutch by Nicholas Staphorst. The second taking in many parts of Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, Arabia Felix, and Petraea, Ethiopia, the Red-Sea, &c. From the observations of Mons. Belon, Mr. Vernon, Dr. Spon, Dr. Smith, Dr. Huntingdon, Mr. Greaves, Alpinus, Veslingius, Thevenot's Collections, and others. The Second Edition. London : Publish'd by Mr. John Ray, Printed for S. Smith and B. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, at the Prince's Arms in S. Paul's Church-Yard, 1705. Octavo (190 mm), contemporary panelled calf (a few scratches), spine in compartments with old manuscript title piece (leather frayed at head), front pastedown with armorial bookplates of Osbert Salvin (1835-1898), British naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist, and Frederick DuCane Godman (1834-1919), British lepidopterist,… Read More

1. An account of the voyages undertaken by the order of his present Majesty for making discoveries in the southern hemisphere, and successively performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour: drawn up from the journals which were kept by the several commanders, and from the papers of Joseph Banks, Esq; by John Hawkesworth, Ll.D. in three volumes. Illustrated with cuts, and a great variety of charts and maps relative to countries now first discovered, or hitherto but imperfectly known. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1773. First edition. Three volumes, quarto, late nineteenth century quarter straight-grained Morocco over papered boards by Morrell, his binder's stamp to first leaf, spines in compartments lettered in gilt with gilt lines, unusual gilt-tooled corner pieces to the upper and lower boards, a few scuffs and pale foxing to the boards, top edge gilt, others uncut, vol. I pp. [xii]; xxxvi; 676 (the numbering… Read More

Cedar with blackwood handles and huon pine secondary timbers, Tasmanian origin, circa 1840, measures 110cm high, 122cm wide, 55cm deep. A handsome colonial Australian chest in good working order. Provenance: ​The Rodney Pemberton Collection

London : Stanley/Barker, 2022. Quarto, 310 x 310 mm, gilt-lettered papered boards in illustrated dustjacket, all edges gilt, pp. 52, illustrated with Henson's exquisite photographs from his 1992 series staged at the opera houses of Paris. New copy, acquired directly from the publisher, of this rare edition which sold out within days of publication. The deluxe edition, limited to 25 copies, accompanied by a 8 x 10"" photograph (untitled), produced by Spectrum, signed by Bill Henson, housed in a custom folder from the publisher. In the early 1990’s Bill Henson was commissioned by the Paris Opera to produce a series of works that were to bring the emotional effect of music into visual form. For the first time, all 50 images from the series are brought together as a delicately printed outsized monograph. “Paris Opera is a development for Henson both in his use of colour and in the way he presents human faces in interplay through convention, the framing device, of the face intent on music:… Read More

Introduction by Lou Klepac. Melbourne: Australian Galleries and Gryphon Books, 1980. Folio, gilt-decorated full calf in illustrated dustjacket, 248pp., pale foxing to preliminaries, illustrated throughout, with an original signed John Olsen etching 'Owl & train' tipped in at rear. The deluxe edition, limited to 100 copies signed by Olsen with an original etching. This is copy number 65. My complete graphics was successfully released late in 1980, but not before a major disagreement between Olsen, publisher Richard Griffin and Australian Galleries where the book was launched at an earlier exhibition. Dissatisfaction with the quality of product (advance copies of which actually arrived late on the night of the launch) saw Griffin pull the book from sale, and pulp the entire edition. Only a handful of copies escaped this fate.The book was then reprinted and issued in a standard edition and deluxe edition with signed etching.

London : John Newton, 1st January 1817. Terrestrial pocket globe, 3 inches in diameter, engraved gores with original hand colour over papier-mâché and plaster sphere, the surface in fine order with a recent wax applied for protection, two metal pins resting the globe in the original publisher's shagreen case, titled Newton's improved pocket celestial globe, with engraved diagrams of the constellations, the lips coloured red, original metal hinge and two hook and eye clasps. A fine example of a rare pocket globe, sitting perfectly within its case. A rare and attractive miniature pocket globe showing Cook's third voyage. John Newton (1759-1844) was the founder of a firm of globe makers in London, established in the 1780s and continuing on, with the involvement of Newton's sons, throughout the nineteenth century. This small terrestrial globe in its original case shows the track of Cook's third voyage of 1776-80, with its return to England under the commands of Clerke and Gore. New Holland is shown… Read More

[Melbourne?] : Brooks, Robinson & Co., 1931. Oblong large folio (250 x 500 mm), maker's canvas-covered boards (heavily rubbed and stained) with hand-coloured decorative title to front 'Brooks Robinson & Co. Ltd. / Wall Papers / 1931', original rivet binding with leather carry strap, containing over [200] samples of wallpaper friezes and drops in a huge variety of stunning Art Deco patterns and palettes; all are stamped on the verso with the relevant Brooks Robinson pattern reference number; one of the maker's printed leaflets bound in illustrates the ""finished product"" in a domestic setting. This was a well-used salesman's sample book, and numerous samples are incomplete, small excised sections having been provided to prospective customers; however, the contents have been preserved substantially intact, and in clean condition. A rare survivor, and a veritable treasure trove for 1930s Australian interior design research. Merchant Henry Brooks had established his import business in Elizabeth Street,… Read More

Sydney : The Beagle Press, 2015. Quarto, gilt-lettered black cloth in matching slipcase, pp. 220, illustrated. The deluxe edition, limited to 25 copies specially bound, with an original linocut by Brett Whiteley 'The Wave' loosely enclosed, specially printed in a numbered edition of 25 copies, signed lower right with the Brett Whiteley studio stamp, and signed in pencil verso by Wendy Whiteley, with a certificate of authenticity also signed by Wendy Whiteley. The linocut measures 202 x 152 mm (image); 280 x 228 mm (sheet). This rare deluxe edition includes an original artwork by Whiteley, a linocut first created in 1972 and printed by authority of the artist's widow for inclusion in this publication. This example additionally signed on the title page by Wendy Whiteley and Lou Klepac.

Mahogany with Macassar ebony, inlaid decoration on a splay quatrefoil pedestal base, recent felt baize (lightly stained), measuring 72cm high, 91cm wide, and 46 cm deep, a few light scratches. A handsome Regency, practically useful closed or open for a number of purposes,