Fine Bird Books 1700-1900.
London: Collins & Van Nostrand, 1953. Folio, with many illustrations; original half cloth. One of 2000 copies of this attractive book, a standard reference for ornithological collectors. More
Natural history & science
9 hand coloured Botanical engravings.
London: 1794.
Australia's first botanical illustrations
9 hand coloured engravings, each 235 x147mm, some with accompanying original letter press descriptions and all housed in a custom made solander case. A collection of nine superb hand coloured engravings from the first illustrated book on Australian flowers - John Edward Smith's A.... More
Le Cabinet du Jeune Naturaliste…
Paris: Maradan, 1810.
Charming natural history for young people
Six volumes, octavo, engraved frontispiece and title to each volume, 65 engraved plates; uncut, in original bright pink wrappers with original paper spine labels. The first French edition of Thomas Smith's delightful natural history for young people: an immaculate set, in... More
Embothrium Speciosissimum…
London: Published by J. Sowerby & Co, 1793.
The first engraved image of the magnificent waratah
Hand coloured engraved plate, 235 x 170mm, mounted and in a handsome nineteenth century timber frame. This superb image, 'the most magnificent plant which the prolific soil of New Holland affords is, by common... More
A Conchological Manual…
London: G.B. Sowerby, 1839.
'Exquisite architecture of these wonders of the deep...'
Octavo, with 24 handcoloured engraved plates; early ownership inscriptions on the front pastedown and title-page;. First edition of this attractive and profusely colour-illustrated guide to shells. Shell-collecting was a most popular eighteenth- and nineteenth-century pastime. During the great... More
Treatise on the Culture of the Vine… Together with new hints on the formation of vineyards in England.
York: Printed by G. Peacock for the author, 1790.
"Cultivating the Vine… has long been one of the first objects of my attention…"
Quarto, five engraved plates (three folding), closed tear to p. 149; a most attractive copy in nineteenth-century straight grained red half morocco, label to front board, spine... More
An Essay Upon Gardening, containing a catalogue of exotic plants…
York: G. Peacock, 1793.
Cook plants, preserving seeds on voyages, and building greenhouses
Quarto, with three folding plates, contemporary (?original) marbled boards, calf spine renewed. A singular work written and published at the cusp of the fashion for exotics, which provides a most interesting overview of the state of play... More
Zoological Illustrations…
London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1820-1823 & 1830-1833.
Including many newly discovered specimens from Australia and the South Seas
Six volumes, octavo, 318 handcoloured plates, an excellent set in uniform contemporary green half morocco over marbled boards, all edges gilt. A particularly attractive set of both the first and second... More
Watercolour captioned "Sturt's Desert Pea. Full size."
England? circa 1840.
Early watercolour
Watercolour drawing heightened with gum arabic, within an ink border, 202 x 145mm; mounted on blue paper probably from an album. A charming early depiction of Sturt's Desert Pea, the floral emblem of South Australia, first collected by William Dampier off the coast of Western... More
Flora Australasica…
London: James Ridgway, 1827.
The first Australian botanical book with illustrations taken from live specimens
Royal octavo, with 56 engraved plates in fine contemporary handcolouring; a fine, large copy, bound in handsome quarter green morroco, marbled boards, top edge gilt. First edition; one of the most attractive of all Australian... More
Fish and Fisheries of New South Wales.
Sydney: Thomas Richards, 1882. Large octavo, frontispiece and 45 plates, illustrated, a little browned; very good copy in half black morocco over marbled boards, spine gilt, very gently rubbed. A very good copy of this seminal work on the fishes of New South Wales. Tenison-Woods (1832-1889), was a Catholic priest... More
Mountain Eagle of New South Wales.
London: Cadell and Davies, 1802. Handcoloured engraving, 260 x 200 mm. After Thomas Watling, from Collins's An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales. More
![Maenura Superba [Lyre Bird]. THOMAS WATLING, Samuel John NEELE.](/pictures/thumb/2908533.jpg?v=1434432096)
Maenura Superba [Lyre Bird].
London: Cadell and Davies, 1802.
After Thomas Watling
Handcoloured engraving, 267 x 200 mm. mounted. Fine hand-coloured impression of this famous depiction of the "Maenura Superba" or Superb Lyre Bird. The present engraving which was published in 1802 in David Collins' An Account of the English Colony in New South... More!['Myrtaceae xerocarpicae, in Nova Hollandia' [in] Melanges Biologiques… de St. Petersbourg…. Nicholai TURCZANINOV.](/pictures/thumb/3611668.jpg?v=1434432216)
'Myrtaceae xerocarpicae, in Nova Hollandia'…
St. Petersbourg: de l'Imprimerie de l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences, 1852. Octavo, four folding plates; in original printed wrappers, rubbed with some loss, splitting at spine. An attractive if worn copy of this important nineteenth-century scientific journal, with a long and significant article regarding the eucalypts of New Holland. The 77... More
Cassell's Popular Natural History.
London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin, circa 1880. Four volumes in two, large octavo; contemporary half green morocco. This is a beautifully, if somewhat romantically, illustrated overview of the animal kingdom, using an idiosyncratic taxonomical system. The coloured plates include Adam naming the animals, a pastoral scene overflowing with rabbits and hares... More
Rudiments of Conchology…
London: Harvery and Darton, 1826. Duodecimo, with ten handcoloured plates;, original marbled boards, morocco. First edition of this charming conchological guide for children which takes the form of an instructive dialogue between a father and his two children. The plates are exquisitely engraved and coloured by hand. There are several... More
Description des plantes… dans le jardin de J.M. Cels…
Paris: de l'Imprimerie de Crapelet, [Revolutionary Year VIII], 1800-1803.
With Australian plants gathered on the d'Entrecasteaux voyage
Folio, 100 engraved plates each with descriptive letterpress sheet; complete with the half-title; a large copy, edges uncut, in contemporary green quarter morocco gilt. One of the most elegant botanical books, this study... More
An Arabian Stallion.
c, 1825. Lithograph on brown washed paper with white heightening, 290 x 370 mm., mounted. Carle Vernet (1758-1836) was trained by his father, Claude-Joseph. He won the Prix de Rome in 1782 and the Legion of Honor in 1808 with one of his battle scenes. Vernet was a horseman, riding... More
Känguru Jagd.
Stuttgart: E. Hochdanz, engraver, 1869.
A hunt in an odd landscape
Coloured print, 260 x 190 mm. (sheet size), mounted. A vivid, if somewhat idealised, scene of a kangaroo hunt in a landscape reminiscent of the Alps. More
The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne & A Garden Kalendar.
London: S.T. Freemantle, 1900. Two volumes, thick quarto, many plates, illustrations, and textual vignettes, untrimmed, original lettered tissue-guards badly foxed and some spotting; a handsome set in the original stiff vellum boards, gilt-embossed hand-coloured coat-of-arms to front boards of both volumes, spines lettered in gilt, bookplates. A handsome set of... More
ALS concerning sale of fruit and wine from Cape Town to Hovil & Sons in London.
Sydney: 19 June, 1852.
Buying wines and fruit from Cape Town
Bifolium ALS, 280 x 220 mm., address panel with stamps and postal marks, crimson wax seal largely intact, Unusual autograph letter, recording the sale of "wines and fruit" brought in from Cape Town on the Cremona in 1852. As... More
The Illustrated Natural History: Mammalia: Birds: Reptiles Etc: The Natural History of Man. Africa.
London: George Routledge and Sons, 1868-, 1876. Four volumes, quarto, each with numerous wood engraving; handsome contemporary half calf, marbled boards, endpapers and edges, gilt spines. John George Wood (1827-1889) was an ordained priest, but from the 1850's he was developing a career as a natural historian; The Illustrated Natural... More
Index Testaceologicus; or A Catalogue of Shells, British and Foreign…
London: for W. Wood, 1828.
Comprehensive Linnaean Conchology
Octavo, with 38 handcoloured engraved plates; contemporary cloth with paper label. Wood's two manuals, this and his General Conchology, were the best-known conchological works to be arranged according to the Linnaean system. The exquisitely drawn and handcoloured plates depict some two thousand... More
Interesting ALS to F. Watkins Esq., United Insurance Company…
Richmond: 14 January, 1878.
Ferns of the Blue Mountains
Eight-page letter on blank-embossed note paper, 176 x 115 mm., neatly written; very good. An interesting and detailed letter on the ferns of the Cumberland and Blue Mountains, sent by the Australian botanist and writer William Woolls. Woolls advises his friend... More