Prestige Items

Robert O’Hara Burke and the Australian Exploring Expedition – Andrew Jackson 1860

Scarce first edition of this essential Burke and Wills book published by Smith and Elder in 1862.

Octavo, xxi, 229 pages with woodcut portrait of Burke and folding map, extensive Publishers Catalogue at the rear. Original green cloth covered binding, some internal foxing particularly the map and adjacent pages as usual. Very good original embossed green cloth covered binding, gilt title to spine bright and fresh. Unusual for a usually distressed book.

Andrew Jackson may have known Burke personally, he was certainly an acquaintance of Burke’s father, they were officers in the same Regiment. The first chapter give an interesting account of the family military history and background on Robert O’Hara Burke.

Written from papers, journals, letters, reports, interviews etc associated with the expedition. Nicely written carefully compiled.

An important “companion work” to the Bentley published book based on Wills’s journal and letters.

Scarce Burke and Wills contemporary reference

$690.00

Updating cart…

Australian Born Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry – [Sir] John Warcup Cornforth – Signed manuscript letter

A very special letter (dated 1980) not only because of its truly distinguished author but here we have real content. Letters by Nobel Prize winners are not terribly rare but so often are perfunctory, relating to meetings, events or simply lunch. Here we have real, in depth, chemistry. The receiver, Dr Buckel, a distinguished scientist in his own right, may have been rather embarrassed on receipt. Cornforth believes that Buckel had tackled his work from completely the wrong route … indeed Cornforth is puzzled and goes on to set out in great detail his preferred option(s). In our view the content reveals the manner in which Cornforth visualises the solution to the problem from first principles then more complex mechanisms and solutions and alternative options as his thinking develops. The fact of his genius is plain in the writing. We love it.

The only Australian to date to have won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Dear Dr Buckel

Thank you for your letter of 7 October. I was interested by your account of the work with glutaconate, but rather puzzled that you did not try the degradation to malate in the way you say I suggested. I have forgotten the details of our conversation during your very welcome visit, but certainly I would expect direct oxidation of glutaconate to malate by permanganate to be most unfavourable. This is because in glutaconate one has the combination of a double bond deactivated by conjunction with a carboxyl and a strongly activated methylene group. In these circumstances one would expect permanganate to attack the methylene group to a considerable and perhaps predominant extent, before the double bond was attacked. This is why it would be preferable to use a specific agent first to hydroxylate the double bond. Indeed, it should be possible to proceed in high yield to malic acid by making use of the fact that one of the hydroxyl groups will form a lactone. Thus: … chemical formulae.

He goes on …

The opening of the lactone ring is generally faster than the hydrolysis of an ester group (especially a benzoate) so that if you put the acetyl or benzoyl-lactone in hot water and neutralized the acidity as it appeared you should be able to get a clean ring-opening without other chemical changes. I really think you should try this – it seems so much simpler than the routes you have explored.

I will ask at Sittingbourne if they have any chiral acetate left – I brought none of it here. It will be ten years old now and will have lost nearly half its original radioactivity but a specimen tested for chirality about five years ago seemed not to have been racemized by radiolysis or by preservation in the form of aqueous potassium acetate. However, I wonder if this is the best way to make chiral 4-substituted glutamates and I wonder if you could do this from chirally tritiated malate using R-citrate synthetase and malate dehydrogenase, following this by treatment of the citrate with aconitase, isocitrate dehydrogenase etc. This should give you a totally chiral product whereas by starting from acetate you are at the mercy of isotope effects.

Cornforth goes on to offer his help in finding candidates for research, a task he may achieve on Thursday at The Royal Society where he is attending a discussion on glycolytic enzymes. There it is again proof The Royal Society …is the best Club in the World!

Sydney born Cornforth was totally deaf by the age of twenty but already recognised as and exceptional academic. He went to England, Oxford, along with a similarly gifted chemist Rita Harradence, who he later married. His relationship with Rita started over a broken Claisen flask .. Cornforth was a expert glassblower … something that was essential in the aspiring chemist in the 1930’s. Interestingly, there was no place in Australia where one could do a decent PhD in chemistry at that time. Naturally at Oxford Cornforth was in his element. He went on to be the first to synthesise cholesterol and had a hand in stabilising penicillin building on the work of fellow Australian Howard Florey. Cornforth was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1975 and coincidental with being made “Australian of the Year”. Cornforth also won the Davy Medal, Copley Medal, was Knighted and made Fellow of the Royal Society

Scientific gold – Manuscript letter with considerable scientific content by Australian Nobel Prize winner John Warcup Cornforth

$460.00

Updating cart…

William Buelow Gould – Convict Artist of Van Diemen’s Land – Garry Darby

Published in 1980 by Copperfield as part of the Art Library.

Large quarto, 136 pages, illustrated not only the plates of artwork, which are magnificent but also in the lengthy introduction about the artist and his work. A fine copy.

William Gould (1803-1853) arrived in Hobart in 1827. Whilst he is known to have been at time a drunken and rebellious convict his work in totality describes a complex individual who undoubtedly had a love for nature.

This is the first effective catalogue of the known works of Gould. Unusual for the period and Australia principally a still life artist (how can you not admire the cat with the fish that grace the jacket) but also luminous landscapes and characterful portraits of Aboriginal people. The biographical details comprise the first eighty pages.

William Gould now a much admired and more understood convict artist.

$60.00

Updating cart…

The South Pole – An account of the Norwegian Expedition in the “Fram” 1910-1912 – Roald Amundsen – Queensland University Facsimile 1976

Facsimile edition, and a scarce one, published under the moniker of the University of Queensland Press in 1976. The original edition was published in 1912 and is highly collectable. Two volumes bound as one making it quite an impressive book in stature xxv, 392 pages; x, 449 pages. Illustrated from the original with plates and maps, one folding of each. A very good copy in a very good dust jacket.

The first to the pole. Account of Amundsen’s legendary dash to the Pole. He beat Scott’s Expedition by a month reaching the Pole on 14th December 1911. The use of dog sleds, better clothing, nutrition and a single minded purpose are factors that put Amundsen ahead of Scott.

Norwegian Captain Roald Amundsen had initially intended make an expedition to the Arctic, but changed his plans at the last moment and announced he would try for the South Pole instead. His explanation to the public was that if he could beat the English and Japanese expeditions to the Pole then he could secure success and funds for his extensive Arctic expedition, and also snatch the prize for his own country.

Amundsen sailed southward in the Fram to the Bay of Whales that would afford his expedition both the shortest route to the Pole and a route that would not overlap with either the Japanese or the English expeditions. From start to finish, Amundsen’s expedition ran like clockwork. He carefully planned every moment of the trip, using his experience in the Arctic and his extensive knowledge of dog-teams to help him through. His team was entirely Norwegian, accustomed to a harsh and cold climate, and were excellent ski-runners. In addition, Amundsen travelled light; he brought five men and fifty dogs on his expedition so that the latter could eventually serve as food for the former. Part of what doomed Scott’s party was the fact that he favoured men and ponies over dogs, bringing twelve men, eight ponies, and only twenty-six dogs.

Amundsen’s party remained in excellent health and always had enough to eat from their plentiful provisions at their well-stocked supply depots. They also supplemented their food stores with a great seal hunt just before the winter, after which 120,000 lb. of fresh seal meat were added to their stores, which helped protect them against scurvy.

Unlike Scott’s party, Amundsen’s party were also fortunate enough to have favourable weather conditions on their side, so that they were able to reach the Pole using their supply depots and dog sleds in just 99 days, a distance of 1860 miles, covering an astonishing average of 19 miles a day over frozen and difficult ground. Their journey was truly an extraordinary accomplishment, and Amundsen’s account of it is no less riveting

Amundsen – Fine facsimile of The South Pole published by Queensland University

$140.00

Updating cart…

Bronze Plaque Swedish Polar Explorer Otto Nordenskiöld by Austrian Artist Hugo Taglang – 1905

Produced to commemorate the Antarctic achievements of Swedish explorer Otto Nordenskiöld (1869-1928) who led a Heroic Era expedition to the Antarctic in 1901-1904. A fine image of the man decked out in heavy polar furs.

Nordenskiold arrived in the Antarctic in 1901 and wintered on Snow Hill Island. Unfortunately, their ship the ‘Antarctica” got trapped in ice and sank in 1903. His back up Larsen eventually met up with the stranded team but was unable to get them away. They were eventually rescued by the Uruguayan Navy. Despite all this their visit was hailed a scientific success as they explored and researched much of Graham Land.

Nordenskiöld was made Professor of Geography at Gothenburg University in 1905 the same year this commemorative was struck. He later went on to explore northern Greenland and in the 1920’s certain parts of South America. He was killed by a bus in Gothenburg crossing the road.

80mm by 57mm weighing 170gm. The artist medallist Hugo Taglang (1874-1944) was born in Vienna. An example of this item is shown in the National Maritime Museum Collection, London ID MEC 2149.

Otto Nordenskiöld an unusual Antarctic commemorative
.

$180.00

Updating cart…

A Record of Tasmanian Nomenclature with Dates and Origins – J Moore-Robinson

Extremely scarce item> we have not seen any original copies available .. and this one in fine condition.

A pretty early place-name book … that is mainly European place-names. At a time when the consideration of original aboriginal names for places is foremost in mind this is a worthwhile counterpoint. We are not sure which work has most places covered … a confluence of both would be worthwhile … we don’t mean reading the obvious .. more the less obvious.

Published at the Mercury Press in 1911.
An unusually nice looking item. Thick like sugar paper covers, 106 pages, demi octavo, perfect bound, super condition for such a potentially fragile item over 110 year old

Small scarce and in perfect condition.

$90.00

Updating cart…

Robert O’Hara Burke and the Australian Exploring Expedition – Andrew Jackson 1860

Australian Born Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry – [Sir] John Warcup Cornforth – Signed manuscript letter

William Buelow Gould – Convict Artist of Van Diemen’s Land – Garry Darby

The South Pole – An account of the Norwegian Expedition in the “Fram” 1910-1912 – Roald Amundsen – Queensland University Facsimile 1976

Bronze Plaque Swedish Polar Explorer Otto Nordenskiöld by Austrian Artist Hugo Taglang – 1905

A Record of Tasmanian Nomenclature with Dates and Origins – J Moore-Robinson

Product Categories