Sydney Rare Book Auctions

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.

View the catalogue by clicking here!

Our June 7^th auction was a resounding success, with a clearance rate of 95% and some fantastic results achieved. We had a lot of online bidding to accompany a busy saleroom, this inturn led to an exciting sale.

A selection of sale highlights includes a 1st edition Phillip’s Voyage to Botany Bay 1789 ($4,500), Hunter’s Journal ($3,200) and an 1896 Book on Tattooing ($875). Our maps proved to be hugely popular with several of them selling for well above the estimate. These include an 1803 Map of the Indian Ocean ($2,300), 1838 Arrowsmith Map ($1,600), Stanford’s Map of Australasia ($2,200) a 1606 Map with Terra Australis ($4,000) and a 1799 Map of New Holland ($1,200).

While the above is a listing of the upper end of the auction results, there were also plenty of bargains to be nabbed by the savvy buyer! As always the fine bindings and antiquarian lots proved to be popular, as did the indigenous titles.

The next auction is scheduled for the end of July and will include an array of medical, Australiana, antiquarian, bindings, maps, early prints and more.