To coincide with the Melbourne Rare Book Fair we are pleased to announce the latest in our series of Picture Book catalogues. It contains many treasures:
- the extremely rare second impression of Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' (1937, with the dustwrapper), the first edition of J.M. Barrie's 'Peter and Wendy' (1911, with the dustwrapper), and P.G. Wodehouse's 'Mike' (1919, also with the dustwrapper!);
- autograph material from Hector Berlioz, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Sir Robert Torrens and Sir Douglas Mawson;
- numerous important photographs, including an Antarctic masthead panorama by Frank Hurley, an early experimental image from a negative produced by exposure to radioactivity, and portraits (many with signatures) of the founders of Darwin;
- accounts of voyages by Magra, Bligh, MacGillivray and Flinders (the rare large-paper issue, a gift from the explorer's only child, with the elephant folio atlas);
- accounts of inland expeditions by Hume, Blaxland, Carron, Jardine, Leichhardt and Cross (the first work relating to the exploration of Western Australia);
- and an apparently unrecorded large-scale map of the failed Ottoman attempt to invade Egypt on 3 February 1915, the first action in the First World War to include the AIF, prepared by the 3rd Field Company, Australian Engineers, the only Australian unit present.
To view these items (and much besides) visit us at Stand 24 at the Melbourne Rare Book Fair, 12–14 July.
Booksellers affiliated to ILAB are based in 37 countries worldwide, organised in 22 national associations. The Czech antiquarian bookseller’s association, Svaz Antikváru ČR, one of ILAB's smaller member associations, currently counts 14 members across the country.
ILAB congratulates Australian bookseller Douglas Stewart on his appointment as new President of the Australian and New Zealand booksellers association.
The endowment of the ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography has recently been funded with a further generous donation of $25,000 from the B.H. Breslauer Foundation of New York — Submissions are currently being accepted for the 2022 prizes.
ILAB spoke to one of the newer members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association, Anke Timmermann who jointly owns and runs the business Type & Forme with her partner Mark James: "...the printed book and manuscripts have lost none of their allure in the new millennium, and antiquarian books are arguably even better appreciated in recent years ... Social media, especially Instagram, have brought forth a new generation of bibliophiles..."
The Proper Title: In the wake of more high-profile book thefts, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers is tackling head-on the sometimes thorny issue of provenance.
The Swedish Antiquarian Booksellers Association, Svenska Antikvariatföreningen alerted ILAB to the recently published bibliography: “Swedish Contributions to Classical Philology” by Per Rålamb.
At the annual meeting of ALAI on Tuesday, 21 May 2019, Mario Giupponi, bookseller from Riva del Garda in Northern Italy, was re-elected as president of the association.
