"Brothers of the Blood": &e Coalescence and Dispersal of a Collection of "Penny Bloods"

&is article traces the creation in the 1950s of a collection of Victorian "penny bloods" and its subsequent dispersal drawing on a series of letters from Melbourne book dealer John P. Quaine to collector Stanley Larnach pasted into a scrapbook now housed in the State Library of Victoria, as well as various sales catalogues and auction records. &e letters reveal a small but enthusiastic group of Australian collectors centred on the Book Collectors' Society of Australia (BCSA) with connections to a broader international network of collectors of penny bloods.