These books haven't necessarily been uploaded to antiqbook yet. So, if you order through antiqbook and get a message claiming the book has been sold, email in case that isn't true.
These books haven't necessarily been uploaded to antiqbook yet. So, if you order through antiqbook and get a message claiming the book has been sold, email in case that isn't true.
Elephant advertisement. 天竺渡リ - 生大象 [Tenjiku Watari - Nama Taiho]. Yokahama? Sugiyama Kichizo [c1875-1883?]. Woodcut broadside 33x48cm. Folded, the printing somewhat rushed and blurred, a rather good copy. Collector's seal on the back. Au$500
A kawaraban - or news sheet - style advertisement for the great elephant show. There are at least four versions of this print. One, I haven't seen, is dated 1875 and one is dated 1883. I'm told the age of the elephant changes in each print - in ours he is eight - which should be a reliable guide to the date but it isn't.
Waseda University illustrates another version of this, a better defined woodblock - in which we can see clearly that up on the howdah an acrobat is balancing a barrel on one foot - but less funny. In theirs the keeper is offering a handful of hay, in ours the pratfall has been caught. The finer detail and lack of joke indicates that theirs is the earlier version. I have seen one other copy of this print and it's as blurred as ours. The third version sits somewhere between the two in quality but in that the elephant is nine and the print is dated 1883. Three or four separate woodblocks indicates these things were being printed as fast and plentiful as the impresario could churn them out.
1863 was the year of the elephant in Japan, the great Indian elephant drew squillions of spectators and the artists and printmakers went crazy. It wasn't the first elephant to arrive in Japan but it had been near 150 years since the last one. That elephant went on tour after a spell in Tokyo but surely our elephant isn't that same one? What I can make out of the text suggests it might be but that makes nonsense of the age. Certainly our elephant has progressed from being a drawcard by merely existing to being the star of a show. Sugiyama Kichizo was a theatre manager in Yokohama.
Ota Saburo. 初夢独判断 [Hatsuyume Doku Handan]. Tokyo, Hakubunkan 1913 (Taisho 2). Colour broadside 54x79cm. Folded as issued; minimal signs of use, a rather good copy. Au$600
This elegant peep into the dreams of a girl or young woman is like few other such prints. Most new year sugoroku - games - laying out the ideal life for girls and women, and there are plenty of them, display conscientious, industrious, gentle, kind, neat, cultured, respectful, and obedient girls who will be rewarded with a good husband and luxurious shopping. Here suitors barely make it into two scenes; this is a woman who will run and dance barefoot, drink wine (if not absinthe) on her own in a cafe and wrestle eels with gusto.
This was the New Years gift from the women's magazine Sukuju Gaho. Ota Saburo is among the best of the generation of artists who studied oil painting and refused to become a western copyist, instead forging new a Japanese art which saw some of the most delightful illustrated books you could wish to see.
Hikifuda. 甲州屋 山田商店 Koshuya Yamada Shoten. 1905 (Meiji 38) Colour lithograph, 26x37cm. Old vertical folds and minor signs of use, the text smudged. Au$125
An exquisite couple, mother and daughter, in heaven. I'm not sure the girl, though, is convinced by her mother's choice of hat and matching parasol. She is considering but I wonder whether they will match the magic of the showcase contents.
I think the Koshuya Yamada Shoten is still in business in Ueda - practicing and selling cosmetics - and still run by the Yamada family.
Japanese textile designs. A collection of 43 original designs for textiles. n.p. [1930s?]. Gouache on various papers, ranging in size from 26x35cm to 33x72cm. Signs of use, a few frayed or a bit ragged around the edges. Au$685
A good gathering of oversize finished designs for commercial work. I would guess mostly for the autumn range. The artwork is good - relief textures have been added here and there, apparently by stencil - even if the inspiration is mixed. On the back of one is a seal or monogram that may read 北打 (Kitada); two others are stamped 家百四 and 家百貮; and elsewhere the occasional pencilled number or note.
DAWE, W. Carlton. Kakemonos. London, John Lane 1897. Octavo publisher's illustrated mustard cloth. A few insignificant marks, endpapers a bit browned, a rather good copy. Keynote series. Au$150
First edition of a collection of tales of the far east. An almost acceptable amount of blood and violent death, plenty of the dangers of racial and cultural conflict and reams of now unacceptable calumny.
NISBET, Hume. The Swampers. A romance of the Westralian goldfields. London, F.V. White 1897. Octavo publisher's illustrated cloth blocked in red, black and gilt (light signs of use); frontispiece. Inner hinges repaired - professionally by the look of it; a good bright copy. Au$165
First edition of this partly suppressed thriller in which Nisbet took a stick to the inhabitants of Sydney and a flask of acid to Archibald and The Bulletin who responded with the incensed lack of humour that Nisbet had ascribed to them and threatened legal action against booksellers or libraries circulating the book. This naturally made it "one of the most popular books in Sydney ... passed about surreptitiously, and under pledges of secrecy" according to the Northern Star. The Australasian Pastoralists' Review merely recommended a good horsewhipping.
Nisbet has fun with Sydney's mania for fraudulent occultists and takes time off from the story for Judge Jeffreys - hanging judge and spiritualist who decides his cases by the testimony of two spirit guides. Until he is visited by the ghosts of Chinese murder victims bent on revenge for releasing their killers. I would like to know who the original of Judge Jeffreys is.
Of course Nisbet sometimes goes too far, as in the passage that begins: "Aboriginals, Kanakas, Chinese, Japanese, Afghans, all who do not represent Western civilisation we treat like beasts ... Our murders on them are acts of justice, their retaliations on us are atrocious murders." The Pastoralists' Review was indignant about accusations of settlers laying poisonous baits for Aborigines like pests.
Nisbet avoids his lack of first hand knowledge about the Westralian goldfields by mostly staying away from them. Our hero, the master criminal Jack Milton (not Sydney bred), is rescued by Aborigines from the traps and trackers long before he reaches Kalgoorlie and instead lands in a lost race novel bringing him to an ancient gold mine with a Greek inscription carved in a wall.
メチャ博士魔法占い [Mecha Hakase Maho Uranai]. Tokyo, Shonen Kurabu 1929 (Showa 4). 11x7cm colour illustrated wrapper; 32pp, printed in blue with a couple of illustrations. Au$25
Dr Mecha's little magical fortune telling handbook was a gift or premium from the magazine Boys' Club.
Murray River. Report of the Royal Commission ... to examine into and report upon the best means of Clearing the River Murray, etc. Melbourne, Government printer 1867. Foolscap, plain modern wrapper; 100pp, five full page or folding diagrams. Title a touch dusty, still an excellent copy. Au$125
The first of umpteen commissions and inquiries into the river. There must be a more poorly timed Royal Commission than this but I can't think of it. The Commission was instituted in 1866 and reported in February 1867. Three of the four commissioners unhesitatingly endorsed the Victorian government's current practice but John Orr wrote a stern protest, more or less saying the others didn't know what they were talking about. The flood season a few months later brought the flood that still has a high standing in the record books.
The one inarguable benefit from this commission was the first thorough survey of the river, from Albury to Wentworth. Orr makes the point that a good starting point in the general desire for federation of the colonies would be N.S.W. and Victoria agreeing to set up a trust to manage the river. Such an agreement was made in 1960.
Shochiku Revue - Shochiku Shogo Kageki. 楽劇 - Gakugeki. Shochiku Review [English subtitle for two issues]. Tokyo, October 1931; April, August & September 1932. Four issues octavo, publisher's illustrated wrappers; numerous photo illustrations in all, folding colour advertisement tipped into one. Minor signs of use, staples rusted; rather good. Au$100
The all female company Shochiku Shojo Kageki (Girl's Opera) was set up in Osaka in 1921 and in Tokyo in 1928 by the film and theatre moguls in imitation of the Takarazuka Revue. While they stole the concept, the Tokyo Shochiku company was more adventurous, more louche, more raunchy. They were after all performing for Tokyo's sophisticated lowlife rather than tourists in the provinces. It took a long time for soft-centred glitzy sweetness to win out but the Shochiku closed in 1990 and the Takarazuka still reigns supreme.
Asai Chu. 当世風俗五十番歌合 [Tosei Fuzoku Gojuban Utaawase]. Tokyo, Yoshikawa Hanschichi 1907 (Meiji 40). Two volumes 25x18cm publisher's wrapper with title labels; 52 full page colour woodcuts by Asai. An outstanding pair. Au$1500
Such a fresh and crisp copy of the original edition that I can't bring myself to flatten these out enough to photograph the interior. So the illustrations here, apart from the covers, are stolen from elsewhere to give an idea of the remarkable charm and humour of Asai's observations of the modern Japanese seen in pairs. Imagine these brighter on fresh cream paper.
Asai, elder and teacher of the school of western painting, fortunately never abandoned the tradition of satirical illustration. This was published just before his death. Each of these illustrations accompanies a poem on modern customs; the book's title calls this a poetry competition.
MARTIN, Charles. Sous les Pots de Fleurs. Recueil de dessins a la plume accompagnes de prose rythmee composes au front. 1914 - 1917. Preface de MacOrlan. Paris, Jules Meynial 1917. Quarto by size (305x200mm); unbound as issued in vivid green silk limp boards with printed label, illustrated lining papers. [4],60pp printed on one side; 16 full page, other illustrations and decorations through the text by Charles Martin. Au$450
A minor masterpiece maybe but undoubtedly one of the treasures to come out of the trenches of the great war.
Hasegawa Mitsunobu. 鳥羽繪筆びゃうし [Tobae Fudebyoshi]. n.d. [c1900?]. Octavo by size (235x160mm) publisher's stitched wrapper with printed label (cover somewhat marked); 42 folded leaves with 37 double page and two single page colour wood blocks. Au$165
Apparently a late Meiji reprint of this delightful series of caricatures that first appeared in 1772. Various libraries have taken stabs at the date, which range from the 1860s to 1903, but I think this has been confused by what seems to be an uncoloured 19th century reprint in a reduced size. And it's complicated further by apparently existing in coloured and uncoloured versions.
Chung Teong Toy. Ah Toy v. Musgrove. A copy of the report of the arguments and judgment in the case of Ah Toy v. Musgrove - Supreme Court of Victoria. Melbourne, Government Printer 1888. Foolscap, excellent in a modern plain wrapper; 164pp. Au$750
A quick dash through Quick and Garran's Annotated Constitution reinforces the sense of the momentous that surrounds this case. Toy v. Musgrove appears again and again cited as a "great" and "celebrated" case. Chung Teong Toy, a thwarted Chinese immigrant who arrived in Melbourne on the Afghan in April 1888, brought his case - backed by the Chinese Residents Association - against Musgrove, the Collector of Customs, for refusing to accept payment of the poll-tax of ten pounds demanded from Chinese immigrants. Without getting too bogged down in details Musgrove's defence was that he had been ordered to refuse entry to all the Chinese on the Afghan.
The Supreme Court found - four judgments to two - in favour of the plaintiff and ruled that the Colony did not have the right to exclude aliens. One of the Justices - Justice Williams - was reluctant to concur; it left the colony "in this most unpleasant and invidious position", unable to prevent "the scum or desperadoes of alien nations from landing ... whenever it may suit them." This of course was unacceptable and an appeal was made to the Privy Council. In the meantime the colonies used quarantine regulations to exclude Chinese immigrants where they could and quietly let in some handfuls where they couldn't do otherwise.
Amongst the outrage and furor the suggestion was made that the authorities knew they were acting illegally; a sardonic Melbourne journalist wrote, "But isn't it a curious thing that our authorities should have been induced to go to illegal lengths under the spur of excitement and public clamour. I am told privately that at the time they were warned by council that they were exceeding the limits of their constitutional prerogative, but they felt so sure of having the public at their back that they took the risk. And now an opium-smoking, yellow-skinned Mongolian has given them a lesson they (or rather the country) will have to pay for to a pretty tune." (from the Traralgon Record, 14 Sept 1888).
The appeal to the Privy Council not only succeeded in 1891 but, as I understand it, fortified the bastion of government immunity by refusing to accept that an alien "can, in an action in a British court, compel the decision of such matters as these, involving delicate and difficult constitutional questions affecting the respective rights of the Crown and Parliament, and the relations of this country to her self-governing colonies." It should be noted here that I came across this quote not by reading the Privy Council decision but reading the summary of 'Fong Yue Ting v. United States' in the US Supreme Court in 1893.
Saddest from this distance is that, reading of the activities of the Chinese Residents Assocation, it appeared to many that progress was made: the short-lived victories of this case and the grudging admission of those handfuls of Chinese immigrants seemed a great step forward. Of course all colonial governments doubled their efforts and collectively triumphed with the White Australia Policy come federation. What I can't find among the thousands of words written about this case is what happened to Chung Teong Toy.
Yamada Iwao. English Through Pictures. Tokyo, Kaiseikan 1931. Octavo publisher's cloth; four colour plates and hundreds of b/w illustrations. Au$125
This is not a lesson in how to speak English, this is a lesson in how to be English. How to survive in the world of Lucia and Georgie; Bertie; Julian, George and Timmy; William and Jennings; where not to go if rudely directed to the tradesman's entrance; how to discern butler from footman from parlourman; what a muffin-man looks like; even how many tanners and bobs make up a quid.
The book starts, like any good novel, in the drawing room and, in introducing us to the elements of a drawing room, is almost a lesson in classic murder. Here is where the victim strikes his head: the mantel, the fender and the hearth kerb; here are weapons: shovel, poker, tongs, andiron ... Then we move onto the clues a detective will use to solve the murder: cork-tipped cigarette, gold mounted amber cigarette holder; briar pipe and so on.
The only thing I could not find in this book that would help any Japanese visitor pass as a native is what the average Englishman calls them and all other denizens of points east of the channel.
Worldcat finds other English aids and a grammar by Yamada - professor at Peers' College, school for emperors and nobles - but not this.
Scrapbook. Shochikuza News &c. A scrapbook with covers from the Shochikuza News, imitators and competitors like Ohashiza News, souvenir brochures and the magazine 旅 [Travel]. n.p. mid 1920s to early 1930s. Commercial scrapbook 31x23cm; 89 leaves (178pp) filled cover to cover with mounted covers, brochures etc. Pencilled annotations on many pages. Au$300
Perhaps a bit sweet and sour: it would be better if our scrapper had saved the complete Shochikuza News sheets and brochures but still we have a fairly remarkable compilation of modern graphic design that might not exist otherwise. For me the treasure is the 20 Shochikuza covers and to a lesser extent the nine or ten examples from their competitors.
The Shochiku-za, built in Osaka in 1923, was Japan's first cinema devoted to foreign films and inspired and aspiring young designers did their publicity and newsletters. Presumably they worked on the usual terms: little credit and less money. There is quite a bit of remarkable anonymous graphic art of the twenties and early thirties with the Shochiku-za banner. Not all of it is good but what is can be fabulous. As the thirties progressed the adventurousness evaporated and by the end of the thirties all these papers looked like film magazines from anywhere.
I doubt designers of tourist brochures ever tried to shock or puzzle but, still, they did turn out some stylish work. A fair bit is here. There is also a scattering of souvenir envelopes which contain cards that have either dried plants or pennant shaped pictures. The covers from the travel magazine Tabi are a big step down for me but I guess they represent a type of photo-propaganda that may yet have fans.
Muneaki Mihara. 自在教育法図解 [Jizai Kyoikuho Kuzai]. The Teaching by Pictures the Way of Impraving Freely am Easely the Natural Constitution of Man [sic]. Ritsuma Akiko, 1888 (Meiji 21). Broadside 70x53cm, woodblock printed, folding into publisher's limp cloth covers 17x13cm with printed label. Covers browned with a splodge on the back; a nice copy Au$800
An enchanting and self evident exposition on the value of pictures in learning. Seemingly as simple as a phrenology chart but judging by the amount of text worked into all those different parts of the brain perhaps a lot more complex. From the little, as an illiterate, I can glean on brain function as outlined here this might sit somewhere between phrenology and neurophysics. The open area at the very centre of the brain is labelled 未詳 - unknown.
CATLIN, George. The Breath of Life or mal-Respiration. and its effects upon enjoyments & life of man. (manu-graph). London, Trubner 1862. Octavo publisher's printed boards (marked, rebacked); 75pp, illustrations by Catlin through the text. A used but thoroughly decent copy. Au$600
First English and best edition; the New York edition of 1861 and the later editions (titled 'Shut Your Mouth and Save Your Life') are printed letterpress and don't have the charm of this lithographed facsimile of manuscript.
Catlin's gift to the civilized world is simple to enunciate - sleep with your mouth shut. The theory and practice are little more complex but the benefits are astounding: no more premature death, death of children; no more idiots, lunatics, deaf, dumb, or hunchbacks. This "most important motto which human language can convey" was learned from example during his years of ethnographic labours among some 150 tribes of "wild people" in North and South America. He admits, though, that the exemplary sanitary habits of these people gave them no protection against small-pox and whiskey.
Costume. Ladies' Garments and How to Make Them. A practical treatise on the art of sewing, pressing & other details ... as employed by tailors ... by "Several Experts" ... London, John Williamson [c1894]. Octavo publisher's gilt decorated red cloth; [8],80pp, several illustrations and diagrams. Minor signs of use, a rather good copy. Au$150
A slender book maybe, but so packed with information that I wonder how Williamson thought they could justify all the other tailoring books and magazines they published. I can only find much later versions of this - and not many of those - in OCLC and Copac.
Wada Sanzo. 色名総鑑 [Shikimei Sokan]. Tokyo, Shunjusha 1931 (Showa 6). 195x115mm publisher's case with title label with 160 mounted colour samples on 56 accordian folding leaves and wrappered book; 178pp and some tables (two folding). Some browning and still a very nice copy in a browned and mildly worn original printed card folding case. Colour samples named in Japanese, English and occasionally French or German; two of the tables are multi language lists of colour names. The top edge of both parts are gilded and the apparently plain paper lining of the case has a pattern of transparent glazed shapes printed on it. Au$475
First edition of Wada's first serious attempt at colour nomenclature. Wada, though at the top of the art ladder in Japan insisted on pursuing new directions and founded the Japan Standard Color Association, now the Japan Color Research Institute, in 1927; in these early years science, art and aesthetics went hand in hand. Yet another significant book missed by the peurile Osborne Books on Colour Since 1500.
Sugoroku. Arai Goro. 乗物ヅクシ双六. [Norimono Dzukushi Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Shueisha 1933 (Showa 8). Colour broadside 54x79cm. Minor signs of use, rather good. Au$500
The New Year gift from the magazine Danshi Yochien and a fine portrait of the world when it was still fun at full speed. In 1933 a tank could sometimes just be something to climb on. That wouldn't last much longer.
Danshi Yochien was a boys magazine and the little sister is more cheer leader than player but she is there. Maybe she was allowed a little drive when the artist wasn't looking.
Senjafuda - Nosatsu. An album of 145 mounted colour woodcut nosatsu - votive slips. n.p. 1920s? A plump album (19x13cm) with patterned paper boards and accordian folded leaves - an orijo; 145 mounted colour woodcuts, some with extra embossing. A nice copy. Au$1300
It's a universal law of humanity that as soon as someone makes more than two of anything a collector is born. And as soon as two or more collectors exist an association and an industry is formed. No-one knows these facts and does a better job with them than the Japanese.
Senjafuda - votive slips left at temples and shrines - are a thousand odd years old tradition but in the last couple of hundred years they evolved into elaborate prints made as much to be swapped and traded as pasted on shrine gates. The twenties and thirties maybe represent the peak years before lithography and then self adhesive mass produced stickers took over. Afficiandos commisioned them, companies used them as advertisements and business cards. Designers and printers made them a speciality and typographers loved them. And collectors collected them.
This is the most stylish and tasteful album I've seen, so far. It ranges over particularly fine printings of the most elaborate traditional (as far as tradition went) designs through to a couple of occupational portraits produced for western women resident in Japan. One slip has the date 1917.
A Victory Plan for Peace - Security - Prosperity. Katoomba Branch of the Australian Communist Party [1944]. Octavo publisher's illustrated wrappers; [16]pp including wrapper. Au$75
Meetings of the Katoomba Communists must have been dull, dull, dull. I've never come across such a polite, bourgeois bunch. These reds weren't lurking under the bed; they were smoothing the covers and tucking in a hot water bottle. They pretty much agreed with everybody but more so. More childcare, sports, libraries and co-op markets. Trove finds one copy - in Melbourne.
Catalogue - records. Polydor. ポリドール [Poridoru]. Tokyo, Polydor, January 1936. Octavo publisher's illustrated wrapper; [54]pp, illustrations. Au$30
Polydor's announcements and catalogue as of January 1936. Polydor came to Japan in 1926 as imports and it's clear by 1936 that domestic stars have taken over. Shoji Taro is topping the charts - his picture appears at least three times. This led me to listen to some of his recordings from the mid thirties and after a quick wish that English or European big band orchestration had been banned in Japan the fascination came easily.
Kameda Yoshiro (or Kichirobei). 和洋建築新雛形 [Wayo Kenchiku Shin Hinagata]. Osaka, Seikado 1907 (Meiji 40). Six volumes 22x15cm, publisher's wrappers with title labels; illustrated throughout with plans, elevations, measured drawings etc. Covers mildly rubbed, a rather good set. Au$850
I'm not sure whether this should be described as Japanese principles applied to western design or the other way round. I think both, if it matters. An excellent builder's pattern book that was certainly put to wide use that may be a reworking or just a relabelled version of Kameda's 1897 'Taisho Shin Hinagata Taizen'. A lot of it seems the same.
There is a 2008 learned paper by Yanigasawa and Mizoguchi that shows how Kameda introduced Japanese carpentry and the modular system into western design but all except the precis of their paper is in Japanese so I have no idea how they go about proving their point. They do tell us that Kameda was a master carpenter in Fukuoka.
Sydney no longer a sewer
Catalogue - furniture. Wallach Brothers, Melbourne &c. Wallach Bros ... Melbourne, Sydney & London ... Design Book for Every Description of Modern Furniture of the Styles in General Demand ... Melbourne, printed by Troedel [188-?]. Quarto publisher's cloth titled in gilt on the front (rebacked neatly enough, baffling lilac endpapers inserted in an odd way leaving most of the original pastedown uncovered); 208 leaves with elaborate title page, two pages of contents, section titles and 196 litho plates. A piece cut from one plate and several plates with tears and splits without loss. A copy needing work but most definitely worth it. The odd insertion of the flyleaves has preserved the bossy publisher's label claiming eternal ownership of this catalogue: registered number 1982. sold
An 1888 Sydney Morning Herald article puffing Wallach Bros newest building in York Street quotes the owner as saying that when they first decided to open a branch in Sydney they were told it was a mistake as "Sydney was the sewer for all the refuse furniture of foreign countries." But, he is gratified to say, they have had great success and expanded several times. You can't say fairer than that.
I wondered what Rocke & Co - the Melbourne furniture makers who expanded to Sydney in the seventies - thought about that; perhaps they gave the warning. In any case Rocke was about to be owned by Benjamin Fink & cohort, the owners of Wallach Bros. Fink appeared to own half of Australia until his empire came crashing down in the nineties, he vanished to England and it turned out everything left was in his wife's name. And still we're surprised each time it happens.
LAURENCE, Z. Perspective Simplified; second edition, containing a new "preliminary chapter," ... with an additional plate. London, Weale 1839. Octavo publisher's cloth (faded and splodged with some wear to the very tips but firm); xx,47pp, folding frontispiece and nine plates. Seven are folding and two are moveable models that can be popped up and include thread and even a transparent panel of gauze. A bit of browning but a rather good copy of a book fated to be wrecked by enthusiastic handling. Au$325
The Spectator review for the first edition - 1838 - starts as an accolade but, being The Spectator, by the end you wonder why Laurence and the publisher wasted their efforts and paper.
Worldcat and Copac find three or four copies of the 1838 first edition and one copy of this.
de CHABRILLAN, Celeste. Les Voleurs d'Or. Paris, Levy 1857. Octavo contemporary cloth backed mottled boards. Expected browning and spotting, a pretty good copy. Au$1750
First edition, and rare, of this pioneer thriller of the Australian gold fields by the former prostitute, dancer and toast of Paris, now wife of the French Consul in Melbourne. Like who knows how many women writers of the 19th century, Celeste took to novels and plays, starting with this, to climb out of a poverty pit dug by a malevolent or feckless husband. In her case, her blacksheep noble husband - the Comte de Chabrillan - was feckless, even careless enough to die in in Melbourne in 1858.
和漢年歷箋 [Wakan Nenrekisen]. Tokyo (& Kyoto?) Senshobo 1869 (Meiji 2). 16x6cm publisher's wrapper with title label (cover marked); accordian, unfolding to some 2.9 metres (near 10 feet) long, printed on both sides. A nice copy. Au$125
Just the sort of thing an illiterate bookseller shouldn't buy, but it is just an attractive little thing. Who could resist it? This is a new, apparently revised and recut, edition of the Wakan Nenrekisen, a sort of almanac cum calendar cum chronology cum history that appeared at intervals several times during the 19th century. It includes a couple of maps, diagrams of the planets, phases of the moon, star charts, and astrological charts. And whatever else.
McInnis, R.A. Plan of General Development for the City of Mackay. Printed by Smith & Paterson, Brisbane 1934. Small quarto publisher's stiffened printed wrapper; [7],117pp, plans & diagrams through the text; a large (70x94cm) colour plan and a mosaic photographic aerial view (44x58cm) fold into an envelope mounted inside the back cover. A few short tears to the yapp edges of the wrapper and tears to the envelope. An excellent, fresh copy. Au$400
There may be a more rare Australian city planning scheme but I haven't met it yet. Obscure as this may be to all but the most diligent students it is or should be a landmark. This was just about the first city plan that actually made it into the statute books with the 1934 "City of Mackay ... Act." It was a long time before such a thing would happen again.
Real estate subdivision - Coogee - Maroubra. Colonna Point Estate - Coogee close to Maroubra - Saturday 24th September 1910 ... Richardson & Wrench Ltd ... Sydney, Richardson & Wrench 1910. Colour lithograph 76x56cm; folded, some small holes and short tears around the edges. Au$150
Curious that Maroubra was a better selling point than Coogee. More Colonna Point land was advertised soon after WWI but Colonna Point Estate, presumably related to the late resident Richard Colonna-Close, didn't stick as a name; seems 'Colonna Point' disappeared as soon as the land was sold.
Art Training Institute Pty Ltd. The New Era in Commercial Art. Melbourne, the company [193-?]. Folio (35x25cm) publisher's string tied printed wrapper; 52pp illustrated throughout, much in colour, and 13 translucent leaves, several printed. A rather good copy. Au$185
The fairly deluxe prospectus for the commercial art school. Throughout are examples of the work - posters, advertisements etc - of successful students, the staff, and distinguished contributors, including James Northfield, Ted Scoresby and Ida Outhwaite.
There are a few versions of this book with slightly different titles and contents. This one does not match any of the three noted by Trove. Neither does it quite match a copy that came through here a few years ago with some correspondence dated 1937.
Japanese textiles. Sample book of textiles titled Tozakire Honcho [album of textiles we have handled - more or less] and dated March Taisho 4 [1915]. n.p. 1915 360x225mm card cover titled in ink; some 311 samples on 116 leaves followed by a number of blanks. Au$1850
A working Kyoto draper or textile merchant's sample album of large swatches of luxurious fabrics which I'm told include Kinran (gold brocade), Kando (woven stripes or checks) and Donsu (damask silk). These are presumably Nishijin textiles. There isn't an owner's name though there is a small red stamp inside the covers which looks like an 'm' inside an oval and part of some inscription. It's possible this came from the venerable Kyoto textile house of Daimaru - forerunner of the current department store empire - a number of sample and pattern albums from Daimaru emerged in Kyoto in recent years; I'm not sure it matters.
This is serious fabric. I find it interesting that while there is no shortage of tasteful bling - silver and gold - the bright, lurid, colours that came into fashion at the end of Meiji and rampaged through Taisho are significantly absent. These are for the most part pre-aniline colours. The designs, to me, range from insipid to spectacular but even my dull and ignorant eyes can see that no workman's wife wore this stuff round the house.
BURGOYNE, Geo. Aug. The Wool Marks Directory of Australia ... an alphabetical classification of wool marks, with the name of owner, station, postal address, and pastoral district in Australia and Tasmania. Sydney, Burgoyne (slip pasted over the original John Sands imprint) [1889?]. Quarto publisher's morocco (scuffed and worn, front cover near detached); ii,248pp. Certainly used but rightly so and most acceptable. With the stamp of Melbourne wool buyers Hick, Kettlewell & Co. Au$850
This compilation clearly took murderously assiduous patience and care and the result is a prosaic working book that would have attracted few rave reviews. But it is in its way a catalogue of the wealth of the country, identifying as it does near everything that came off the sheep's back, where it came from and who grew it, in all colonies. And presumably essential for buyers of Australian wool. At the end are marks Burgoyne could not trace to a property and he warns that some of these may be suspect: "dealers' mixed lots, speculative lots, and scoured lots of unknown origin."
Hicks Kettlewell & Co was one of a few incarnations of the firm that started as W. & B. Hicks around 1850.
Trove finds copies of this at the National Library and the Mitchell and Worldcat adds the University of California.
Catalogue - Scientific Apparatus. Townson & Mercer, London. Catalogue of Chemical & Scientific Apparatus, Balances, Graduated Instruments, Pure Chemicals, &c. The company, March 1901. Octavo publisher's cloth (neatly rebacked with the slightly chomped but essentially complete original spine retained); xxxii,720,xliipp, hundreds of wood engraved illustrations. A bit spotted but very decent. Au$175
Eighth edition, with every necessity for every kind of laboratory (not to mention some rather good models in the mechanics section). The last section is Towson & Mercer's stock of laboratory equipment made by Fletcher, Russell & Co.
MORETTE, Edgar. The Sturgis Wager. A detective story. NY, Stokes [1899]. Octavo publisher's decorated cloth blocked in red and black. Minor signs of use, a pretty good copy. Au$150
First edition of this fast paced New York murder mystery that opens in the chaos of Broadway traffic. Well before the end of chapter one we have our corpse and three mysteries. Another chapter, more mystery and the bet that gentleman reporter Sturgis can't solve them. Soon enough we enter the realm of scientific fantasy with the criminal genius who has disposed of hundreds of victims and dissolved their remains in his laboratory.
Hikifuda Menu. 萬菜便覧 [Banzai Binran]. n.p. [190-?]. Colour lithograph broadside 37x51cm. Minimal signs of use. Au$90
This cheerful Hikifuda - handbill - is an advertisement and a menu. I'm told what's on offer is side dishes. A typical Hikifuda in that businesses had their own details put in the centre panel. I've traced two images of this handbill, one with a blank centre panel, the other for a different company.
ROBINSON, W. Heath. Philips Glowlamp Works Ltd. The Wireless Adventures of Mr Pimple. n.p. [1924]. Largish octavo publisher's illustrated wrapper (some marks and a couple of short tears); 8 leaves printed on one side; illustrated by Heath Robinson. Stamp of the Port Kembla Garage Engineering Co on the front and Noyes Bros of Sydney inside. Au$125
A rare and typically delightful Heath Robinson concoction in which Mr Pimple undertakes the monumental engineering task of building a radio, fruitlessly until a wise and true friend puts him onto Philips Receiving Valves. Worldcat finds two copies, both in Australia.
GROPIUS, Walter. The New Architecture and the Bauhaus. London, Faber 1935. Octavo, very good in publisher's cloth and somewhat used but decent dustwrapper with a largish chip from the top of the spine; 112pp, 16 photo plates. Au$250
First edition and hard to find with dustwrapper. Does this Moholy-Nagy wrapper design strike anyone else as grim, if not threatening? Something like a weapon caught in a police spotlight. Or is it just me?
Tram Game. Tramway Spel. Amsterdam, J. Viegler [c1880]. 435x575mm colour litho game on paper. A rather good copy. Au$200
A Dutch racing game presumably co-produced with the cocoa maker van Houten. Amsterdam's trams began running in 1875 and you can be sure the game makers were at work within minutes. There is a version of this without the advertisements on the trams - which are obvious additions when you compare them - published by Ellerman Harms; doubtless Viegler got the rights and made a deal with van Houten. It wasn't long before writers were complaining about the disfiguring surfeit of advertising on trams all round the world.
JONES, Ernest. Treatment of the Neuroses. London, Bailliere, Tindall & Cox 1920. Octavo publisher's cloth; 232pp. Quite a good copy. Au$50
First edition. Freud may have invented neurosis but Jones played no small part in making it popular throughout the English speaking world.
Catalogue - chocolates. Chocolat Weiss, St. Etienne. Chocolats Weiss. St. Etienne [c1930?]. Octavo publisher's colour illustrated wrapper, string tied; 24pp, double page colour centrefold, numerous b/w ills. Frontispiece, preface and small illustrations by Sem. A nice copy. Au$185
Weiss still produce and sell chocolate in St Etienne and they look pretty smart but nowhere near as chic as what is offered in this catalogue.
Catalogue - clothing. E. Rosenburger, New York City. A Dark Secret is Let Out By [cover title; inside:] The Clothing Specialists of America. E. Rosenburger & Co. NY, the company [c1890]. Large octavo (26x18cm) publisher's illustrated wrapper; [16]pp, illustrated by wood engravings throughout. A vertical fold, a rumpled but very decent copy. Au$350
A splendid example of the value that even the most casual racism adds to any advertising. Who could resist opening this to find out what could so shock this mammy? What is it about images like this that made them so successful? It can't just be that they were funny, nor that they comforted one race nursing a fear of another. And what makes them so magnetic now. It can't just be that they shock us? And what is the dark secret? I've been right through this and I'm still not convinced there isn't some secret beyond Rosenburger's cheap suits for men and boys.
I can't find this or any Rosenburger catalogue in Romaine, McKinstry or anywhere else I can think of looking.
Catalogue - radios. AWA Radiola Broadcast Receivers. [Sydney? 193-?]. Octavo publisher's illustrated wrapper; 16pp, two-tone illustrations. Stamp of Sydney retailer Mick Simmons on the cover; inoffensive vertical fold. Au$85
The AWA range of Australian designed and made console and table radios, mains and battery powered. I don't think standing cabinet radios were ever stylish: mock Jacobean was the default. Beautiful, vivid and high moderne small radios were made but not in Australia by AWA.
Exhibition - automobiles. A.P.M.A. Exhibition Sydney Town Hall 10th to 14th November, 1953 ... Sydney, Automotive Products Manufacturers Association of Australia 1953. Octavo stapled as issued; 64pp, illustrated adverts, some in colour. Au$60
A substantial enough guide to the exhibition, two quires well printed on good paper and then stapled through the sides a la military handbook or parts catalogue.
JOHNSTON, E.M. A fairy on a crescent moon. n.p. n.d. [1920's?]. Ink and white paint on paper 19x15cm. In an elderly, possibly original, mount and glazed frame. Overall size 32x24cm. Au$125
A charming enough, certainly competent fairy picture a la Ida Outhwaite, Margaret Clark etc, well finished and nicely signed, presumably for publication: the face has been touched up with white. This surfaced in northern Tasmania, which may or may not be a help in pinning down who E.M. Johnston was.
Advertising. A shop banner for Crispo Potato Crisps. The Noisiest Crisp in the World. With an unused Crispo packet. n.p. [Tingha, NSW 1950's?]. Colour poster 16x46cm, packet 21x14cm. Both excellent. Au$150
Crispo crisps - not to be confused with any other Crispos elsewhere in the world, none of them as noisy - were made in Tingha by North West Delicacies maybe through to the mid-late sixties. Packets exist with the price changed by hand to decimal but that may be the work of a most thrifty shopkeeper.
The atom bomb - first response
A gathering of unofficial publications about the atom bomb that appeared in 1945.
HALDANE, J.B.S., S. Lilley & William Rust. Daily Worker on the Atom Bomb. Reprint of three articles ... London, Daily Worker, [August 1945]. Octavo, eight pages including the cover. Piece from the bottom of the first leaf. Au$60
Three articles which appeared on the 11th (Lilley), the 13th (Haldane) and the 14th (Rust) of August.
UGARTECHE, C. & S. BERTRAN. Historia y Principios de la Bomba Atomica. Buenos Aires, Editorial Nova 1945. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper and dustwrapper (this with a largish piece from the back and smaller chips at top and bottom); 150pp, photo illustrations and diagrams. With label of the Buenos Aires Harrods bookstore and a cryptic inscription in English on the front fly dated September 1945. Au$450
Published in September. Worldcat finds only the national library of Mexico copy.
PIEROTTI, Giuseppe. Misteri e Storia dell'Atomo. Come si e giunti "Bomba Atomica". Firenze, Nerbini 1945. Large octavo publisher's colour illustrated wrapper; 48pp, diagrams through the text. Au$300
That's not Florence being blown apart on the cover, neither is it anywhere in Japan. Is it a generic non-Firenze or is it somewhere in particular being anihilated?
MALCUZYNSKI, K. Od Atomu do Bomby. Warsaw, Czytelnik 1945. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper; 32pp. Mildy used, natural browning of the paper; a pretty good copy. Biblioteka Blekitna Nr.1. Au$200
Worldcat finds three copies outside Poland.
de ROOS, J.L. De Atoombom, de bom net atoomsplitsende werking. Haarlem, Stam [1945]. Octavo publisher's illustrated wrapper; 102pp, photo illustrations and diagrams through the text. Signs of use but pretty good. Au$100
HALDANE, J.B.S., S. Lilley & William Rust. Daily Worker on the Atom Bomb. Reprint of three articles ... London, Daily Worker, [August 1945]. Octavo, eight pages including the cover. An indifferent but acceptable enough copy given the nasty paper. Au$60
Three articles which appeared on the 11th (Lilley), the 13th (Haldane) and the 14th (Rust) of August.
JABLOW, Bernard & Robert DE MEXICO. The Atom Bomb. A Study of Atom Power. NY, Independent Book Associates 1945. Quarto publisher's illustrated wrapper; 32pp, illustrations. Rather a good copy. Au$300
The authors come to the world government conclusion.
Atomic bomb. La Bomba Atomica e l'Aviazione. Rome, Associazione Culturale Aeronautica 1945. Octavo publisher's illustrated wrapper; 40pp, five illustrations. A nice copy. Au$250
Rather scarce. OCLC finds only two copies, both in the US and I couldn't find it in the Italian national library catalogues.
QUARTAROLI, A. La Bomba Atomica. Nozioni divulgate sull'energia atomica. Pisa, Arti Grafiche Tornar [1945]. Largish octavo publisher's printed wrapper (a bit used, a splodge on the back cover); 22pp. Au$150
The author's preface is dated August 18 - pretty quick.
Atomic bomb. La Bomba Atomica e l'Aviazione. Rome, Associazione Culturale Aeronautica 1945. Octavo publisher's illustrated wrapper (used with some fraying); 40pp, five illustrations. Au$150
Rather scarce. OCLC finds only two copies, both in the US and I couldn't find it in the Italian national library catalogues.
CLARK, C.H. Douglas. The Story of the Atomic Bomb. A popular review of the principle discoveries which have led up to its production. London, The Machinery Publishing Co. [1945]. 8vo publisher's printed wrapper and explosive dustwrapper (this shabby with old tape repairs to the spine and front fold); 52pp, ills & diagrams through the text. Au$100
Not the first but an early Englishmen into print on the bomb: his preface is dated 20.9.45 and his "ms. was framed before the official British and American reports were available". Clark was at Leeds University, not a lightweight in the world of atoms, and claimed a history of warnings about the "impending release of atomic energy". Warnings seem forgotten in his now gung-ho enthusiasm for this "wonderful messenger of peace" given an international "new growth of of moral sense".
MARALDI, Ugo (Detector). Questa e la Bomba Atomica. Rome, Magi-Spinetti, August 1945. Octavo publisher's illustrated wrapper printed in black and red; 80pp. A nice copy. Au$175
Worldcat finds two copies, both in the US.
RICHTER, W. Franz. The Atom Bomb! What it Really Means for Human Society. London, Social Science Association, October 1945. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper; 16pp. A nice copy. Au$75
Third edition, the first came out in August.
BUCK, Tim. 'Atomic Diplomacy'. A Threat to World Peace. Toronto, Labor-Progressive Party [1945]. Octavo; 32pp including cover (a bit marked). Au$75
A speech delivered on November 8 1945.
MOERKERK, J.J. Atoomkrachten, hun ontdekking en beteekenis. Rotterdam, Wyt 1945. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper; 92pp, photo plates and illustrations through the text. Natural browning of the paper. Au$100
HUTCHINS, Robert M. The Atomic Bomb Versus Civilization. Washington & Chicago, Human Events Inc 1945. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper; 14pp. Au$75
The Human Events Pamphlets Number 1 - for December 1945. Hutchins was the Chancellor of the University of Chicago so this is ostensibly an authoritive voice of reason. Hutchins outlines choices and prospects that are bleak at best: other countries will soon have the bomb no matter what and there is no defense - disperse the cities, move deep underground, increase scientific, industrial and military strength? Won't work. The only hope for survival is to let loose the secrets of the atom bomb and form a world community. American education is a failure and America holds no moral high ground in these pages: 'we ... shall never be able to appeal to the moral sense of mankind to protect us against the atomic bomb, because we used it, and we used it when we did not need to do so.' This last, damning, phrase is the most intriguing of all and nowhere does Hutchins enlarge on it.
WOODWARD, E.L. Some Political Consequences of the Atomic Bomb. Oxford University Press 1945. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper; 24pp. Au$40
A lecture given by the Professor of International Relations in early November - almost two months to ponder the consequences. A gloomy rumination, stressing the need to choose between good and evil, but with no clear answers. Woodward does not see world government as practical or desirable, nor the alternatives of laissez-faire, the domination of the USA, or international agreement through the United Nations.
KNOX, Ronald. God and the Atom. London, Sheed & Ward 1945. Octavo publisher's cloth and dustwrapper; 143pp. Au$30
It took an atom bomb to interrupt Knox's work of translating scripture, or so the publisher's blurb suggests. Knox abhors the idea of a new age, the atomic age - the bomb - as it were cleaning the slate of human history: "if we are going to think of our age as discontinuous with the past .. we shall not even have the gloomy satisfaction of profiting by experience." The prime target of the bomb, he sees, "in the next few years .. it will be launched as a fresh bombshell against the structure of religious orthodoxy."
