Wrathall Books

An exciting exhibition coming to Atticus Bookshop and Gallery in November.

Exhibition at Atticus Bookshop and Gallery Jenny Peterson and I are holding a printmaking exhibition in this superb Foster establishment from Tuesday 15 October to Monday 18th November. It’s an amazing bookshop and gallery with a beau…

A Foyles bookshop sticker on an 1918 anthropology book.

A H Spencer’s Hill of Content bookshop.

It is one of my regrets that I was not able to visit A. H. Spencer’s Hill of Content bookstore during his reign at 86 Bourke Street, Melbourne. Although the bookstore continues to this day under that name, Spencer sold the goodwill and stock in 1951.

Many have written about this legendary bookseller, but I will quote from Stuart Kell’s Rare. A life among antiquarian books [Folio, Sydney, 2011].

‘With rare Australiana his main speciality, A. H. ‘Bert’ Spencer was Melbourne’s main rare bookseller of the 1920s and 30s. He established the celebrated Hill of Content bookshop in Collins Street and, in the mid-twenties, dispersed the great library of Dr F. Hobill Cole.

Spencer’s memoir of the Hill of Content is a delectable portrait of Melbourne’s antiquarian book scene in the first half of the twentieth century. Who could forget his tale of becoming wedged in the narrow tin bath out the back of the Hill – until his staff rigged a block and tackle and ‘persuaded’ him out. Spencer trained in Sydney under Fred Wymark at Angus & Robertson. Wymark could sense an Australian rarity ‘anywhere between Peru and Kamchatka and knew its history, its value and its probable purchaser’. Spencer cultivated the same nose for ferreting desirable books. Frank Morton [in Spencer, Hill of Content] wrote of Spencer’s style of bookselling:

He saunters about Australia, and buys the libraries of those who have been unable to take their books away with them (to Heaven or the other place). Then he writes cunning words in the books and sells them over again to us and the other fellows. There is little he doesn’t know about books. As to selling books – listen here! Mr Spencer is never at a loss. If it isn’t a first edition, he will make you believe it is somehow better. A little while ago he got an old dog-eared copy of the Bible printed in New York, or Grand Rapids, or Ossewooskee, or one of those American towns, and the curious format filled him with hope. He wrote on the fly-leaf: ‘Second (and best) American Edition of this Most Interesting Work – 42s.’

Considered a rogue by some, Spencer was more honest and competent than Morton implies. He once bought a box lot in a Sydney auction. It contained a rare pamphlet which he took to Sir William Dixson, making the mistake of telling his customer what the lot cost. The knight replied, ‘Very well, skinflint, it cost you half a crown; of how much will you rob me for this miserable pamphlet?’ ‘Fifty pounds’.

‘What! You damnable robber! Spencer, Fred Wymark taught you too well, Lord forgive him, and you,’ came from Sir William. Growling ferociously, he opened a drawer, took out his cheque-book, banged it down on the desk, wrote a cheque for fifty pounds, walked over to me and dropped it in my pocket. Then! Then it was his turn for the happy hearty ‘wide’ laugh for, holding the pamphlet in an attitude as though daring me to rob him of it, he almost danced with glee as he said, ‘Spencer, you fathead, I’d have paid one hundred pounds for this!’

https://www.kaycraddock.com/pages/marginal-notes/36/marginal

A beautiful 1983 book by Jean Gray 😍😍😍

Sam Snead on Golf was borrowed from Moorabbin Technical School on 13 November 1981 and never returned.

😂😂

Love Your Bookshop Day is 12 October ♥️

New book to look out for.

Send a message to learn more

Statue message:

Knowledge builds people.
People build a nation.
Knowedge is power.
To build a nation, build knowledgeable people.

The Southern Region is surrounded by seas on both sides. It has long been recognised for its international cultures, This is one of the reasons why people in the South enjoy learning.

Moreover, Songkla has emerged into what we might call a collage town of the Southern Region.

Songkla has been the town of good landscape, cultures, ecomony and sociely because of the knowledgeable, people who have helped develop the town.

Highly valuing the importance of education, Mr Uthit Choo-chnay, the mayor of the municipality of Songkla, hopes to see the youths realise their duty to enhance the community by learning. He initiated the idea of constructing a sculpture which symbolises learning. In 2002 the mayor asked Mr Montri Sangmusikanon, a sculptor and lecturer from Thaksin University, Songkla to design and mold this symbol of learning and reading.

(I’ve changed the word ‘men’ to ‘people’ in the English text above, because the Thai text was not gendered.)

The Books Pillar (or Book Sculpture) acts as a functional library shelf, because a book can be removed, but must be immediately replaced with another book.

Librarian Tipbha Pleehajinda uses a smaller version of the books pillar to demonstrate how a book can be removed.

The Songkhla Old Town Library is housed in the Yap Ihan Tchoi family building, which is more than 100 years old. The sculpture of books actually work to protect the central wooden pillar of the building.

The books pillar is also used to teach book design by the Editorial Studies Program at the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University. Teachers also see the structure a symbol of the growth and stability of knowledge, tools and wisdom.

The pillar is showcased at Paak Taii Design Week in Songkla, but it remains at the library all year round.

Title translation: ‘There are many cute cats, but trust me, orange cats are the best: A conversation about people who won’t scratch their chins and leave’ by Biphad Banom.

A bookshop cafe where the cats are DJs 😂

The Traralgon Court House has re-opened and there are secondhand books for sale inside.📚

😍😍

This bark painting has ducks! 🦆🦆
The artwork is titled ‘Blackburn Lake’ (1998) by Stella Croom.

The typing on the back label seems like:
BARK PICTURE By. A. THRELFALL
GEELONG. 14462 4014????
Made from Ti-tree Bark, Banana
Tree, Dried Grasses, Fungus

Good morning!

Visiting Book Now to pick through the local history collection.

This book was published for Fijian Pavilion at Expo 88 in Brisbane.

The book says:
‘Yaya’ is a Fijian word meaning ‘everything you own … all your worldly goods.’ It seemed an appropriate title since, by necessity, this book is a little bit of everything.

When looking at a 1903 postcard for the fifth National Industrial Exhibition in Osaka, the emblem of the City of Osaka can be seen next to the fountain.

The emblem is based on the shape of the day beacon sitting in the waters of the Port of Osaka that are used by ships for navigation. The symbol was chosen as the city’s emblem in 1894.