Non-fiction

WWI Copper Flask in Original Bespoke Leather Carrying Case [Super Condition] – Captain McCracken

Captain Kenneth Mills McCracken was a member of the Royal Field Artillery attached to the Royal Flying Corps. His service record covered the entire of WWI 1914-1918 so likely one of the few that survived his dangerous role.

Born in 1895 and from Newcastle-Upon Tyne he was a medical student at Edinburgh University when World War One broke out.

The Royal Flying Corp was the air arm of the British Army at the start of the war and it was not until 1918 that it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service to become the Royal Air Force.

McCracken’s record shows that he was skilled in artillery observation; so, he was likely an aerial observer or photographer. At the beginning of the war their photographic efforts were very primitive almost hopeless until 1915. By 1918 they could make decent images from 15,000 feet and had a team of 3,000 people analysing the results. The Royal Flying Corp didn’t get into aerial combat until the later part of the war.

The item is in great condition. The full leather casing is 25cm by 10cm, stitching perfect – nicely embossed with McCracken’s details. The copper thermos has a ding but is a solid actually useable item. The screw on top is undamaged and goes on and off easily.

Special WWI Item in great condition with interesting provenance

$290.00

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Wooden Hookers of Hobart Town & Whalers out of Van Diemen’s Land [Two Works] – Harry O’May

Published by the author a fine copy of the second impression 1978.

Octavo, 137 pages plus 101 pages indices not paginated. Very clean superb dust jacket.

Harry O’May’s compilation of two books packed with historic detail about the Tasmanian early whalers – superb photographic record nowhere else seen.

One of the best Tasmanian Maritime

$30.00

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White Blackfellows – Charles Barrett

Published in 1948 by Hallcraft, Melbourne. Octavo, 261 pages, well illustrated. A very good copy in a nice albeit chipped dust jacket.

We recognise that the title of the book is unacceptable. Accept the book though for the history within. Sixteen different histories from all over Australia. Many of these have inspired other works – Patrick White etc. And, quite a few appear in longer form within the Voyager collection – but in no other place do we have a balanced presentation of so many.

Mrs Fraser, William Buckley, James Murrells, Barbara Thompson etc and the dubious Louis de Rougemont

$40.00

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Robert Louis Stevenson – Memories – 1926

A very unusually presented biographical work on Robert Louis Stevenson published by Peter Davies, London in 1926. Not a first printing but extremely scarce regardless.

Tall slim octavo, card covers with affixed wrap around picturesque cover with yap edges. Internally twenty five pages of tipped in images from original photographs with narrative opposite. A mixture of the people, mainly family, in his life … his life in Scotland and in Samoa [which probably saved him from ill-health] and his magnificent schooner “Casco”.

Some age to yap cover, internally pretty good, gift inscription on front ends.

An unusual piece of R.S.L. ephemera, near a hundred year old and of an emotional quality

Robert Louis Stevenson – His Life nicely presented

$35.00

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Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure – Rare “Hare Bowl” – 1822

Qing Dynasty decorated bowl recovered by Mike Hatcher from the Tek Sing shipwreck. A special example.

In our view one of the more interesting Tek sing bowls with the rather cute Hare image to centre. Large and deep by comparison with others – 16.2cm by 5.8cm deep. The decorative rim with three panels of scrolls or net-like design. Chrysanthemum design and bamboo leaves underneath. and bamboo. Very good condition given its 200 plus years and most of that time underwater. Retains the Nagel auction and catalogue stickers underneath for provenance.

Price $290.00
A Tek Sing special – Nice strong and uncommon Hare decoration.
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The Tek Sing Shipwreck – Background

The Tek Sing (Chinese for “Bright Star”’) was a large Chinese Junk which sank in 1822 in the South China Sea at the Belvidere Shoals. She was 50 meters long, 10 metres wide and weighed a thousand tons. Manned by a crew of 200. The great loss of life has led to the Tek Sing being referred to as the “Titanic of the East”.

Sailing from the port of Amoy (now Xiamen), the Tek Sing was bound for Jakarta, with a cargo of porcelain goods and 1,600 Chinese immigrants. After a month of sailing, Captain Lo Tauko took a shortcut through the Gaspar Straits and ran aground on a reef and sank in 100 feet of water.

The next morning and English East Indiaman captained by James Pearl sailing from Indonesia to Borneo passed through the Gaspar Straits. He found debris from the sunken Chinese vessel and survivors. They managed to rescue 190 people.

In 1999, marine salvor Mike Hatcher discovered the wreck. His crew raised what has been described as the largest cache of Chinese porcelain ever recovered. It was auctioned by Nagle in Stuttgart, Germany the following year

$290.00

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The Accursed Thing; or The Causes of Our Public Calamities Stated and Explained – A Sermon – Rev James Robertson – 1800

Rev James Robertson was the Presbyterian Minister in the little village of Thropton Northumberland, England. This lengthy and strangely interesting sermon was published as a pamphlet by Elder of Edinburgh and others in 1800. Octavo, 35 pages, here nicely presented in a modern protective binding. Very clean for its age and well printed. Impossible to find another one we believe.

England was at war with France … the Minister has little respect for the enemy and for others that displeased higher ruling.

His concluding comment from Isiah and Psalm 69 are pertinent to now … “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand, for God is with us. He will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah, the posterity of his saints shall inherit it, and they that love his name shall dwell therein”

Maybe some in power around the World just need to think this through.

A Sermon with a strong message – Unique 1800

$80.00

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WWI Copper Flask in Original Bespoke Leather Carrying Case [Super Condition] – Captain McCracken

Wooden Hookers of Hobart Town & Whalers out of Van Diemen’s Land [Two Works] – Harry O’May

White Blackfellows – Charles Barrett

Robert Louis Stevenson – Memories – 1926

Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure – Rare “Hare Bowl” – 1822

The Accursed Thing; or The Causes of Our Public Calamities Stated and Explained – A Sermon – Rev James Robertson – 1800

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