Products | Voyager Rare Books Maps & Prints

James Mario Matra – Alan Frost

His precarious life magnificently presented by Alan Frost and The Miegunyah Press. A fine edition 1995 first. Large octavo, 264 pages printed on Pageantry text cream paper and limited to 1,000 copies.

Matra sailed with Cook on his first voyage on the Endeavour and famously published the account of that voyage anonymously before the official account. He lost his inheritance in the American war of Independence but was helped out by Joseph Banks. He had grand plans of his own for NSW which did not come to fruition .. he saw out his later years as Consul at Tangier.

Matra the first to report Cook’s Voyage

$60.00

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The Great Frozen North – Jackson – First Edition 1895

The Great Frozen North (Bolshaia Zemelskija Tundra); Narrative of a Winter Journey Across the Tundras and a Sojourn Among the Samoyads.

Edited by Arthur Montefiore from the journals of Frederick George Jackson (1860 – 1938).

Published by Macmillan, London a first edition 1895 in very good condition. Large octavo, 297 pages after preliminaries numerous illustrations from photographs and drawings with three foldout coloured maps showing the route taken. Original blue cloth binding with the lovely gilt deer to front.

In the autumn 1893 Jackson explored Vatgack Island spending a year among the Samoyeds gaining sledging experience with reindeer. He then sledged 3,000 miles along the Arctic coast from Vaygach to the Pachora River and on to Ust Tsilma then west to the Menzen working his way up the coast of the White Sea north to Varanger Fiord. All of which was in preparation for his planned expedition through Franz Josef land the following year sponsored by the RGS. This book has become a fundamental reference to the way of life of the native Samoyed people.

Incidentally, during his later Franz Josef expedition Jackson came across Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen who had been lost for three years and had been trying to get to Spitsbergen and assisted them in a safe journey home aboard the Windward. Jackson received a knighthood of the first class of the Norwegian Royal Order of St Olaf for saving their exploration hero.

Jackson went on to have a distinguished military career rising to the rank of Major. As a youth he spent time in Queensland on a cattle station. In his last year he lived on a houseboat on the Thames. Quite a character.

$260.00

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Harold Effermere – A Story of the Queensland Bush – Michael Costello – First Edition 1897

Published by Swan Sonnenschien, London a first edition 1897. Octavo 309 pages in original green cloth covered binding with embossed design to front and git titling to spine. Showing some signs of age but still a very good copy of a rare work.

A superb and rare late 19thC novel based in the Queensland bush – country horse race rigging at its best. A great Australian yarn.

The author Michael Costello was the eldest son of pioneer, pastoralist and explorer John Costello. As a young lad the author often accompanied his dad on risky expeditions driving stock great distances in the bush in difficult conditions. Michael’s biography on his father published much later c1930 is one of our favourite pioneer accounts, almost impossible to find.

Whilst we find the dodgy horse racing elements the most amusing aspect of “Harold Effermere” we also learn to put your swag on the western side of a bush to avoid the morning sun and never to make your tea in the beef billy unless you want tea soup!

Early and rare Queensland Bush Story from a True Blue Bush Boy.

$90.00

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Hermannsburg – West MacDonnell Ranges – Richard Forrester

By acclaimed artist Richard Forrester of the Aranda painted in 2007.

Rich vibrant Hermannsburg watercolour following the style of the great Albert Namatjira. Strong lines and imparting the deep colours of the early morning and late evening light among the West MacDonnell ranges, near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

Price $240.00

Quality vibrant Hermannsburg by Forrester

$240.00

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The Strand Magazine – with an Arthur Conan Doyle First Publication – 1898

A complete volume of the Strand Magazine being January to June 1898 in very good condition in the original green leather binding with elaborate gilt design and titling to spine.

As would be expected many interesting period articles, stories and the likes .. one on Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) by Beatrice Hatch is rather special.

The “piece that cannot be resisted” is a first publication of the short story by Arthur Conan Doyle … “The Story of the Beetle-Hunter” which was later published in a collection of short stories “Round the Fire” in 1908. The story, which runs to ten pages, contains eight illustrations by Archibald S Hattrick (1864-1950).

Conan Doyle First and More in Very Good Condition.

$140.00

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Papuan Epic – Keith Bushell – 1930

Keith Bushell was a Patrol Officer and Magistrate in New Guinea. His book is an extremely personal account at times drifting to dialogue, Skirmished and cannibalism abound as does “white savagery”.

The battles of Pai-Wa and Ebadidi are recorded. The questionable taming of the sorcerer “Donovan”. Nicely illustrated as usual for New Guinea items.

Bushell – Kiap Recollections

$70.00

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All products

James Mario Matra – Alan Frost

The Great Frozen North – Jackson – First Edition 1895

Harold Effermere – A Story of the Queensland Bush – Michael Costello – First Edition 1897

Hermannsburg – West MacDonnell Ranges – Richard Forrester

The Strand Magazine – with an Arthur Conan Doyle First Publication – 1898

Papuan Epic – Keith Bushell – 1930

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