Asia

A Strange Career – The Life and Adventures of J. G. Jebb [South America and Mexico] – 1895

John Gladwyn Jebb led as an adventurous life as could be possible. This book was compiled by his widow and carries the introduction of adventure writer H Rider Haggard.

Jebb’s adventures began as a military man in India. Soon he was conducting privately funded explorations into Central and Southern America. Involved in numerous business dealings… helped to start White Line … was in involved in armaments. He moved to the US and the Wild West … bear hunting, gold mining and a few conflicts with local bandits and native Americans. Off to Mexico to make his fortune gold mining (made it and lost it) and much of the later part of the books is about his times in Mexico.

Published by Blackwood, Edinburgh in 1895 octavo, 271 pages, frontispiece of the great man, illustrated by John Wallace. Pictorial boards nice but a little rubbed. Overall, still a particularly good copy of a rather hard to find book.

Inspiration for Rider Haggard – John Jebb Adventurer

$50.00

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The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600-1800 – C.R. Boxer

Published by Hutchinson, London 1n 1965, a first edition. The author Charles Boxer was the Professor of Portuguese at Kings College, London at the time – he would likely have been the Dutch Professor also .. if they had had one.

Large octavo, 326 pages, illustrated throughout, very good dust jacket, a lightly embossed stamp on title,. A very good copy of a special work now hard to find.

Not your usual narrative, this book looks at the reasons behind the rise of the Dutch as a major seafaring nation from the mid 1600’s for over a century. Peace was signed after an eighty year war with Spain in 1648 and for the Dutch the seagoing expansion was near to phenomenal in terms of speed and ambition. Useful appendices include a chronology 1568-1795 which provides a framework …

The author Charles Boxer was an incredibly colourful character. Born into a military family (although his mothers family had been early sheep farmers in Tasmania). He enlisted and found himself in Japan in the 1930’s. Then a full blown spy in Hong Kong at the beginning of War II, imprisoned by the Japanese for three years. He married the most beautiful woman in Hong Kong , Ursula Tulloch, but left her for a life with the equally glamorous American writer Emily Hahn. Back in England his depth of knowledge was recognised in receiving the Lisbon sponsored Professorship which he made is own.

The Dutch … their power at sea and what was behind it …

$40.00

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Seven Years in Tibet – Heinrich Harrer

This edition published by the Reprint Society, part of Rupert Hart-Davis in 1955. A super copy.

Translated by Richard Graves and with an introduction by Peter Fleming, the travel writer who liked extra adventure and elder brother of the James Bond inventor and spy master himself Ian Fleming.

Harrer in 1943 made a third and successful attempt to escape from an internment camp in Dehra-Dyn [look it up]. He headed for Tibet on foot. It was winter and he followed a circuitous route across the Changthang plateau and down into Lhasa. And this is just the beginning of the story.

Octavo, 320 pages with some good illustrations and a sketch map of the route which helps you along…. some of the photographic illustrations are very special.

Harrer deserved his freedom – truly riveting story

$35.00

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Tibetan Venture – C.G. Lewis – First edition 1967

A very good copy of the first edition published by Robert Hale, London in 1967.

Octavo, 191 pages, illustrated from original photographs of the travels – which go broader than Tibet.

The author was a real swat at school, Captain of his House at canterbury etc. Modern languages at King College Cambridge. As a preliminary to seeking ordination he travelled extensively, including to working with Tibetan refugees in India – this led him eventually to the mountains and meeting the Dalai Lama with whom he held interesting deep discussions.

In between we are off to Rangoon, various temples [you should see the Golden Pagoda] and the Himalayas curiously linked to Singapore.

We like it and you can never get enough books about Tibet

A thoughtful and well written working travel account in super shape.

$35.00

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Rare Large Sized Microscope Size – Lantern Fly – China (Duplicate)

No date or maker but this presentation was a specialty in the late Victorian / Edwardian era. Reference authority “Bracegirdle” shows a number of “outsized” examples but none quite like this.

In modern terms known as the spotted lantern fly. The insect is on the move and a potential threat in Australia – modelling has shown that it could survive well in western and north-western Victoria. When we say a threat, it was endemic to China and Vietnam but moved into South Korea in 2006, Japan in 2009 and the USA in 2014 … so the move is on.

Here the little blighter is beautifully preserved and presented in Canada Balsam … we know that CB was the mounters choice due its quality and the cursive narrative says so.

A microscopical rarity outsized mount of the Spotted Lantern Fly.

$150.00

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The Eastern Archipelago – Adams – First Edition 1880

… A description of the Scenery, Animal and Vegetable Life, People, and Physical Wonders of the Islands in the Easter Sea.

Published by Nelson, London in 1880 a first edition. Octavo, 576 pages with 54 illustrations.. Nicely decorated cover, a little rubbed, remnant od prize giving label in ends, still a good copy.

With the success of Wallace’s Malay Archipelago there was heightened interest in the islands of the East Indies. Prolific writer William Henry Davenport Adams saw an opportunity and compiled this easily read book on the region. Takes in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Timor, Celebes, Sarawak, the Moluccas, New Guinea, Papua and the Philippines.

Special book on the very East and its many islands.

$90.00

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A Strange Career – The Life and Adventures of J. G. Jebb [South America and Mexico] – 1895

The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600-1800 – C.R. Boxer

Seven Years in Tibet – Heinrich Harrer

Tibetan Venture – C.G. Lewis – First edition 1967

Rare Large Sized Microscope Size – Lantern Fly – China (Duplicate)

The Eastern Archipelago – Adams – First Edition 1880

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