Australian Book Collectors (Third Series)

We are pleased to announce the release of AUSTRALIAN BOOK COLLECTORS – Volumes IV & V, concluding the work begun with publication of the first volume in 2010. The last volumes together cover a further 60 Australian private book collectors and collections: Volume IV, A-K (291 pp).; and Volume V, L-Z (270 pp.), in the same style as that of the first volume, handsomely casebound in black cloth and generously illustrated in colour and black and white.

The two new volumes, like the first, have been produced in a limited edition of 500 copies, of which 5 will be half-leather, signed and numbered. Only 450 of this issue will be for general sale. There is also a limited number of copies of the first three volumes available at the original publication prices of $95.00 for Volume I and $150 for Volumes II & III.

  Australian Book Collectors (Second Series)

We are pleased to announce the release of AUSTRALIAN BOOK COLLECTORS – Volumes II & III, continuing the series begun with publication of the first volume in 2010. The latest volumes together cover a further 125 Australian private book collectors and collections: Volume II, A-H (432 pp).; and Volume III, I-Z (464 pp.), in the same style as that of the first volume, handsomely casebound in black cloth and generously illustrated in colour and black and white.

The two new volumes, like the first, have been produced in a limited edition of 500 copies, of which 5 will be half-leather, signed and numbered. Only 450 of this issue will be for general sale. There is also a limited number of copies of the first volume available at the original publication price of $95.00

  Australian Book Collectors (First Series)

Australian Book Collectors charts the lives and fascinating collecting careers of more than a hundred bibliophiles who lived during the first two completed centuries of Australia's history, first as a disparate group of British colonies, and then as an independent commonwealth. Biographical accounts of the collectors are given, together with details of their collecting careers, outlines of the collections, and their fates. Some of the collectors were also authors, and in those cases their major works are noted. Provenance is an important focus of the book, and attention is given to available information on the bookplates, booklabels, shelf marks, signatures and other marks of ownership employed by the collectors.

Sydney Morning Herald,  Spectrum, Saturday, February 5, 2011:
".....this volume is a necessary and informative introduction to Australia's book lovers and their histories. It will undoubtedly become a collectable that will be hunted down by present and future book collectors."

Border Mail, Pulse, Saturday March 12, 2011:
".....will undoubtedly become a valuable reference work."

Colin Steele,  "Canberra Times" 11 June 2011:
" .....might turn out to become the DNB (Dictionary of National Biography) of Australian bibliophilic history."

Alan Ives, Margin - Life and Letters of Early Australia  (Mulini Press, Canberra) No. 82, November 2010:
"For those interested in the history of the book in Australia, this work is an essential addition to their own collections."

Andrew Sergeant, Script & Print, Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia & New Zealand, Volume 35, Number 3, 2011: 
"This is a work that I believe will quickly become an indispensible and desirable reference tool for Australian bibliophiles and researchers."'

Professor William E. Butler, UK Bookplate Journal New Series, Spring 2015 “The set is well-designed and attractively printed. ...Insofar as provenance studies are gaining momentum and the history of bibliophily continues to attract interest as our elder generation writes their memoirs, these volumes are a major contibution to the systematic study of Australian bibliophily that shows how much the world of ex libris has to contribute to that undertaking.”

Colin Steele, Canberra Times, 2014 “Australian Book Collectors provides fascinating insights into an array of collectors and their place in Australia’s culture and history. The three volumes to date should become a standard reference source in Australian libraries.”

In 2016, Charles Stitz was awarded the Udo Ivask Medal and Certificate of Honour by the International Federation of Ex-Libris Societies (FISAE) for ‘the outstanding contribution to provenance research represented by Australian Book Collectors.’