Rare books from Michael Treloar Antiquarian Booksellers

Adelaide: J. Williams, Printer [for the Author], 1880. 2nd Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Adelaide, J. Williams, Printer [for the Author], 1880 [second edition]/ 1879. Octavo, [viii], 84; 80; and 23 pages plus 3 albumen paper photographs of 5 drawings on 3 unnumbered leaves. Gilt- and blind-stamped blue cloth a little bumped and rubbed at the extremities, with minor wear to the corners; spine sunned, with a slightly lighter spot near the centre where a paper label (an old auction lot number) has been removed; front cover has some light stains on it where something has been spilt (removing some of the gilt from the top left-hand border); rear flyleaf removed, with offsetting to the final page; a very good copy (internally excellent). The particulars of the photographs match those given in Holden (where the discrepancy in the number of plates present as against listed is explained). The plates are of drawings by Hamilton; he contributed similar sketches to the published journals of Grey and Eyre. The… Read More

Small quarto, 2 pages, with a conjugate blank leaf. Thin strip of tissue-paper on the outside rear page, and minimal loss to this blank leaf near the centre of the hinge (both as a result of having been mounted in, then removed from, an album); light creases where folded in four for posting; in excellent condition. Humboldt writes to introduce the geologist Alexandre Brongniart, remembering with gratitude the assistance rendered by le Duc to himself and his friends and collaborators, [Louis Joseph] Gay-Lussac and [Christian Leopold von] Buch. He hopes that M. Brongniart, 'l'homme célèbre', who wishes to visit Vesuvius and the lava flows of Ischia, will be afforded similar kindnesses. Nicola Filomarino, duca della Torre and principe di Boiano, devoted much of his scientific career to the study of Vesuvius and the volcanology of Campania. In August 1805 he accompanied Humboldt to the crater of Vesuvius, with Humboldt's journal recording that his observations were made with the aid of the Duke's… Read More

Adelaide: W.C. Cox, Printer, 1853. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Adelaide, W.C. Cox, Printer, 1853. Octavo, 46 pages. Relatively recent quarter morocco and buckram (by the Law Bindery, Melbourne); title leaf a little foxed, with minimal light scattered foxing to a few other leaves; an excellent copy with most interesting provenance (see below). The author, Clerk of the Executive Council of South Australia, was on board the vessel; this is his account of the first successful navigation of the Murray as far as Swan Hill by Captain Francis Cadell. Fellow-passenger James Allen also published his version of events. Captain William Randell and his paddle-steamer 'Mary Ann' left Goolwa at the Murray mouth ahead of Cadell and travelled much farther up the Murray, but Cadell overtook him en route and reached Swan Hill first. However, both men deservedly earned the bonus of 2000 pounds offered by the South Australian Government 'for each of the first two steamers to travel up the Murray as far as the… Read More

Babbage was 'engineer, scientist and explorer ... son of Charles Babbage, Cambridge professor of mathematics [and the first computer pioneer], and his wife Georgina, sister of W.W. Whitmore, a founder of South Australia.... In 1856 Babbage was sent north to search for gold as far as the Flinders Ranges. He found none, but discovered the MacDonnell River, Blanchewater and Mount Hopeful. He was the first to dispel the current idea of the impassability of the Lake Torrens "horseshoe" ... [In late 1857 he was] appointed leader of a northern expedition. Babbage left in February 1858 to explore the country between Lakes Torrens and Gairdner, and further to the north and west. His concept of exploration was based on thorough survey, mapping and examination of the country, ideals with which Francis Dutton, commissioner of crown lands, agreed in his instructions and early correspondence. With cumbrous and ingenious equipment Babbage carried out the first part, hampered by bad terrain and lack of water. But he… Read More

(A) A small album (150 × 145 mm) with the hand-painted title 'Souvenir of Egypt, Palestine, Sinai, Syria. 1914 to 1919', containing 45 (originally 48) small snapshots (45 × 63 mm) loosely inserted behind captioned window mounts. Fifteen photographs are of more than passing interest. The most fascinating one, 'Beersheba Stunt', features about a dozen Light Horsemen on the move and raising dust; one saddled horse appears riderless. Others include 'Turks from Rafa. Jan 9th 1917' (the day the city fell); 'Trench. Gaza, April 19th 1917' (a major defeat; see note on postcard, quoted below); 'Bivouacs at Khan Yunis, Palestine' (two photographs); and cameliers (three photographs). The other thirty photographs are routine images of the places along the way - Cairo, Port Said, Alexandria, El-Arish - ending up with four of Homs and five of Jerusalem. (B) A collection of 74 loose snapshots (generally 82 × 58 mm or the reverse). Approximately 40 (30 with captions on the verso) are views, mainly of Jerusalem… Read More

The image, from the early 1850s, is in the original leather case gilt-embossed 'Mr Kilburn, 234 Regent Street'. The celebrated William Kilburn trained his brother Douglas, who established Victoria's first professional photographic studio in 1847.

Adelaide: Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 1996. Hardcover. Fine. Adelaide, Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 1996 (facsimile edition)/ 1863. Octavo, [vi], xvi, 408 pages plus 15 plates and a large folding map. Quarter leather and cloth, lettered in gilt and stamped in blind; a fine copy. 'John Davis was a member of the South Australian relief expedition, led by John McKinlay, to search for Burke and Wills. The expedition travelled to Cooper Creek and north almost to the Gulf of Carpentaria ... [They then] made for Port Denison (Bowen), some 960km away in Queensland.' Australiana Facsimile Editions Number 211. This is number 96 of only 99 numbered copies of the deluxe issue, from a total edition of 600 copies. The four-page introduction by Valmai Hankel is new to this edition.

London: Lovell Reeve, 1859. First Edition. Hardcover. London, Lovell Reeve, [November] 1859 [first separate edition]. Large quarto, viii, 128 pages (complete with the half-title). Later half roan and stippled cloth, lightly rubbed at the extremities; a very crisp and bright copy. 'The first important botanical work by a supporter of the doctrine of evolution by natural selection' (Norman, often quoted, but not going nearly far enough in our opinion!). A singular rarity, of the utmost importance. In the concluding paragraph of the postscript, unique to this edition, Hooker writes: 'I would further observe here, to avoid ambiguity, that my friend Mr. Darwin's just completed work "On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection" [sic], from the perusal of much of which in MS. I have profited so largely, had not appeared during the printing of the Essay, or I should have largely quoted it. Kew, November, 4, 1859'.

The very fine portrait (visible image size 545 × 395 mm, in its original ornate gilt frame, external dimensions 740 × 595 mm) is exquisitely hand-painted and signed by the famous colonial photographer, Townsend Duryea (1823-1888). His original label is affixed to the paper backing on the verso of the frame ('T. Duryea, Artist Photographer, 66 and 68 King William Street, Adelaide'), and in our opinion, he has created a masterpiece as both artist and photographer with this work. James Hurtle Fisher commenced practice as a solicitor in London in 1816 and 'was drawn into the colonizing movement in 1835.... [He] was selected as resident commissioner, one of the most important offices under the South Australian Act ... second only to the governor'. Fisher 'left England in July 1836 with the governor's party in the "Buffalo", arriving on 28 December 1836 at Holdfast Bay, where the official oaths were administered, a proclamation was read and a ceremony marked the beginning of settlement. In January 1837… Read More

London: T. and W. Boone, 1846. First Edition. Hardcover. London, T. and W. Boone, 1846. Octavo, two volumes, [2] (inserted advertising leaf for this work), xii, [ii] (list of charts, verso blank), [ii] (errata, verso blank), 522 (last blank), 8 (publisher's catalogue) pages [first volume], and [4] (inserted prospectus for Siborne's 'History of the War ... in 1815'), viii, [ii] (list of charts, verso blank), 544 (last blank), 8 (publisher's catalogue) pages [second volume], plus 26 engraved or lithographed plates and 7 (of 8) folding maps (lacking the chart of Bass Strait); all advertising leaves, and the slip for Eyre (at the end of the second volume), are present, but the one for Dutton is missing. Original cloth later rebacked, retaining the original backstrips, with new endpapers (but retaining all but the original front free endpaper as well); new endpocket in the second volume (containing five of the maps); cloth a little bumped and rubbed at the extremities; spine sunned, with a few blemishes;… Read More

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911. First Edition. Hardcover. Dust Jacket Included. London, Hodder and Stoughton, [1911] (first edition). Octavo, viii (first leaf blank), 267 pages plus a frontispiece, pictorial title leaf and 11 full-page plates by F.D. Bedford. Original green cloth (blocked in gilt with an elaborate design showing Peter, two mermaids and the crocodile), with the pictorial dustwrapper, repeating the binding design in gilt. Cloth slightly flecked (confined to the edges and rear board) and lightly mottled; extremities a trifle rubbed; edges foxed, with a few marks and indentations to the top edge (impacting slightly on the upper margin of some leaves); endpapers offset; tiny stain to the corner tip of the front flyleaf and the adjacent blank; inoffensive light shallow tidemark to the top edge of the front endpaper and most of the plates; scattered foxing (heavier on the preliminaries and the leaves adjacent to the plates); dustwrapper slightly marked, torn and chipped, and a little… Read More

London: Printed for T. Warner, 1726. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. London, Printed for T. Warner, 1726 [first edition]. Octavo, [viii], 408 pages plus an engraved frontispiece. Early 'Cambridge'-style panelled calf, later rebacked with cloth but retaining the original backstrip with burgundy morocco labels lettered and tooled in gilt (minor loss to the head and foot, and now with a protective layer of glossy varnish or paste applied during the indifferent conservation process); edges sprinkled red; endpapers and initial binder's blank offset and discoloured; scattered light foxing; minimal signs of age and use (including a short sealed tear to three leaves); a very good copy (internally in excellent condition). The first edition of this work on the supernatural published anonymously by Daniel Defoe (circa 1660-1731), better known as a novelist, satirist and journalist. 'Defoe, a Protestant Dissenter, believed in the devil as a physical being at work in the world. "The Political History of the… Read More

Birmingham: D. Mason & Sons Limited, 1890. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Birmingham, D. Mason & Sons Limited, [circa 1890s?]. Quarto, [vi], 12 (index), [approximately] 147 pages with thousands of illustrations (many printed in colour). More accurately, apart from the preliminaries, many of the leaves are printed one side only (mainly the recto); there is an additional illustrated page 22A but no page 104; there are six additional unnumbered leaves of text, and unnumbered pages of text on the verso of 10 illustrations; there are 140 pages of illustrations, of which 115 are printed with some colour (and many of them are simply stunning). Gilt-pictorial dark green cloth, lettered in gilt on the front cover and spine, all edges dyed red; cloth a little flecked and marked, with a few light damp stains to the rear cover (with minimal associated cockling to the leading margin of the last 20 or so leaves); edges slightly marked; title page and last page offset; rear cover blemishes notwithstanding,… Read More

London: Heinemann, 1966. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. London, Heinemann, 1966 to 1988 (all first editions). Large octavo, 21 volumes (eight volumes of biography, and 13 companion volumes), complete as issued, with all plates as called for. Variously cloth and papered boards; trifling signs of use and age (including some light flecking and rubbing); an excellent set with the excellent dustwrappers occasionally a little sunned and rubbed, with a few short tears). Volumes 4 and 8 of the Biography are not from the Uniform Edition. The biography proper comprises eight volumes, as follows. Volume 1: Youth, 1874-1900 (1966). Volume 2: Young Statesman, 1901-1914 (1967). Volume 3: The Challenge of War, 1914-1916 (1971). Volume 4: 1917-1922 (1975). Volume 5: 1922-1939 (1976). Volume 6: Finest Hour, 1939-1941 (1983). Volume 7: Road to Victory, 1941-1945 (1986). Volume 8: Never Despair, 1945-1965 (1988). The companion series comprises thirteen volumes, as follows. Companion Volume I, Part 1:… Read More

London: The Author, and printed by Taylor and Francis, 1865. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. London, The Author, and printed by Taylor and Francis, 1865. Large octavo, two volumes, viii, 636, [2] (publisher's advertising slip) pages; and [viii] (first two and last one blank), 629 pages with 3 illustrations (on pages 161-62). Original gilt-pictorial and blind-decorated green cloth, edges speckled red; cloth lightly bumped and rubbed at the extremities, with a tiny split to the head of the second spine; new endpapers; later one-line inkstamp ('Agricultural College') to both half-titles, the second title page and the leading margin of approximately 40 pages scattered throughout the two volumes; minimal signs of age and use; overall, an excellent set. [2 items].