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Sydney Rare Book Auctions: Science, Mining, Natural History, Exploration, Art books and First editions

Auction Reports

Auction Name	Science, Mining, Natural History, Exploration, Art books and First editions	Total Sales (AUD)	30,765.75
Auction Date	May 01, 2026 - May 01, 2026	Low Estimate of Lots Sold (AUD)	52,490.00
Sale Number	#A182	High Estimate of Lots Sold (AUD)	72,760.00
Total Lots	333
Sold Lots	220.0	Low Estimate of All Lots (AUD)	113,015.00
% of Lots Sold	66.07%	High Estimate of All Lots (AUD)	152,380.00
Unsold Lots	113	Total Sales as a % of High Est.	20.19%

Top twenty-five by sale price

Top Sale Price Lots
Lot Number	Author Name	Book Title	Year Published	Estimate	Actual Price
33	Archibald Liversidge	Papers from the personal collection of Professor Archibald Liversidge	1874-1881	AUD 500.00 - 750.00	AUD 2,286.00
111	Henry Fielding	The Works of Henry Fielding	1899	AUD 1,800.00 - 2,200.00	AUD 1,016.00
12	George Keate	An Account of the Pelew Islands, Situated in the Western Part of the Pacific Ocean	1789	AUD 800.00 - 1,000.00	AUD 889.00
243	Samuel Mossman	Our Australian Colonies: Their Discovery, History, Resources & Prospects	1866	AUD 180.00 - 220.00	AUD 698.50
27	J. Beete Jukes	Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. Fly, Commanded by Captain F. P. Blackwood, R.N. in Torres Strait, New Guinea, and Other Islands of the Eastern Archipelago, During the Years 1842-1846: Together with an excursion into the interior of the eastern	1847	AUD 750.00 - 1,000.00	AUD 635.00
39	Anne Thompson	Book of recopies	circa 1850	AUD 200.00 - 300.00	AUD 635.00
142	Edgar Allan Poe	The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: With original memoir	1858	AUD 500.00 - 600.00	AUD 603.25
28	Abraham Rees	Cyclopaedia: or, an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. Containing an explanation of the terms, and an account of the several subjects in the liberal and mechanical arts, an the sciences, human and divine. With the supplement, and improvements inco	1786	AUD 1,000.00 - 1,250.00	AUD 571.50
29	Sir Douglas Mawson	Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911-1914	1922-1931	AUD 400.00 - 500.00	AUD 571.50
49	Robert Logan Jack, Gibb Maitland, William Rands, B. Dunstan, Etheridge	Geological Survey of the Queensland Department of Mines	1895-1902	AUD 400.00 - 500.00	AUD 539.75
3	Edward Fitzgerald	Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam	1909	AUD 600.00 - 800.00	AUD 508.00
134	Samuel Rush Meyrick; Charles Hamilton Smith	The Costume of the original inhabitants of the British Islands, from the earliest periods to the sixth century; to which is added, that of the Gothic nations on the Western coasts of the Baltic, the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Danes	1821	AUD 1,200.00 - 1,400.00	AUD 508.00
150	E C Andrews	NSW Department of Mines Geological Survey. Mineral Resources No. 17 Report on the Cobar Copper and Gold-Field Part 1	1911	AUD 600.00 - 700.00	AUD 508.00
13	E.H. Nolan	The Illustrated History of the British Empire in India and the East	1860	AUD 500.00 - 750.00	AUD 412.75
47	Morley	Christine Keeler poster signed image	2011	AUD 100.00 - 200.00	AUD 381.00
113	Thomas Lovell Beddoes	The Complete Works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes	1928	AUD 350.00 - 450.00	AUD 349.25
16	Nat Fleischer	Jack Dempsey The Idol of Fistiana an Intimate Narrative	1936	AUD 500.00 - 600.00	AUD 317.50
10		Proceedings of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Victoria. Volume 1	1872	AUD 100.00 - 200.00	AUD 285.75
31	T. W. Edgeworth-David	Geological Maps and Sections of the Coal Measures in the Hunter River District	1907	AUD 400.00 - 500.00	AUD 285.75
187	Alexander von Humboldt	Cosmos: A Physical Description of the Universe	1847; 1848; 1851; 1858	AUD 150.00 - 250.00	AUD 285.75
43	J.T. Jutson, C. Sidney Honman, Feldtmann	Three rare mining reports on the Coolgardie goldfields	1921; 1916; 1916	AUD 400.00 - 500.00	AUD 254.00
124	T C Wollaston	The Spirit of the Child	1914	AUD 400.00 - 500.00	AUD 254.00
137	Pierre Gusman	Pompei: La Ville - Les Moeurs - Les Arts	c1899	AUD 700.00 - 800.00	AUD 254.00
148	E C Andrews	NSW Department of Mines Geological Mines Mineral Resources Number 18 The Canbelego, Budgery, and Budgerygar Mines. Part 2 Cobar Copper and Goldfield	1913	AUD 400.00 - 500.00	AUD 254.00
330		A bookcase of at least 100 books on cricket	ND	AUD 600.00 - 700.00	AUD 254.00

Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
28th May 2026

Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000

Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000

Forum, May 28: The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000

Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
28th May 2026

Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000

Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000

Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000

Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
28th May 2026

Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000

Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000

Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000

Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
28th May 2026

Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000

Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000

Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000