Curiosities

Egyptian (Isis and Osiris) Trade Cards – 1920’s

A group of six very colourful trade cards by Liebig advertising their tasty Fray products. Printed and issued around 1920. Complete 11cm by 7 cm each in very good condition.

Titled Isis and Osiris they have text about each image on the back in Italian making them doubly useful!

Special Egyptian set with striking colours and imagery.

$80.00

Updating cart…

Thomas Cook’s – Tours of Egypt the Nile, Sudan, Palestine and Syria -1928

We love this 110 page brochure advertising Thomas Cook’s tours in the style of Poirot and Death on the Nile.

It would take us a week to explain the depth of information, photographs, maps, intricate details of each of the numerous vessels with photos of the cabins, saloons etc. End paper maps and layout of each of the vessels.

Very good condition albeit some pencil annotations of a planned holiday – luck bastards!

Comprehensive view of Egypt and Palestine in the 1920’s

$90.00

Updating cart…

Australian Wood Chopping World Championship -1938

An original press photo of the 1938 World Wood Chopping Championship held at Sydney.

The caption on the back reads … “Mighty Axemen – Brawny men of the Australian lumber lands stage the world championship tree-felling contest at the Royal Agricultural Show, Sydney. It’s tough going to chop through an Australian tree, because most of the lumber produced is hardwood” … mmmh

A sizeable image 27cm x 20cm taken 28th August 1938

Iconic Aussie Image away from the beach

$60.00

Updating cart…

Napoleon Bonaparte by Bertrand Andrieu – 1810

A rare bronze plaque of Napoleon Bonaparte by Bertrand Andrieu, a fair size 14cm in diameter. Signed in the lower neck.

Bertrand Andrieu (1761-1822) was born at Bordeaux and became France’s foremost medalist. He was apprenticed to Andre Lavau and attended the Academie de Peinture et de Sculpture in Bordeaux. In 1786 he moved to Paris and worked with Nicolas-Marie Gatteuax. His first success was a detailed medal of the Fall of the Bastille in 1789. He developed a technique of casting lead and then using a metallic finish to give the appearance of bronze. He followed this with the Arrival of Louis XVI in Paris. He lay low in the latter part of the French Revolution. When he reappeared, he had much success receiving valuable commissions including this one circa 1810 re Napoleon likely celebrating his marriage to Marie Louise Archduchess of Parma.

Napoleon divorced Josephine who could not give him children. They both had many lovers. In 1810 he married the 19 year old Marie Louise Archduchess of Austria and great nice of Marie Antoinette. The design is of a noble Napoleon wearing a laurel wreath, a symbol of honour and victory.

The plaque has a lovely depth to the bust of Napoleon and aside from the hole introduced for wall mounting is in very good condition.

Napoleon a very true likeness by Andrieu – 1810

$790.00

Updating cart…

Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure – 1822

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

Beautiful condition, with a hint of a rim nick, some ageing from its life under water otherwise a fine example.

Beautifully decorated with bands of lotus flower around a central spiral and set in alternate designs of lingzhi fungus and fruiting peach. Bright colours. 13 cm in diameter 6 cm high. Retains Nagel auction sticker.

Bright deep well decorated shipwreck bowl

The Tek Sing Shipwreck – Background

The Tek Sing (Chinese, “True 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 meters 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 1600 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 an English East Indiaman captained by James Pearl sailing from Indonesia to Borneo passed through the Gaspar Strait. He found debris from the sunk Chinese vessel and survivors. They managed to rescue 190 survivors.

In 1999 marine salvor Michael Hatcher discovered the wreck of the. His crew raised what is described as the largest sunken cache of Chinese porcelain ever recovered which was auctioned in Stuttgart, Germany the following year.

$150.00

Updating cart…

Mining – Complete 50 Card Set by W.D. & H.O. Wills – 100 Plus Years Old

Very hard to find complete set of 50 cards circa 1912 issued by Wills of Bristol and London.

Very good condition, now protected in standard card wallets.

Seven cards represent Coal Mining featuring Miner Holing; Miner Drilling and Blasting; Electric Coal Cutters; Electric Train; Taking Coal to Pit Mouth by Pony; At the Bottom of the Shaft; Sorting and Cleaning Coal and the all important Mine Surveyor.

Cards specific to Australia include BHP Silver Mine Mechanical Feed and a General View of the Mine … Mount Morgan Gold (with it interesting story) an Digging and Washing Sapphires in Queensland.

The rest f the world is represented including Asbestos at Thetford Canada; China Clay at St Austell Cornwall; Copper at the famous Rio Tinto Mine Spain; Diamonds at Kimberley; Tin at Perak Malaya; Turquoises from Nishapour, Persia; Rock salt in Cheshire; Rubies from Burma etc etc

Large 50 card Mining set over 100 years old complete

SO SORRY SOLD – ON THE TOP SHELF

$140.00

Updating cart…

Egyptian (Isis and Osiris) Trade Cards – 1920’s

Thomas Cook’s – Tours of Egypt the Nile, Sudan, Palestine and Syria -1928

Australian Wood Chopping World Championship -1938

Napoleon Bonaparte by Bertrand Andrieu – 1810

Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure – 1822

Mining – Complete 50 Card Set by W.D. & H.O. Wills – 100 Plus Years Old

Product Categories