Curiosities

Platypus by Lesueur from Baudin Voyage – c1820

An original hand coloured engraving of Platypus after a drawing by Charles-Alexandre Lesueur from the voyage of Nicolas Baudin. Depicting a female and male platypus and another male head appearing from the rushes to the right and the “tail up” of a diving female showing the monotremate area under the tail with the opening to the reproductive organs.

printed on wove paper 20cm by 13cm … small, charming historic engraving using a stipple engraving technique. Good condition.

Platypus delight from the Baudin expedition

$180.00

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A Gun for Sale – Graham Green – Special Edition 1944

One for the collector or Greene lover. Scarce soft cover published by the Melbourne Truth in 1944. 128 pages. Apart from the insect damage along the leading edge of the cover, which goes to the title page, the book is in very good condition given its generally fragile nature.

Greene enjoys melodrama and there is plenty in “A Gun for Sale” – a strange one that makes it all that more enjoyable.

Greene with Guns and a special scarce issue Melbourne Truth

$35.00

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SO (Ten Romances) – John Crombie and The Kickshaws Private Press – Limited to 175 copies – Unusual Permutational Book.

A first and only limited edition by the talented writer and book designer John Crombie. Published by his Kickshaws Press in Paris in 1988.

This is a unique example of a what can be referred to as a permutational book. The book is bound on the left hand edge but the text runs like a maze left to right continuously around the book until each of ten romances is complete. At the end of each section the reader is presented with options on new lines as to how to proceed and must make a choice. There are also vertical groups of connecting words that rhyme or free-associate with the ones above and below. The text is worthy, funny and at times a little naughty. Once you have completed the ”maze” the stories can be read in a different order [we challenge you to remember which way you went the first time] giving them a whole new meaning.

Unpaginated, 20cm by 25cm, the book narrative is printed and bound separately from the fuchsia three-fold heavy paper wrap around, the latter containing an introduction that describes in more words than ours the recommended method of reading

A really super item … challenging, enlightening and entertaining. Would make a special gift.

Crombie’s “SO” a most unusual book from the Paris Kickshaws Press.

$120.00

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Musical Quotation – Jazz – Signed – William Scmidt (1926-2009) American composer, arranger and music publisher.

An unusual piece of music ephemera in manuscript and signed by the composer … “Opening measures of Rhapsody No 1 for Clarinet and Piano” by William Schmidt.

Original piece 13 cm by 8 cm … strong “musical hand” in good condition. We love it.

There is a really lovely biographical interview online with William Schmidt. In that there are a few images helping to illustrate the man … one being this item.. we suppose it may have been given to the talented interviewer and maybe scripted then … who knows?

More to come we just need time to summarise the interesting life of William Schmidt.

Get out your Clarinet today for William Schmidt

$120.00

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Tasmanian Tiger – Original Thylacine Engraving – by Varin – 1830’s

Scarce hand coloured engraving of the now extinct Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine). A delightful depiction by Pierre Amedee Varin (1818-1883).

Paired with a botanical Thunbergie … as the engravings appeared in la Dictionnaire Pittoresque d’Histoire Naturelle et de Phenomenes de la Nature published in Paris in the 1830’s

28cm by 18cm in dimensions and in very good condition. Stipple engraved probably in steel … you can see the technique reflected in the hairs of the thylacine especially in the enlarged iamge … super technique.

Thylacine lovers often frame their favourite part omitting the botanical. We always leave those decisions to the buyer.

Pierre Varin came from a family of engravers and illustrators who came from Chalons- sur-Marne, now named Chalons-en-Champagne … a really beautiful part of France.

Scarce Thylacine engraving … well they are

SO SORRY SOLD

$170.00

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Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev in An Evening with the Royal Ballet

An original promotion poster produced in 1963 for the Documentary Film staring the great Fonteyn and Nureyev. This was incidentally one year before their highly charged successful performances in Melbourne and Sydney.

The film was produced by Anthony Havelock- Allen and Anthony Asquith and was filmed at the Royal Opera House, London. Dances performed by the famous couple included from Les Syphides; Le Corsaire; La Vaise and Aurora’s the last segment from the third act of The Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky.

Printed by Robert Burton, Sydney for local release 100cm by 70cm and in very good condition with bright colours.

Fonteyn and Nureyev were at first seen as an unusual if not unlikely pairing … Fonteyn the epitome of English poise and grace whilst Nureyev rather wild and a bit of a rascal. This unusual recipe gave rise to surely the best dance pairing ever … Nureyev said … “when we dance, we are one body … one soul”

Fonteyn and Nureyev for inspiration ……

$90.00

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Platypus by Lesueur from Baudin Voyage – c1820

A Gun for Sale – Graham Green – Special Edition 1944

SO (Ten Romances) – John Crombie and The Kickshaws Private Press – Limited to 175 copies – Unusual Permutational Book.

Musical Quotation – Jazz – Signed – William Scmidt (1926-2009) American composer, arranger and music publisher.

Tasmanian Tiger – Original Thylacine Engraving – by Varin – 1830’s

Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev in An Evening with the Royal Ballet

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