This month we have included for separate listing a unique item: an illuminated presentation album prepared in fine detail by Ludwig Lang and bound by the Melbourne firm Detmold. The album was a gift from the prospering German citizenry of Sandhurst (now Bendigo) to Count Otto von Bismarck. 

A selection of books spanning 90 years of Russian voyages of exploration, from the 1780s ending in 1872 with an rare private letter from the great explorer Lütke to the Russian privy counsellor von Adelung. The official account of the Lütke voyage, one of the rarest and most beautiful of all illustrated Pacific voyage publications is also featured. As well, Choris's magnificent...

Our latest online List: thirteen broadsides and news printings 1780-1886. Highlights include: three relating to George Anson, two celebrating his naval conquests and one, rather less gloriously concerning the control of venereal disease amongst seamen signed by him as Admiral; a rare Sydney-printed poem lauding the generosity of the merchant Quong Tart; a vivid pictorial printing advertising “dioramic lectures” celebrating...

Our March short list celebrates the work of James Busby who did so much to bring the cultivation of vines and wine to Australia. He was a foundation figure for the wine industry and of international repute, as the London and New York printings of his first work indicate. Included too are manuscript letters: on the equipping of Freycinet’s Uranie voyage; and...

Our first catalogue for the year, prepared for the California Antiquarian Bookfair, includes foundation French voyage accounts together with a broad offering of material relating to Cook's three voyages, and two great rarities: Samwell's account of the Death of Cook; and Alexander Shaw's Catalogue of Tapa, long regarded as one of the rarest and most desirable of all Pacific voyage...