Asia

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

Published by Hutchinson, London 1n 1965, a first edition. The author Charles Boxer was the Camoens Professor of Portuguese at Kings College, London at the time – he would likely have been the Dutch Professor also .. if they 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, if not the, 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 Norah Anstice Tulloch but left her for a life with the equally glamourous 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 …

$50.00

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A Taste of the Hills – Miles Smeeton – First Edition 1961

A first edition published by Rupert Hart-Davis, London in 1961. Octavo, illustrated with maps, and illustrations from photographs. A very good copy.

Miles (1906-1988) and Beryl Smeeton (1905-1979) were adventurers as if from a different era. Well known for their sailing adventures and twice near disaster going East around the Horn .. they made it successfully from the west.

Miles had a distinguished military background … Yorkshire born … full of grit.

Miles was posted to India before WWII and he writes about his time there. And, with Beryl, his overland adventure from Basra back to England. Finishing with an attempt in the Himalayas on 25,460 feet Tirich Mir with Tenzing … Beryl became the highest climbed female at the time.

Miles Smeeton with Beryl on land and just as adventurous as the sea..

$20.00

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Francois Valentjin’s Description of Ceylon – Translated and Edited by Arasaratnam

Francois Valentijn (1666-1727) was a Dutch scientific theologian and author of “Oud en Niew Oost-Indien” [Old and New East-India] a rather comprehensive history of the Dutch East India Company and the Far East.

Valentijn spent 16 years in the East employed in a ministerial capacity by the VOC … he returned to Dordrecht where he compiled the massive work, containing over one thousand plates and maps … he clearly had access to the VOC archives.

The translator and editor of this work Sinnappah Arasaratnam had thought for some time that a work, relating to Ceylon, based on Valentijn was a worthy endeavour. The original rather repetitive and encyclopaedic in form required a special talent to product a modern readable effective translation. Arasaratnam found the Hakluyt Society the ideal partner to assist in achieving his objective and the result is something special.

Octavo, 374 pages, illustrated and with large folding map at rear. A very good copy bar without dust jacket.

Sri Lanka (Ceylon) as described by Valentjin from VOC records in modern readable form by Hakluyt

$40.00

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Sport in Many Lands (Europe, Asia, Africa and America) by H.A. Leveson known as “Old Shakarry”

“Old Shekarry” was Major Henry Astbury Leveson and he was one of the great 19th Century traveller hunters. He went everywhere and had a shot at everything. His recollections of the Man Eating Bengal Tiger do add a little balance.

Published posthumously as a sort of compilation of his other works on a grander scale. Published by Warne, London and New York in 1890. Royal octavo, 597 pages with towards 200 illustrations. Delightful decorative covers – all in very good condition. A beauty really.

We start with a special memoir on Leveson by H.F. which reassures one that here was a man who lead a full life, with a distinguished military career to back up his private interests.

The book proper starts at home with Her Majesty’s Buckhounds and the chasing of the red deer. Off to Bavaria, the Alps and the Chamois. Wild Fowl shooting and the marsh lands of the Somme .. (what a different place they were to become). The exotic and hog hunting in India … Bears, Tigers and Leopards before the formidable yet vulnerable Elephant,. Up in the Himalaya and some interesting travel notes before more shooting. Into the Middle East and the sad markets in wives and slaves. The hard life of the Bedouins around the Suez and blasting Hyena. South Africa and the “bok” in all its forms and, sadly, the quagga (they have all gone). After the challenge of the Lion we move up to Abyssinia and reflections on native customs. A different part of the world the North American “Rockies” and a narrow escape from a grizzly bear … into the prairies and the mode of hunting adopted by the Red Indians. A skirmish with the Red Indians gives the buffalo a chance!

Old Shakarry from a different era – travel and hunting – in Many Lands

$160.00

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Antique Maps of Europe, the Americas, West Indies, Australasia, the Orient – Douglas Gohm

A first printing published by Octopus Books, London and Sydney in 1972. Large quarto, 128 pages, profusely illustrated. A fine copy, in a fine dust jacket.

A very good book as an introduction to rare map collecting. A nice summary of the great cartographers and then a comprehensive array of some of the most attractive or intriguing.

Spot some of Voyagers favourites in here – such as the mysterious island of Juan Fernandez (page 95) also known as Robinson Crusoe’s Island. And the Tallis map of South Australia makes the front of the dust jacket.

Good map book nice images … educational content.

$50.00

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The Life of Marco Polo – Liebig Advertising Cards

A complete group of six attractive trade cards by Liebig issued mid-20th Century. In Dutch – Het Leven Van Marco Polo – “The Life of Marco Polo”

Delightful images depicting various stages in the adventures of Marco Polo. Significant narrative, in Dutch, at the rear of each card … more than usual which makes for that special foreign language lesson.

Each 10cms x 7.3cms in very good condition.

Card 1 – First Departure for the East; 2 – The Roof of the World; 3 – Governor of Jaugia in Service of the Great Khan Koubilai; 4 – At the Head of the Victorious Army; 5 – The Battle of Cuzole; The recounting of his Travels – Il Milione.

Marco Polo – his Life in Beautiful Images

$50.00

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

A Taste of the Hills – Miles Smeeton – First Edition 1961

Francois Valentjin’s Description of Ceylon – Translated and Edited by Arasaratnam

Sport in Many Lands (Europe, Asia, Africa and America) by H.A. Leveson known as “Old Shakarry”

Antique Maps of Europe, the Americas, West Indies, Australasia, the Orient – Douglas Gohm

The Life of Marco Polo – Liebig Advertising Cards

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