0
products in your shopping cart
Total:   $0.00 details
There are no products in your shopping cart!
We hope it's not for long.

Visit the shop

All products

list view
  • Encyclopedia of the Antarctic – Edited Beau Riffenburgh- 2 Volumes

    Published by Routledge in 2006 this two-volume set is regarded as the font of all things Antarctica.

    A substantial effort the number of distinguished contributors runs to over a hundred.

    Two quarto volumes, 1,272 pages heavily illustrated with all sorts, high technical level with many maps, charts, explanatory diagrams etc. Very good condition. Weighs in at circa 3.6kgs so not really suitable for Overseas postage.

    The elements relating to the History of Exploration and History of Science are understandably our favourites. Other broader topics include … Atmosphere; Birds; Conservation; Geography; Glaciology; Technology; Oceanography; Physics and astronomy etc.

    It is all here in the Encyclopedia of the Antarctic – more than a winter’s reading

    $540.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • Jottings during the Cruise of H.M.S. Curacoa Among the South Sea Islands in 1865 – Julius Brenchley – First edition 1873

    Jottings during the Cruise of H.M.S. Curacoa Among the South Sea Islands in 1865 – Julius Brenchley – First edition 1873

    First edition of this magnificently illustrated scientific voyage account in the Pacific.

    Published by Longmans, Green & Co, London in 1873. Large octavo, 487 pages. Decorated with two fold-out chromolithographs, 44 wood engravings and 50 hand coloured engravings mainly of natural history interest. Large folding map at rear with original colouring. An early rebind in half leather over plum cloth covered boards; raised spine divisions with gilt titling. Some evidence of age and staining otherwise a nice and honest copy of a scarce and desirable item. Carries the bookplate of voyage collector and author Geoffrey Ingleton.

    The author Julius Brenchley (1816-1873) was a noted traveller of the period. Born in Maidstone in Kent, England he carried out numerous adventures. His travels encompassed, North, Central and South America and Africa before he embarked on this voyage with the Curacoa in the South Seas. The ship was under the command of Captain William Wiseman and visited Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, Niue or Savage Island, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Santa Cruz, New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands.

    Brenchley gathered an enormous collection of artifacts and natural history specimens which ultimately ended up being split between the British Museum and the Maidstone Museum.

    Special Beautifully Illustrated Pacific Voyage Account

    SO SORRY SOLD

    $890.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • Lake Victoria to Khartoum with Rifle and Camera – Captain F.A. Dickinson [Introduction by Winston Churchill] – First Edition 1910.

    Lake Victoria to Khartoum with Rifle and Camera – Captain F.A. Dickinson [Introduction by Winston Churchill] – First Edition 1910.

    A rare book and one of the rarest books in the Churchill cannon. If you have a first edition of Churchill’s “My African Journey” then you are lucky and you will appreciate that this book by the guide of that event would make the perfect companion.

    Published by John Lane (Bodley Head), London, 1910.. in the days when you spoke to John Lane. Thick octavo, 334 pages after preliminaries and before publishers catalogue. Well over a hundred illustrations from photographs [not included in the pagination]. Bound in unusual orange/ red cloth covered boards, gilt titles and embellishment, decorative lines. The covers are quite well faded especially to the spine and the odd mark, this is common for this binding. Otherwise internally very clean indeed, just a couple of light spots on the title.

    Churchill in his introduction lavishes praise on Ricketts as a guide and organiser. The party walked/ travelled the whole Uganda and more, some 1,500 miles. Churchill did some of it on bicycle. A lot of bagging went on along the way – all very jolly. Churchill took them to Khartoum and enlivened the conversation with his first hand account of encounters during his various African military skirmishes.

    Churchill in Africa – mutual admiration – Ricketts

    $390.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • First Class Polo – Tactics & Match Play – Brigadier-General R. L. Ricketts.

    First Class Polo – Tactics & Match Play – Brigadier-General R. L. Ricketts.

    For those that have always wanted to understand polo beyond the general idea of horses, a mallet and a bamboo ball (well plastic now) this is the book. Get ahead become an expert and make the right calls at these posh events.

    A fine copy of a super scarce book outlining the secrets of good polo play. Second edition, effectively self-published through Gale & Polden of Aldershot [British Military town] and London et, 1938.

    Octavo, 48 pages and IX full pages plates of tactics guaranteed to win the play.

    Ricketts played for the Alwar team in India circa 1900 and they won trophy after trophy – see the image of the frontispiece. They won the Indian Polo association Championship for several years and the Delhi Durbar without a single defeat scoring 117 goals against only 15.

    Ricketts describes the “merciless hitting of the ordinary easy ball by the Maharajah, and the advantages of the golf drive trajectory which he imparted to it etc”.

    Rickett’s motivation for the book is the fact that the Americans had more recently dominated the sport and to win back the advantage a quicker harder form of polo must be played. Bit like Bazball if you get that ..

    Ricketts on Polo everything you need to know to beat the Yankees

    $90.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • The Antarctic Diary of Victor Campbell – “The Wicked Mate” – Edited King

    The Antarctic Diary of Victor Campbell – “The Wicked Mate” – Edited King

    Victor Campbell was part of Robert Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition. He led the Northern Party, six men who explored the coast of King Edward VII Land. They spent ten months at Cape Adare and then moved to Inexpressible Island, described as a stormy and desolate place (an understatement). They were marooned here over the winter and had to hole up in a man made ice cave. When the weather eased a little in October they made there way back over 230 miles of sea ice.

    Campbell’s papers and diary were acquired by the University of Newfoundland. This made their publication for the first time possible. Edited by King who was librarian and the Scott Polar Institute, illustrated with Campbell’s sketches and numerous photographs, many of which not published before.

    Published by the brilliant Erskine Press, part of Bluntisham Books in 2001. Large squarish format octavo, 192 pages, very good near fine condition.

    Victor Campbell’s Antarctic Diaries – The Northern Party

    $80.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • The Downfall of Prempeh [The West African Ashanti Expedition] -Baden-Powell 1896

    The Downfall of Prempeh [The West African Ashanti Expedition] -Baden-Powell 1896

    A very special book by the Major Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell (later Lord Lieutenant General) founder of the Boy Scouts (the first Chief Scout).

    First edition published by Methuen, London in 1896. Octavo, 199 pages, nicely illustrated and with a map. Red cloth covered boards, gilt titles to spine, a little spine fading, otherwise a clean and impressive copy.

    The capital of Ashanti land , Kumassi, sits 75 miles inland from Cape Coast Castle on the West African Gold Coast – now Ghana.

    This is about a military expedition to effectively oust the leader Prempeh because he was totally mad and made his subjects follow his passion which was basically sacrificing people, lots of them, all of the time. They had special places for these rituals and even a massive cauldron style object over which heads were severed. He had a passion for killing virgins sometimes hundreds at a time … not nice man. A think we can agree this was one Colonial intervention that was justified.

    Anyway, Baden-Powell writes so well and we learn a lot about the preparations for the forces sent in, how they were organised and the difficulties and calamities they came across. The ending was rather strange but we will leave that for the reader.

    Ashanti of the Gold Coast – Baden-Powell Expedition

    $180.00

    Loading Updating cart…
LoadingUpdating…

Product Categories