Broadcaster John Laws' Library and Writing Instruments to Auction
Two library occasional tables of faux books formed as a stack of books on a stand, the spines marked 'LES PAYS BAS' with hinged top lids and marbled paper interiors, on ebonised integral stands, part of the John Laws Collection auction
A collection of rare books, fine writing implements, and library furniture belonging to Australian broadcaster John Laws is going under the hammer at Bonhams Australia.
The John Laws CBE Collection sale running May 26 through June 9 focuses on the private collection formed over five decades by one of the country's most influential broadcasting figures who died in November 2025 aged 90.
The Library section of the sale includes a selection of rare, first-edition books and leather-bound periodicals, including the first edition of Richard Bowdler Sharpe's Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds with hand-coloured plates (estimate: £5,300-£7,900), desktop accessories from Bulgari, Tiffany & Co. and Ilias Lalounis, and various fine writing implements by Cartier, Montblanc, Waterman, Omas and Namiki including a Namiki Yukari White Tiger Maki-e fountain pen depicting a white tiger with a Medium 18K gold nib (estimate: £1,100-£2,100).
Other highlights include:
- two library occasional tables of faux books formed as a stack of books on a stand, the spines marked 'LES PAYS BAS' with hinged top lids and marbled paper interiors, on ebonised integral stands (estimate: £370-£530)
- Easton Press editions of Rembrandt Family Bible, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and William J. Bennett's Moral Compass and Book of Virtues, leather bound with gilt lettering, marbled endleaves and John Laws bookplates (estimate: £210-£320)
- Rudyard Kipling first editions of The Jungle Book, 1894, Captains Courageous, 1897, Soldier Tales, 1896 (all London, Macmillan & Company, 1894, 1896, and 1897), all in modern blue morocco gilt by Bayntun-Riviere (estimate: £530-£1,100)
- Joseph Conrad, Collected Works 'Memorial Edition', 23 volumes (Garden City, NY, Doubleday, 1925-1926), all with John Laws bookplates (estimate: £160-£260)
- a pair of library ladders with studded trim on stained wood, and folding mechanism, one finished in green leather and the other in black (estimate: £420-£640)
