Today there were five Melbourne Rare Books Week events on. I attended three and sketched at two . Ii was a BIG day for me as the last event of the day was my talk and  through my exhibition “You Can’t Draw in Books?”

700 YEARS OF DANTE

State Library Victoria  Dr Anna Welch

Italian poet Dante Alighieri wrote one of the medieval world’s most famous poems, La commedia divina between 1308 and 1320. Seven hundred years on, readers and artists continue to draw inspiration from it. This talk explored Dante’s masterpiece using the State Library of Victoria collection, from early 16th-century printed editions to 21st-century artist’s books. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to view some amazing books.

‘MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE’ AND ITS PUBLISHERS

Dr Lucy Sussex

In the 1880s Melbourne was termed ‘Marvellous’, a boom-town. It was one of the wealthiest andlargest cities, world-wide and was the book trade centre of Australasia, supporting outposts of Imperial English publishing, But the great majority of publishing in Melbourne was what we would call independent, usually around a nexus of bookselling, imports, with associated printing plants, leading to local publishing. A fascinating insight !

YOU CAN’T DRAW IN BOOKS?

Melbourne Library Service

Alissa Duke and Chris Browne

 

 

Yesterday was the start of Melbourne Rare Book Week. I have an exhibition and I have also been invited to sketch at the events. I will be sketching at 20 of the 55 events of this ‘week’ (which is actually ten days) and posting on my blog each evening.

I have tried to visit the venues beforehand to sketch the building . I hope that will give my sketches context and interest. I plan to draw the speaker and also the audience, adding colour somewhere on the page. I will learn as I go, experimenting at each event .

 

 

The first event I attended was RARE BOOKS AND RARE TALES OF AUSTRALIA’S ORIENT, a talk by Professor David Walker, a historian who examines the many different ways that Australians have written about Asia. He discussed some of the key books which comment upon the rise of Asia in the late nineteenth century and its implications for Australia. Among these books are invasion stories, spy stories and travellers’ tales. Many of these books are now exceedingly rare.

My favourite title of the evening was Battle of Mordialloc written in the 1880s to awake the readers to the possibility of invasion of Victoria by forces from Japan, China & Russia. (Mordialloc is a outer Melbourne suburb……). The book I want to read is Madame Izam: a Tourist story…

The second event I attended was BOOKS FROM A TURBULENT TIME: a talk by Des Cowley and Richard Overell from State Library Victoria. They discussed the single greatest bequest of rare books that came to the State Library Victoria in 2015. They shared their insights into the John Emmerson Collection, and discussed some fascinating items from this extraordinary donation of 17th and 18th century material.

I sketched while I sat in the audience and once quietly moved to the back of the room. These two events were held at the same venue and I saw a few familiar faces. There was wine and food and lots of interesting conversation after the talks.

Welcome.

I hope that you enjoyed my exhibition “You Can’t Draw in Books?”  at Melbourne City Library as part of Melbourne Rare Books Week .If you have not seen the exhibition and are curious about any of the drawings in  the books, email me and I will send a photo of the image.

These previously valueless books,  about to be discarded, now have a value and are all available for purchase. Below is a price list of all the books in the exhibition . (I was going to post thumbnail images, but the technicalities overwhelmed me)  Locate the book that you would like to purchase and email me at aduke(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)tpg.com.au. I will send a Paypal invoice or arrange other bank account payment. Delivery/collection is after 16 August as I am on holidays sketching in England until then.

Please note : You are purchasing the whole book, condition as is. It is yours to decide to take pages out and frame them or have the book open on the shelf or shelve the book and read it one day and get a nice surprise on one page. (If you choose use the pages and remove them and I am happy to take the book back and draw in it again).

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Display cabinet in Foyer

1 Outlines of English History (Elizabeth 1)                100

2 The Nights of London                                                100

3 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland                          100

4 The Story of English Literature (Dictionary)          100

5 Warne Dollar & Cent Ready Reckoner                   70

6 Ellery Queen’s Book of Mystery Stories                70

7 Boswell’s London Journal 1762-1763                    60

8 Richard III                                                                    70

9 The Pan Book of Etiquette and Good Manners   50

10 Australian Wine Vintages 2009                             50

Behind Information Desk

11 Maisie Dobbs                                                            80

11A The Racer                                                                80

11B A Tour by Car Through England, Scotland and Wales    150

11C On Her Majesty’s Secret Service                         40

12 The Undomestic Goddess                                      80

13 Australian Garden Guide                                         80

14 Cooking with Wine and Cheese                            80

15 Cooking with Meat                                                  80

16 Traitor’s Purse                                                         50

17 I was Amelia Earhart                                               50

18 Stanley Gibbons Postage Stamp Catalogue 1961 50

19 Practical Typewriting                                               80

20 Blue Skies                                                                   50

21 The Venetian Mask                                                  50

22 Memoirs of a Geisha                                               100

LONDON A-Z London Street Atlas and Index,

23 Paddington                                                                70

24 Wombles – Orinoco                                                70

25 Battersea Power Station                                        70

26 London Bus                                                               70   SOLD

27 Telephone Box                                                         70   SOLD

28 Harrods                                                                      70

LAWS

29 Supply of Seed Potatoes                                         80

30 Acts of the Parliament of Victoria Index              not for sale

31 Hare Preservation Act                                             150        SOLD

32 Wine Grape Charges Act                                         100

33 Whaling Act                                                               100

34 Apple and Pear Organization Act                          100

35 Egg Export Charges Act                                           100   SOLD

36 Dairy Produce Export Control Act                        100      SOLD

37 Antarctic Treaty Act                                                   150

38 Lighthouses Act                                                        80

39 Honey Levy Collection Act                                     150    SOLD

40 Passports Act                                                            80

This week is a short post. It has self explanatory sketches of my packing for my UK holiday in two weeks time.
Below is my art gear – not a lot different than usual. I will carry my pencil wrap and one Moleskine on the plane, sketching all the way. However I am taking extras of many of the items in my check in luggage.

 

The next pages are my clothes. I find this a very useful exercise. I have been able to look at the last time I travelled (three years ago to Barcelona and the UK) and what I packed then.