The December sale of the Michael Birch Collection was a huge success. We had a record amount of online activity as well as a full bidding room. Highlights of the sale included a Jane Austen First Edition realising $5,200, an 1827 map of Perth selling for $4,300, a 1669 Rare Medical book going under the hammer for $4,000 and an 1805 book of hand coloured plates achieving $3,500. Registered members of Invaluable can view the entire sale results by clicking here and logging in.
Across the sale there was a lot of interest in everything from crime fiction and pulp, to antiquarian, maps and modern first editions. Our next sale will be in February 2015 and features a variety of titles from Australiana and antiquarian, to maps, rare and interesting books. Submissions are being accepted until January 15th.
In our August 9th auction are some wonderful old books from as early as the 15th century. The oldest title is a 1491 Incunabulum. Printed in Basel within the first fify years of the beginnings of printing in the Western world. This volume is one of one of the very first histories of the world. Many early printed books were religious. This title, although written by the Archbishop of Florence is secular, however it does talk about religious history as well. The book is in Latin and is a very clean copy with no foxing. The binding is probably sixteenth century and is leather over thick wooden boards. Incunable are rarely seen on the auction market in Australia. Also in the auction are a number of other antiquarian books, several bound in vellum.
Included in this sale is a very clean copy with wide margins of Surgeon General John White’s 1790 book Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales. This is the rare edition with sixty five hand coloured natural history plates. There is also a copy of An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson And Norfolk Island by John Hunter and published in 1793. Once again this is a very good clean copy and with the maps in very good condition.
For those that like maps and prints we have a fantastic selection of old maps, many of which have Australia in a barely recognizable form, plus several antiquarian prints. Finally we have a variety of art books, a first edition of Man From Snowy River, fine binding and some modern items like DC comics.