Curiosities

Surveyor’s Prismatic Compass – Retailed by Winsor & Newton, London – Likely Manufactured by Stanley – c1900

A large working surveyor’s prismatic compass.

Blackened brass design 11.0 cm in diameter, weighs 500gm. Engraved on the case lid “Winsor & Newton Ltd, London”. This is the famous supplier or art materials and likely relates to a foray by them into materials for surveying / cartography etc. We cannot find another example of a Winsor labelled instrument, so the initiative was likely short lived. We put the manufacturer as Stanley as there are examples of similar instruments by them in the suggested period.

It really is a super instrument with the added element of fixtures allowing solar measurement or very high vertical objects – see more below.

The sighting arm still contains its “horsehair” and lifts and extends stays in the vertical position. It has the added feature of the variable angled mirror on a rail that runs up and down the sighting arm for high items or solar observations. There is a “fixing” button at the bottom of the sighting ram to lock the compass for solid reading.

The hinged prism housing can be moved to its operating position over the base plate. With the compass held steady and flat a notch on the refractor body is aligned with the horsehair on the arm. A compass reading can be taken through the magnified refractor lens. Attached to the arm are two moveable coloured glass filters in red and amber for solar work and contrast

The silvered compass dial rotates freely, and the glass is free of scratches.

Below the compass is a short, threaded arm for fitting to a surveyor’s pole or equivalent.

Bar a short scratch and a little wear to the blackened cover everything is in fine condition.

Large early prismatic compass with solar reading additions

$190.00

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The Island of Elba – Petrus Bertius – Over Four Hundred Years Old – Printed 1603

An original copper engraved miniature map. One of the most striking and coveted island maps from the early 17th Century.

Engraved by Pieter van den Keere for the great geographer Petrus Bertius and published by Cornelis Claesz in Amsterdam in 1603 for the “Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum Libri”

Elba the island on which Napoleon was first incarcerated and later escaped to fight again.

Lovely details of the main centres and fortifications; mountains and rivers carefully placed. Sea monsters can be seen .. all finished with an elaborate face embellished cartouche

Framed in gilt within gilt fillet as shown.

Charming sought after 400 years old

$280.00

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[Music Theme] Violin with Score Bookends – By Marion Bronze c1940’s

Delightful pair of weighty bookends. Stand 8cm high and weigh 2.8kg the pair. A few bumps but overall, pretty good. A great present for the musically gifted. Made by Marion and Arthur France in their cottage factory in New Jersey.

Marion Bronze – Bookends

Marion Bronze was a Mom and Pop business. Marion and Arthur France started making bookends and other decorative items in 1922 in the sheds behind their house at Metuchen, New Jersey. They continued to do this until the mid-1950’s when the business was put up for sale.

The image of the house comes from the actual business sale document which Voyager found through a website run by Marion and Arthur’s grandchildren who could remember waiting on the porch of this fine cottage – waiting for Grandpa to finish his daily toil in the shed at the back of the yard.

The Encyclopaedia of Bookends by Kuritzky states that the history of Marion Bronze is very sketchy, and they do not even have the information above.

What they do have is numerous examples of Marion Bronze items as they were bought as a collection from a New York City landlord who had found them in an abandoned apartment. The tenant had been an employee of Marion Bronze and had brought home over fifty examples of their work.

SORRY SOLD

$380.00

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Rare Image of Australia’s Rarest Bird – Rawnsley’s Satin Bower Bird [Ptilonorhynchus Rawnsleyi] – Silvester Diggles – c1870

Rare original hand-coloured image lithographed on stone by Queensland naturalist Silvester Diggles. Highlighted with gum Arabic. Published as part of his magnificent work “The Ornithology of Australia” between 1866 and 1870 in twenty-one parts by Pugh of Brisbane, in a very limited edition. By the time part sixteen was published there were only ninety-two subscribers. The original plates were executed by Diggles and his niece, Rowena Birkett.

The bird specimen from which this lithograph was derived was found by H.C. Rawnsley in the scrub behind his house in Witton [Indooroopilly] on the Brisbane River in Julu 1867. Diggles dedicated and named the bird after him. The narrative that accompanies the plate goes on and is of historical interest. Diggles states that the strong resemblance in the bird’s colouring to the Satin Bower bird and the Regent Bower bird may lead to the suspicion of it being a hybrid. However, he refers to the explorer A.C. Gregory, who inspected the bird and confirmed that he had seen the very same species in Northern Queensland … the narrative goes into detail regarding Gregory’s testimony. However, we now know that the bird was a hybrid after all – the only other examples of a similar occurrence are quite recent … in the last twenty year. We believe though only three such occurrences have been identified to date.

The work measures 38cm by 27cm, good strong hand colouring clean and undamaged. A very scarce item.

About Silvester Diggles

Silvester Diggles (1817-1880) artist and musician born in Liverpool, England. He came to Australia in 1853 settling in Brisbane where he taught music and drawing. Diggles was a founder of the Brisbane Choral Society in 1859 and the Philharmonic Society in 1861 known as “the father of music in Brisbane”. Diggles was also a founder of the Queensland Philosophical Society and helped establish the Museum. His greatest work was The Ornithology of Australia. It nearly sent him broke. His health deteriorated worry about finances being a factor. He died at Kangaroo Point in 1880.

Price $590.00 unframed
An opportunity to own a Silvester Diggles lithograph of an exceedingly rare bird indeed.

$590.00

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The Belgium Essays – Charlotte and Emily Bronte – Edited and translated by Sue Lonoff.

A first edition of this rather scarce and unknown book published as “A Critical Edition” by the Yale University Press in 1996 [they have done some great stuff].

Large octavo, 468 pages, very good condition in a full clean dust jacket.

In 1842 Charlotte and Emily B went to Brussels to study and write under the tutelage of Constantin Heger. They returned for the same again the next year. The result of this was twenty-eight essays penned in French. This book is the first to contain them all, nine of them have never been published elsewhere. They are presented in their original form with manuscript corrections and notes and with a facing English translation by Lonoff.

Special Bronte work from Charlotte and Emily expanding our knowledge of their prestigious talent.

$50.00

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Clochemerle Les Bains – Gabriel Chevallier – First UK Edition 1964

A super copy of this fun book translated by Xan Fielding and published by Secker & Warburg, Lonon in 1964. Thick octavo, 448 pages, lively dust jacket designed by A Games.

Not sure what age you have to be to remember the riotous naughty comedy series about the characters and goings on in this idyllic French village. Well written but with a wit beyond and a good dousing of hanky-panky, maybe not entirely in fitting with now norms (oh dreary me). Regardless, anyone with warm blood is likely to enjoy until the end and pine a little for French wine and real cheese.

Clochemerle where lives were lived to the full and nobody got injured – well permanently injured

$35.00

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Surveyor’s Prismatic Compass – Retailed by Winsor & Newton, London – Likely Manufactured by Stanley – c1900

The Island of Elba – Petrus Bertius – Over Four Hundred Years Old – Printed 1603

[Music Theme] Violin with Score Bookends – By Marion Bronze c1940’s

Rare Image of Australia’s Rarest Bird – Rawnsley’s Satin Bower Bird [Ptilonorhynchus Rawnsleyi] – Silvester Diggles – c1870

The Belgium Essays – Charlotte and Emily Bronte – Edited and translated by Sue Lonoff.

Clochemerle Les Bains – Gabriel Chevallier – First UK Edition 1964

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