A beautiful French children's book about a young sailor called Jean-Francois Popineau and his ostrich and their adventures among the Moouri Tahitiens.

In lovely original condition this Victorian scrapbook is composed entirely of cotton sheets hemmed with variously coloured wools. Each page has been carefully decorated with illustrations - mostly of children at play, and with their mothers - clipped from contemporary publications. Unique.

First Edition. Dust jacket torn along spine with moderate foxing throughout. A collection of poetry about Australian birds and animals. Nelle Grant Cooper has composed a cheery Christmas ditty on the front endpaper and dedicated this copy to fellow Australian poet, Jack Moses, signed and dated December 1939.

Edition limited to 25 copies, of which this is copy no. 8, signed by the author.

Signed by Harold Gaze on the half-title, this is the first American edition of an Australian classic. A story about a young girl called Cecilia who visits the clerk of the weather with her imaginary brothers Tibbs and Kiddiwee. They visit the Castles of the Four Winds, the Himalayas and the Blarney Stone, and enjoy the company of whales, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders.

Educational calligraphy copy book with a single poignant sentence printed in copperplate at the top of each page, for practice purposes.

This wonderful book was the pinnacle of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite's artistic career, and won her national and international acclaim. Selected edition, October, 1919.

First edition (second printing ?) in near fine original dust jacket. An early imprint of May Gibbs' first full length book, identifiable by an illustration for "The Hat Shop" which appears opposite page 2. On publication, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie became an immediate success and is an Australian children's classic which has virtually never been out of print. May Gibbs' characters have become national symbols of Australia: Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, Little Ragged Blossom and Bib and Bub, have all for generations filled the hearts of young readers with fear and excitement, and made the Australian bush a place of exceptional interest. May Gibbs perhaps more than any other Australian children's book author has influenced the way we look at our environment. In 1920 a review of this, her first publication states "Miss Gibbs is a naturalist of class. She knows every leaf and twig of the Australian bush and judging from her knowledge of sea cornets, anchovies, anemones and the like, she would seem to have spent at least half her life down in the mysterious deep...".

First Edition of the highly successful sequel to the Rentoul sisters' 'Australian Songs for Young and Old', with words by Annie Rentoul, music by Georgette Peterson and illustrations by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. Imperial edition 336. Muir #6346

A rare collection of Australian early childhood readers written for children aged six. All are in the delicate original wrappers, being an excellent cache of early Australian ephemeral educational publishing. Titles are Ben Bunny's Holiday, Foolish Winkie, Picnic Fun, Six Little Bears, A Run for Mr Rat, An Imp at School, Shopping, What Am I, The Little Red Van and Ruff and Mr Rat

Rare wrapper-bound issue predating publication of the first edition. Juliana Horatia Ewing (1841-85) "her strength lay in variety of character-drawing and in a realism of detail which informed it. Jackanapes and Daddy Darwin's Dovecot contain a whole gallery of real live people, such as exactly suited her chief illustrator, Caldecott" (Darnton pp. 284-85). Housed in a classic Zaehnsdorf binding, with immaculately detailed gilt tooled edges.

A collection of Christmas stories and fairy tales featuring a striking tipped-in colour frontispiece.

A charming and somewhat overlooked classic of Australian children's literature by the brilliant Dymphna Cusack. Kanga-bee and Kanga-bo places the traditional fairy story within a distinctly Australian setting. Full of anthropomorphic characters and bushland babies, Rainbow Serpents and Bunyips - all beautiffuly illustrated by .Matt-Slater-Wigg - this small book is a Dreamtime delight. A prolific author in her own right, Cusack also went on to co-author novels with both Miles Franklin and Florence James

A handsome copy of the third of Lang's beautiful fairy books with illustrations by Henry J. Ford. The Scots author was an avid collector of fairy tales from around the world and many of the stories in this collection, particularly the classic French tales, are translated here into English for the first time.

A beautiful edition of Alice in Wonderland illustrated in Attwell's gentle and humorous style.

A fresh and attractive Australian songbook for young children. Each of the twelve songs composed by Bronnie Taylor and Edith Harrhy are accompanied by a suite of lovely, playful sketches by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. Interestingly, it is not recorded as Outhwaite's work in Marcie Muir's comprehensive bibliography of Australian Children's Books 1774-1972.

Presentation copy inscribed by the author on the front endpaper: 'To my mother from H.C.S.'. A significant manuscript as it is possibly the first American translation of ˜The Little Mermaid'. Hans Christian Andersen is the most translated author of all time so the discovery of this early American translation is exciting. The fourteen illustrated leaves in ˜The Little Mermaid' are by a skilled unrecorded female artist, stated as 'A. Maynard' on the title-page. The fine steel-point drawings are executed with balance and competence in a neoclassical style.

First edition of this justly famous children's book with anthropomorphised kangaroo characters - 'perhaps the best known story entirely devoted to the kangaroo' (Robert Holden 'The Mint Exhibition' 1985).

From the series Whitcombe's Story Books for Children Aged 8 to 9 years, illustrated by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

Nielsen's subtle and symbolic plates do great justice to Andersen's timeless fairy tales.

With illustrated endpapers by David Knight

An attractive edition of this children's classic with vibrant plates and cheerful vignettes by Arthur Dixon.

A deluxe and desirable edition of this treasury of Greek myths for younger readers, illustrated with stunning mounted plates by Russell Flint, some are dreamy and romantic while others have a tense and dramatic quality. The book is a humble masterpiece of typographic taste and discretion being generously composed within ample margins; the title page was designed by Miss M. Engall and features a classical ornament by Flint

An old tale of Australian bushranging intrigues and adventures in a dramatic decorated binding

Verdensudgave illustreret af Hans Tegner med en karakteristik af H.C. Andersen som eventyrforfatter af Georg Brandes

First edition of May Gibbs’s first full length book. On publication, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie became an immediate success and is an Australian children’s classic which has virtually never been out of print. May Gibbs’s characters have become national symbols of Australia: Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, Little Ragged Blossom and Bib and Bub, have all for generations filled the hearts of young readers with fear and excitement, and made the Australian bush a place of exceptional interest. May Gibbs perhaps more than any other Australian children’s book author has influenced the way we look at our environment. In 1920 a review of this, her first publication states "Miss Gibbs is a naturalist of class. She knows every leaf and twig of the Australian bush and judging from her knowledge of sea cornets, anchovies, anemones and the like, she would seem to have spent at least half her life down in the mysterious deep...".

Frontispiece and colour pictorial onlay by May Gibbs

First edition of this scarce and finely-produced work. Although published a year after the first Blinky Bill title, the illustrative style of Bridget and the Bees harks back to Wall's delicate drawings for J.J. Hall's The Crystal Bowl, published in 1921, and suggests that it was written and illustrated well before its publication date. This is the rare English edition, which was followed by an American edition the following year.

Wonderful kangaroo-shaped book about a young kangaroo learning to hop, complete with an extra stand-up joey which fits into the mother kangaroo's pouch on the front card. This remarkable children's book, published as part of a series of "Mother and Baby Animal Books", is not recorded by Muir.

Striking Danish natural history primer featuring animals from Africa to Australia and beautifuly illustrated throughout with soft yet striking charcoal drawings.

Endearing history of old Rowe street in Sydney written for children.

Illustrated by Charles Robinson. Robinson's plates are gentle and humorous, executed in warm watercolour tones admirably suited to Shakespeare's poetry.

With paintings and drawings by Clifton Pugh.

With words by Roger Williamson. Evocative watercolour paintings capture the Australian seasons.

Lovely children's book about a boy and his kangaroo friend.

First Edition. Illustrated by Nora Heysen. A collection of 26 Aboriginal legends, taken mainly from New South Wales and Queensland.

First deluxe edition limited to 1000 numbered copies. The three tipped colour plates are by William Blamire Young, the Cambridge graduate and mathematics teacher from the Blue Mountains who became noted for his watercolours: 'poster-like, romantic, poetic and remarkable otherwise for the complexity and their techniques" (McCulloch).

An early celebration of Australian fauna, tales of adventure and forest gossip with beautiful chromolithograph plates

First edition and scarce.

A collection of poems for young children. Perhaps one of the most beautiful books in the the Enid Blyton canon with delightful colour plates and line drawings throughout.

Henriette Willebeek le Mair (1889-1966) was a precocious child artist, her first book being published at the tender age of fifteen. She was actively encouraged by her parents and received instruction from the noted Parisian illustrator Maurice Boutet de Monvel. Le Mair illustrated a total of fourteen books in her distinctive style characterised by gentle forms and subdued and sophisticated colouring. Before her conversion of Sufi Islam she ran an nursery in her home and used the children as models for her art. The present edition is a very beautiful book: Adam and Charles Black were renowned for the quality and finesse of their colour plate reproduction. 'Our Old Nursery Rhymes' is one such book as the colour production is neither bold nor washed out and the publisher's have faithfully reproduced the gentle tones the author intended for her beautiful plates.

First Australian edition of an endearing fairy classic.

A beautiful Christian gift book decorated in the style of an illumnated Book of Hours.

A beautiful example of nineteenth century gift book design with gilt ornaments throughout.

A delightful collection of Aesop's fables with sumptuous Crane illustrations adorning every page, engraved and printed in colour by Edmund Evans. A lovely copy, rare in dustjacket.

This beautiful drawing, probably from the period when Gaze was serving in the First World War, shows a little boy at play. It is titled in pencil "Lonesome". Harold Gaze (1885-1962) was a whimsical artist with outstanding talent; he is one of the more elusive of the early Australian children's writers and illustrators. We know that several of Gaze's books were published in America where he worked as an expert in munitions but little is known about his later life. He exhibited at the Victorian Artists Society Annual Exhibition in May 1919 and over the next few years his work "established him as the most original illustrator of children's books after Ida Rentoul Outhwaite" (Holden). Original art by Harold Gaze is very scarce. HOLDEN, A Golden Age, 82.

Edited by Walter Jerrold. This edition is distinctive for the vibrant and energetic drawings; each nursery rhyme in this large collection is illustrated, and the full-page colour plates feature some joyfully rendered eccentric characters. A 'must-have' last century accesory for the picture perfect grandparent. Delightful.

A very rare and largely unknown work in the Outhwaite canon, from The Willie Winkie Zoo Books

Although enthusiastically received on its release, this was to be the last of Outhwaite's major illustrated books: the onset of the Depression meant that few people could afford these luxurious books. Muir, 5605.

One of the most important boys' adventure stories of the Victorian period by one of the leading writers of the time - rare in this delightful morocco binding.