Douglas Stewart Fine Books Pty Ltd

Prepared at the request of The Royal Commission on the Parliament Buildings. Melbourne : John Ferres, Government Printer, 1886. Presentation copy, inscribed for William McLellan, M.P.. Quarto, full calf (lightly marked) with gilt lettering and decoration, 28 pp, 8 leaves with tipped in albumen print photographs (each 145 x 200 mm), plans. A handsomely produced volume. This is also an association copy, McLellan being a long-standing Member for Ararat in the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

Petits contes par Jules Lemaitre de l’Academie Francaise avec des images de Job. Tours : Maison Alfred Mame et Fils, 1919. Quarto, decorated board covers, 54pp. (faint foxing). A charming series of stories for each letter of the alphabet including K for kangourou. This bizarre tale is a quasi-dreamtime explanation for the physical oddities of the kangaroo: using their pouches to store stolen fruit incurred the wrath of God, who shortened their front paws to restore peace to the animal kingdom.

JOUHANNEAUD, Paul Limoges: Martial Ardant frères, 1856. Octavo, polychromatic cloth, all edges gilt, 208pp., 23 hand coloured plates of races of the world, including the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa and the Pacific. A French geographical book for children, recounting voyages by great explorers to the four corners of the globe. The expeditions of Columbus, Cook, Bougainville and La Perouse are recounted, amongst others. The hand coloured lithographed plates are particularly fine.

Art in Australia Series 1, No. 1 – Series 4, No. 6 (1916 – 1942). Complete in 100 issues. Series 1 (11 issues, quarto), Series 2 (2 issues, large quarto), Series 3 (81 issues, quarto), Series 4 (6 issues, large quarto). Illustrated wrappers, occasional chipping, extensively illustrated, tipped-in plates, a very fine set. Together with the special issue produced for the Society of Artists Exhibition 1922, limited to 1000 copies, and the useful Artist Index produced in limited numbers by the State Library of New South Wales in 1973. The most important resource on Australian art in the first half of the twentieth century. Art in Australia was conceived by Sydney Ure Smith as a flagship for Australian painting and graphic art. The first issue was limited to 1000 copies, and was produced on a quality paper with tipped-in colour reproductions of unprecedented quality for an Australian journal at that time. Robert Holden writes ‘The magazine became a showcase of Australian printing ability and set new standards of advertising excellence … Artistic layout, quality graphic work in colour, an harmonious choice of typography and carefully worded text were all combined …’ (Cover Up, Sydney: 1995, p. 74). For over a quarter of a century, and through its different formats, it reviewed and discussed all aspects of Australian art, exhibited in both commercial public galleries. Special issues were dedicated to Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor, Norman and Lionel Lindsay, Hans Heysen, Elioth Gruner, Will Ashton, Arthur Streeton, George Washington Lambert, Harold Herbert, the art of Etching, Bookplates, and regional special issues on Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania. It’s longevity as a journal was due to its modern approach to design, with many covers being icons of art deco style in themselves. The appearance of reproductions by Sidney Nolan, and James Gleeson along with poetry by Alister Kershaw in the 1940s herald the arrival of the Angry Penguins movement. In addition to this, many important articles by Margaret Preston on Aboriginal art along with early colour reproductions result in Art in Australia being an unrivalled resource for scholars and collectors for this period. A fine set.

With three original woodcuts by Norman Lindsay. Sydney: Hand–press of J. Kirtley, 1923. Folio, quarter-lambskin over papered boards, dustjacket (a couple of small stains). A fine copy with three signed Norman Lindsay woodcuts. Limited to 210 copies, but not all were made up.

Sydney: The Beagle Press, 2005. Quarto, handsomely bound in gilt-lettered red cloth in slipcase, 256pp. extensively illustrated. The de luxe edition, limited to 35 copies only, with a signed limitation statement by Smart and original signed lithograph. The lithograph, titled 'Come in, Spinner', is similarly limited to 35 copies, signed and numbered by the artist. Very rare.

Sydney: The Shepherd Press, 1945. Quarto, gilt-decorated boards in dustjacket (a couple of short edge tears, but unusually fine), numerous colour and black and white plates, occasional foxing. Limited to 1000 copies.

MACKENZIE, Kenneth. With an original etching and 13 illustrations by Norman Lindsay. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1937. Quarto, quarter-cloth over gilt-lettered textured boards (occasional foxing, one corner with a minor bump) in original purple box (one edge split, worn), 60pp., bookplates and newspaper clippings to front endpaper, tipped-in illustrations by Lindsay and vignettes. The frontispiece is an original etching signed by Lindsay. Limited to 225 copies signed by Mackenzie.

[LINDSAY]. McCRAE, Hugh. With pictures and decorations by Norman Lindsay. Sydney: John Sands Ltd, 1909. Folio, quarter-vellum and decorated papered boards (sunned and worn), 149pp. some foxing to the text, includes twenty-one full-page plates and numerous vignette illustrations. Limited to 130 copies, signed and numbered by McCrae, The plates include eight tipped-in original Norman Lindsay sepia-toned lithographs, each signed by the artist in the image. Presentation copy signed and inscribed by Hugh McCrae to Bertram Stevens (1872 – 1922), noted literary and art critic and editor of The Bulletin’s Red Page (1909-10) and later Art in Australia.

With 23 black and white drawings and 5 colour plates by Norman Lindsay. Sydney: The Shepherd Press, 1948. Quarto, gilt-lettered imitation leather, Lindsay illustrations throughout. The deluxe edition, limited to 100 copies, signed by Stewart and Lindsay. Bookplates to front pastedown. An excellent copy.

OUTHWAITE, Ida Rentoul and OUTHWAITE, Grenby. London: A. & C. Black, 1921. Quarto, papered boards (wear to edges and corners) 93 pp., 16 colour and 16 black and white plates, sparse foxing. The first of A. & C. Black’s large format illustrated works of Outhwaite, ‘luxury books’ as described by Muir & Holden, lavishly illustrated and finely printed. A good copy of the standard edition. Muir 5596.

LINDSAY, Norman Sydney : Angus & Robertson, [1935]. [Fourth edition]. Quarto, original pictorial dustjacket (a crease and some staining to front) over printed blue boards (head and tail of spine worn), front and rear joints weak and splitting, owner's name 'K. Burke' on front free endpaper, some foxing to half title and title, [167] pp (some lightly stained), illustrated in black and white with colour frontispiece; [together with] a single page holograph letter from Norman Lindsay to the owner of the book, K. Burke, written in pen, addressed from Springwood and in its original envelope, postmarked 31 DE 62. The letter importantly mentions the private photographs taken by Lionel Lindsay: 'As for those documentary remains left by my brother Lionel, who was a camera addict, it amuses me to think of all those antics he, and I, and Bill Dyson, and others, performed before the lense of a camera being now solemnly entombed at Canberra for the diversion of posterity. I took a considerable number of them myself, but what prints I had of them have gone down the drain long since.' This is a reference to the collection of Lionel Lindsay's photographs of family and friends (spanning roughly the years 1880-1960) which was acquired by the National Library of Australia following Lionel's death in 1961.