Rare Books including The John Mowbray Collection

6:00PM 3 Abbey Street, Newton, Auckland

Art+Object’s first auction of Rare Books for 2024 will be held exclusively online on Tuesday 16 April. The sale includes two important collections.

Leading collector John Mowbray established his philately career in 1965 and has risen to become a successful auctioneer and one of the preeminent figures in the field of stamps, rare coins, bank notes and medals in the southern hemisphere.

Art+Object are pleased to include John’s private book collection in this catalogue. Major items include two copies of both the first & second editions of Walter Lawry Buller’s ’A History of the Birds of New Zealand’ and J.D. Hooker’s ‘The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage Flora Novae Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering Plants. London: Lovell Reeve 1853.

The sale also includes an important collection of New Zealand literature from the library of dedicated collector Alex Twaddle. It features 1st editions by influential and internationally respected writers Katherine Mansfield and Janet Frame. New Zealand’s poets also feature largely in his library with early editions by R.A.K. Mason, A.R.D. Fairburn, Denis Glover, Allen Curnow, Sam Hunt and J.K. Baxter.

Other major items:
Several signed Napoleonic documents from a private Dunedin estate including an 1816 Broadside printed in St Helena appointing Sir Hudson Lowe as jailor to Napoleon.
A collection of interesting and rare New Zealand maps, including Jamieson’s Celestial Atlas [1822].
A large number of early New Zealand histories.
Antiquarian books feature ‘The Psalms of David’, illuminated by Owen Jones, London 1861.
Bartoli et Bellori folio, ‘Opera Anaglyptica’. Rome 1680-1690.
‘Imitations of Original Drawings by Hans Holbein …' London 1812.
A number of Maori histories and printings including a rare copy of ‘Ko te Rongo Pai i tuhituhia e Ruka’ [Luke]. Paihia, 1835 with the book plate of Augustus Hamilton.
A rare edition of Suzanne Aubert’s ‘Ko Te Ako me te Karakia o te Hahi Katorika Romana’ and her ‘New and Complete Manual of Maori Conversation’.
A copy of the rare 1943 booklet illustrated by Dr Seuss, ‘This is Ann. She's dying to Meet you’.
A.A. Milne ‘The House at Pooh Corner’. Methuen 1928, first edition in dust jacket.

The auction will be on view from Friday 12th April through to Tuesday 16th April. This is a timed online auction. You can bid via our desktop platform (live.artandobject.co.nz) or the Art+Object app, which can be downloaded on the App Store or Google Play. Bidding is open and begins closing with lot 1 at 6.00 pm on Tuesday 16 of April. Thereafter, lots will close consecutively every 15 seconds until completion. If a lot receives a bid within the last two minutes, it will auto-extend until no further bids are placed, without holding up the rest of the auction.

The catalogue will be available for viewing purposes only for the gallery viewing days, we did not produce a catalogue to send out. You can view the digital catalogue here, or a downloadable PDF copy is available below.