Rare books from Antipodean Books, Maps & Prints

London: Pears Soap, 1898. A lovely copy of a famous and rare Pears Soap advertisement: we have not had this image for 20 years. Handsome chromolithograph of a young boy in front of a wicket with his bat straight to the ground in a defensive pose. Large chromolithograph print laid on canvas, 20 1/2 x 31 3/4", based on a painting by Philip Calderon, 1882. Beautiful 12 color printing, 3 repaired cracks into image on right side which are only slightly noticeable, otherwise vy good condition. This was one of a series of three elaborate chromolithographic advertisements for Pears. The other two advertisements were of African gray parrots in a cage & a woman & child with Persian carpets.

London: Eden Fisher, 1894. Fourth edition. Hardcover. Very good. Sections on tea in England; tea duty; statistics; China, India and Ceylon tea; tea blending including sample blends. Large 12mo, (vii), 151pp, Index (xv), 13pp ads. Brown gilt cloth, with gilt title running diagonally across front cover and gilt title on brown spine. Covers are rubbed, esp at corners and at top of spine. Internally, pages toned and front inner hinge starting. Owner signature on half title.

London: Day & Son, 1860. First edition. Impressive volume with stunning full page chromolithographic botanical plates of native Tasmanian flowers, in an embossed presentation leather binding. Natural history verse accompanied by illustrations, by an outstanding woman artist. The design of the book owes much to Owen Jones, the designer of the famed "Grammar of Ornament" and Edward LaTrobe Bateman, who worked with Jones on various projects as illustrator and designer. Bateman collaborated with Meredith on both her books, providing lettering and edging details that are hallmarks of his work. Bateman was most likely a Yorkshireman, but his cousin Charles Latrobe was first Lieutenant-governor of Victoria, and he was commissioned to do the designs for Carlton Gardens in Melbourne in 1856. Folio, 2 chromolithograph half title pages (1 duplicate), lithographed title & dedication page, ii preface, 107 pp text decorated at edges, 11 full page lithographic plates, beautifully designed & printed. Full embossed… Read More

London: John & Eliz. Nutt, 1716. First printing. Hardcover. Very good condition. The section on "Terra Australis" from Moll's 5 volume work, including the title page for Vol V, iv, 22pp, with the folding Moll map of Australia entitled "New Guinea, New Britain, and New Holland &c.", one of the earliest English maps devoted to the Australian continent (Tooley p 122, no 90). Includes The entire "Terra Australis Incognita" part, a most interesting compilation from various sources, the Australian information "according to Luyts". This includes Diemens Land, New Zealand, Carpentaria, New Guinea, and finally New Holland. Includes Australian locations named Carpentary, Country of Diemens, The Kingdom of Beach, Lucat & Maletur, New Holland in Six Parts viz Country of Lewennen, Edels, Nuits, Concords, De Wit's Land and Arnent. Outsize 8vo, (iv), 1-22pp. Text with a crescent shaped waterstain, which has not penetrated the map. Sewed into a modern full dark brown calf binding with gilt title on spine "America… Read More

Wonderful photograph album of Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania, with large photographs and manuscript titles. A total of 47 photos, with 33 of Victoria, 6 of New South Wales, 5 of Tasmania, 1 of New Zealand, and 2 others. Each photograph is lightly tipped on to the album paper, with blank verso. Most of the photographs are by an unknown photographer; there are also some signed by J.W. Beattie, Thomas Foster Chuck, Frank Arnold Coxhead, C. Rudd, and J.P., possibly John Paine. One of the most striking & largest photograph is of "Aboriginals of Lake Tyers". It is an outdoor view of a family group of aborigines, from children to grand parents, dressed in western clothing, with spear, boomerangs and lean-to behind them. Others include some rather poetic views of woodcutters at Black Spur & Fernshaw; a couple of gold mining at Bendigo including Garden Gully United Gold Mining Company, with houses in fore and background. There is a series of some very striking studies of Melbourne buildings… Read More

Cologne, 1598. Extremely rare and early map of the Southern Hemisphere that attempts to define the assumed Great South land mass, including today's Australia, Antarctica, Indonesia, South Africa & Argentina. The top of the map has an interesting Mercator projection of Patagonia achingly close to a large land mass "Terrae Australis Pars". C. Della Victoria and the illustration of Magellan's ship the Victoria bears witness to his discovery of the strait that now bears his name. Below is a polar projection of a great south land entitled "Terra Australis". Within the Antarctic Circle, termed "Terra Incognitia" is an array of mountains and 3 large named rivers. Part of the coast (actually the north coast of Australia) is marked with Marco Polo's kingdoms of Beach, Lucach and Maletur. This is a German re-engraving of the Wytfliet Map dated 1597 (Spence 3010), but is much rare than it (see discussion below). German text on the verso with the header "Chica" above one page. The Quad map of a year later… Read More

London: J. Farrell, No. 7 Paternoster Row, Cheapside, 1790. First printing. Ephemera. Very good overall. An unrecorded 'Christmas Piece' broadside or children's exercise sheet, with manuscript verse at the center, signed by a young American, "Samuel Lefferts Scripsit", dedicated to his "much respected Grandfather Lefferts Hagewought (sic)", and dated December 24th, 1791. Christmas broadsides were published and printed in London by John Farrell during the reign of George III, with contemporary and historical engravings around the perimeter, a large central engraving at the top, and blank space at the center for the scholar to write some lines of verse to the recipient. These Christmas Pieces were also for the student to show off his penmanship, and possibly win a school prize; they were referred to as "scripsits". In this case the student is an [American] young man, Samuel Lefferts. He has written 12 lines of verse having to do with the birth of Jesus and he dedicates the Christmas piece to his… Read More

London: Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1786. First English Edition. Hardcover. Very good overall. Important work by leading scientist and explorer who accompanied Captain James Cook on his second voyage of discovery. Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-1798), author and naturalist, was born in Prussia. He moved to England in 1766, eventually producing pamphlets on natural history. His acquaintance with Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander allowed him to be elected fellow of the Royal Society; another influential acquaintance got him the position of scientist on Captain Cook's second voyage, when Banks withdrew. It was Forster who convinced Andreas Sparrman, who was exploring South African natural history at Cape Town, to join the expedition. The volume consists of Books I, II & III. Book III, 'Discoveries Made in the North in Modern Times', Section XXXVII pertains to Cook's last voyage. Forster writes about the naming of Bering's Straits, the ice which prevented any further travel north, and the… Read More

1925. Very good condition. A sweet die cut card for a cat lover or a French cat lover on Valentine's day, with two cats made of soft fabric, one white and one black and perched on a red tile roof, each wearing a real silk ribbon, their tails entwined. Another small black cat gazes up at them from an open window below. At the lower left a 1925 calendar, with the months of October through December remaining. Each numbered day is listed with a French first name. Standing card on folded card stock. The French house illustrated in color; the cats with soft black and white fabric laid down. The miniature calendar a bit tender, the cover a bit loose, but holding. 3 1/2 x 6"

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1916. Hardcover. Very good. Contents include: the Tocsin in Australia, Australian Naval History, up the Red Sea, first Suez Canal battle, the Anzac campaign, Gallipoli, Anzac Cove, the heroic light horse charge, the battle of Sari Bair, and the evacuation of the peninsula. 8vo, frontispiece, 328pp, b&w photo plates, 9 b&w maps in text, of which 3 are folding maps. Tan cloth w/ black stamping on cover and gold stamping on spine. Slightly sunned at spine; spine ends a bit rubbed. Internally, very light scattered foxing at margins; previous owner inscription at ffep.

London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1849. First printing. Hardcover. Folio atlas containing the complete collection of 53 engraved maps with hand colored boundaries, the striking maps in fine condition. The map of Australia showing only Western Australia, New South Wales, Australia Felix, and South Australia, with Lake Torrens shown and many rivers added in NSW (Tooley 683). The map which follows is Van Diemen's Land, which is divided into 19 Police districts (counties), (Tooley 688). The map of the United States extends as far west as Nebraska Territory, New Mexico and Texas with "Indian Territory" (present day Oklahoma) just to the north. The map of British North America shows "upper California" and Oregon, pre gold rush, with Alaska shown as "Russian Territory". Mexico and the Central States map includes upper or new California, and undesignated New Mexico and Arizona. Folio, 53 plates, Index 59pp. Maroon gilt leather, with gilt title at front board and spine. The boards quite… Read More

1916. The bombardment of Anzac Cove 26 April 1915 is recounted by the author, a stoker in the British Navy, used this journal, a repurposed "Day Book of Engineers' Stores," to record his service off the Egyptian, Turkish and Syrian coasts, in the Dardanelles, and off the coast of Bulgaria during the First World War, with near daily entries between August 1, 1914 and March 26, 1916, aboard the H.M.S. Doris. The Imperial War Museum holds a diary of Captain Twigg of the H.M.S. Doris, where it states that their first action was on 25 April 1915 when she bombarded forts around Bulair. "On 26 April, together with H.M.S. Triumph, Doris shelled the area around Gaba Tepe in support of Australian troops."* Bowden's journal adds another perspective to the information from Captain Twigg. He is quite specific about which ships were involved in the various actions, what kind of shells were used in bombardments and later tells of the drowning death of his brother, who was in the British Army, and the subsequent… Read More

A collection of 49 original woodblock prints of rugby images starting from the beginning of the differentiation between rugby and football (soccer). The prints are from newspapers of the time such as the Illustrated London News; The Graphic; Harper's Weekly; the Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News; the Illustrated Times; Every Saturday; Black and White and The Sphere. The earlier images were drawn by artists such as Smith, Thomas, W. R. Wollen, P. Naumann, W. Stanfield Sturgess, S. T. Dadd; Stewart Browne, Meisenbach, Cleaver, Max Cowper, etc. The later images are photogravures. Images vary in size and measurements and excluding margins are approximately for 1/3 page (8x4"); 1/2 page (9x6 1/2"); full page (12 x 9 1/2"); double page 19 1/2x 13"). The prints are listed by title, artist, date, publication, size and occasional comments. Foot Ball at Rugby, Smyth, 1845, ILN, 1/3, One of the earliest views of modern Rugby. Called a "skrummage" (sic) in the text on verso; Winter Amusements: Football,… Read More

London: R. Baldwin, 1802. Hardcover. Personal copy of Robert Hoe III, first president of the Grolier Club, sumptuously bound by William Matthews, the most prominent American bookbinder of the day, in full crushed crimson levant morocco, with many extra engraved plates. William Matthews (1822-1896) was trained in London (Remnant and Edmonds) and worked in New York for D. Appleton & Company until 1890. His reputation as a gifted binder was established in 1842 in a folio copy of the Owen Jones' Plans of the Alhambra, which was beautifully decorated in Moorish style. Matthews won many medals, including the silver medal for fine bookbinding at the International Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in New York City. His work was displayed at the Philadelphia Centennial and at the Paris Exhibition of 1899. In 1884 Matthews was elected a member of the Grolier Club, for whom he did all the binding until the end of his life. The Club published his lecture 'Modern Bookbinding Practically Considered' in a… Read More

New York: James G. Gregory, 1864. First printing. Hardcover. An attractive copy of this Christmas cornucopia, with illustrations by distinguished artists including Thomas Nast, F. A. Chapman, F. W. Quartly, Birket Foster, J. Gilbert, Kenny Meadows, John Gilbert, & G. Perkins. Nast iconic image of Santa Claus about to descend a chimney illustrates Clement Moore's "A Visit From St. Nicholas", later known as "The Night Before Christmas" & '"Twas the Night Before Christmas". 8vo, 96pp, decorative title-page, text printed on a tan background, illustrations throughout, all edges gilt, original patterned white endpapers. Presentation full brown pebbled morocco binding, spine in six panels, with gilt title and gilt device, gilt rules on boards, gilt inner dentelles. Boards a little rubbed, inner hinge strengthened. Text block very clean with only a slight trace of foxing on a few pages. OCLC 1701421. A handsome copy of an iconic Christmas book.