Prestige Items

In Unknown New Guinea – W.J.V. Saville (Intro Malinowski) – First Edition 1926

Longer title explains … In Unknown New Guinea – A Record of Twenty-Five Years of Personal Observation & Experience Amongst the Interesting People of an Almost Unknown Part of the Vast Island & a Description of Their Manners & Customs, Occupations in Peace & Method of Warfare, Their Secret Rites & Public Ceremonies.

Published by Seeley, London in 1926 a first edition.

Thick octavo, 316 pages and sixty very good illustrations mainly from period photographs, folding map near rear. Original red cloth covered binding with the striking gilt design to the front. Very good if not better condition.

A superb work based the authors lengthy experiences on and around Mailu Island. To have the introduction written by the great anthropologist of the era Bronislaw Malinowski is testament to its quality and importance.

Rare early New Guinea Anthropology

$140.00

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Les Voila! – Gazette du Bon Ton Pochoir – Andre Marty -1920

Beautiful and one of our favourite hand coloured pochoir by Andre Marty (1882-1974) for the Paris Gazette du Bon Ton published in June 1920.

“Les Voila” with summer dresses by Doeuillet.

The ultimate in fashion print from a perfect era.

Price unframed $160.00

Stylish summer and I can see it too!

$160.00

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Wallace’s Tree Swift (Dendrochelidon Wallacei ) John Gould – The Birds of Asia – 1860

Original hand-coloured lithograph produced on limestone from John Gould’s most impressive series “Birds of Asia” completed and published in London circa 1860.

Gould writes in the accompanying narrative “After carefully comparing Indian specimens .. and Javanese specimens … with examples of a bird of the same form sent from Macassar by Mr Wallace, I could come to no other conclusion than that the latter is a very distinct and undescribed species, and I therefore took the opportunity of naming the bird D. Wallacei, in honour of its discoverer; not that there is any necessity for me to attempt to perpetuate the name of this gentleman as a promoter of natural science, since his writings sufficiently attest his devotion to more than one of its departments”. Gould very humble and obviously likes long sentences.

Gould goes on to say that the birds are figured a natural size. Little was then known about them … the accompanying narrative describes their colouring is some detail. The execution of the lithograph is excellent, it is very clean and the colouring still very bright and full and enhanced by the use of gum arabic which creates a sense of richness and depth

Tree swift named by John Gould in honour of Alfred Russell Wallace

$390.00

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Les Travestis Dans Le Parc – Gazette du Bon Ton Pochoir – Brissaud 1913

A most striking hand coloured double Pochoir (Multiple Stencil) by Pierre Brissaud (1885-1964) for the Paris Gazette du Bon Ton published in September 1913.

Costumes and disguises in the park from different epochs and fantasies.

One of the rare double page pochoir images … frames flat and with little impression of the fold…. highly collectable

Price $240.00 unframed.

A rich unusual pochoir – beautiful deep colours

$240.00

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The Big Game of Central and Western China – Harold Frank Wallace FRGS, RZS – First Edition 1913

Being an Account of a Journey from Shanghai to London Overland Across the Gobi Desert by Harold Frank Wallace.

A first edition published by John Murray, London in 1913. Royal octavo, 318 pages after preliminaries and including appendices and index.

Bound in original yellow cloth covered boards with decoration and facsimile signature of author to front. Top edge gilt. Some rubbing externally and a hint of glue in the front hinge. A very good copy with barely a mark internally. A sought after travel and hunting account written in a very readable style. Well illustrated with a frontispiece and 22 illustrations from drawings by the author (very talented) and thirty-eight illustrations from photographs.

In 1911 the author accompanied the experienced George Fenwick-Owen into the interior of China. Their primary objective was to secure a specimen of the Takin of which then little was known in the west, along with a collection of smaller animals for the British Museum. Their journey lasted precisely one year. The course of their journey had to be varied because of the outbreak of the Revolution. The book on the whole is well balanced towards a special travel account with excellent observations on the topography, the people, customs, manners, law etc the latter could not be more demonstrated by the sad image of the man caged for opium crimes.

Chapters include … the Call of the Red Gods; Shanghai; the Father of rivers [Yangste]; Hwa-Shan the Flower Mountain; Sian -Fu the Magnificent; Notes on caves and the Home of the Takin; Fensiang-Fu an inland town; Modern Rehoboam and His Capital; the Western Kanus; Rumours of war; On the Fringe of the Desert and Across the Desert. Animals sought include the aforementioned Takin … White-maned Serow; Roe deer; Wapiti; Przewalski’s Gazelle; Mongolian Gazelle etc.

The appendices make interesting reading with Field Measurements; Estimates of Expenses and Tables of Distances and Stages.

Central and Western China in 1911

$240.00

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Il Pentamerone; or, The Tale of Tales – Basile – Translated Sir Richard Burton KCMG – First and Limited Edition – 1893

Being a Translation by the Late Sir Richard Burton, K.C.M.G., of Il Pentamerone;OveroLo Cuntode Li Cunte, Trattenemiento de Li Peccerille, of Giovanni Battista Basile, Count of Torne (Gian Alessio Abbattutis).

First edition in two volumes published by Henry and Co, London 1893. Published posthumously by his devoted wife Lady Burton.

A limited edition of 1,500 copies. Two volumes, octavo, 282 pages, [283]-562 pages. Original dark blue (near black) buckram cloth, gilt lettered. Minor rubbing to spine ends. Overall a very good clean set of a sought after Burton work.

The stories in the Pentamerone were collected by Basile and published posthumously by his sister Adriana in Naples in 1634 and 1636 under the pseudonym Abbatutis. The stories were later adapted by a number of authors including the Brothers Grimm who acknowledged the use of stories in the Pentamerone in Cinderella, Rapunzel, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty and Hansel and Gretel.

Basile recorded the stories in Neapolitan and is regarded as the first writer to record the Neapolitan intonations. The style is heavily Baroque with many metaphorical expressions.

The term Pentameone comes from the Greek “pente” or five and “hemera” day. The work is set within a “frame story” with fifty separate tales being told over the course of five days … referencing Baccaccio’s Decameron of 1353 which has a ten day structure.

Beautiful stories translated by the genius that was Sir Richard Burton. Limited first edition.

$170.00

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In Unknown New Guinea – W.J.V. Saville (Intro Malinowski) – First Edition 1926

Les Voila! – Gazette du Bon Ton Pochoir – Andre Marty -1920

Wallace’s Tree Swift (Dendrochelidon Wallacei ) John Gould – The Birds of Asia – 1860

Les Travestis Dans Le Parc – Gazette du Bon Ton Pochoir – Brissaud 1913

The Big Game of Central and Western China – Harold Frank Wallace FRGS, RZS – First Edition 1913

Il Pentamerone; or, The Tale of Tales – Basile – Translated Sir Richard Burton KCMG – First and Limited Edition – 1893

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