Curiosities

U.F.O – Evaluating the Evidence – Bill Yenne

Who doesn’t like a good U.F.O book?

Published by Saraband, USA in 1997. Largish quarto, 160 pages, with a multitude of UFO images and related … corny UFO designed end paper … we like them. Nibble on dust jacket otherwise very good. A bit too big for economical Overseas postage.

The author is an aviation / space ex buff so the UFO interested is a related spin off [joke intended]. Some really good stuff in here as well as the usual “cover up” … not sure why government is so obsessed with hiding the truth about UFO … they may be friendly ….

UFO explained – lots of them – look up next time you are out!

$35.00

Updating cart…

Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure [Recovered by Mike Hatcher] – Shipwreck in the Gaspar Straits 1822

Qing Dynasty decorated footed dish recovered by Mike Hatcher from the Tek Sing shipwreck. A very good clean example.

Niceley decorated and with peony and magnolia flowers and double lines at rim, simple decoration under rim. Strong colouring and no damage which is rare. 10.5 cm in diameter 2.5 cm high. Retains the auction reference sticker from the famous Nagel auction in Germany underneath.

A fine example of a Tek Sing shipwreck bowl

________________________

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 Nagel in Stuttgart, Germany the following year

$140.00

Updating cart…

The True-born English-man: A Satyr – Daniel Defoe – This Copy Published in 1716

A rare item by Daniel Defoe. The scarce “enlarged” edition printed and sold by James Roberts, London in 1716.

Pocket sized 12 mo, 12, 26 pages, bound in contemporary calf backed boards, some age and wear but solid and rare in this original state.

First edition thus. After the accession of Hanover Defoe added a new passage of 49 lines satirising the English temper. It was hastily published and contains a number of hasty error which ironically confirm its pedigree

A True-born English-man, satirical poem of length about xenophobia … a few could learn from it today. Dutch born William of Orange has become King of England, and there was much tittle tattle about his lack of English-ness. Defoe, forever a wit, wrote this is support of old William of Orange, ridiculing the notion of English racial purity. Well the evidence is there.

Defoe … much quoted from his opening rant

“that het’rogeneous thing, an Englishman:
In eager rapes, and furious lust begot
Betwixt a painted Britain and a Scot
Whose gend’ring off-spring quickly learn’d to bow,
And yoke their heifers to the Roman plough:
From whence a mongrel half-bred race there came,
With neither name, nor nation, speech nor fame.
In whose hot veins new mixtures quickly ran,
Infused betwixt a Saxon and a Dane
While their rank daughters, to their parents just,
Receiv’d all nations with promiscuous lust.
This nauseous brood directly did contain
The well-extracted blood of Englishmen.”

Daniel Defoe and his True-born a delicious antiquarian rarity … over three hundred year old!

$280.00

Updating cart…

Carl Zeiss Microscope Vertical Illuminator with Aperture Diaphragm – Original Box – c 1930’s

A scarce period vertical illuminator in original fitted, felt lined box. Box in good order, shagreen a little aged, gilt naming and branding still readable, clasp work. Has kept the device in very good order.

The Zeiss vertical illuminator is used to reflect and control light vertically down the microscope to the specimen for both brightfield and darkfield observation. This model includes an aperture diaphragm which is operated by a lever [all works well which is crucial for achieving proper Kohler illumination. This setup allows for optimised contrast and resolution when observing with reflected light.

Zeiss microscope collectable in good order and with the diaphragm aperture

$190.00

Updating cart...

No Image Available

The First Documented Medical Discovery Relating to Australia – An Account of the medicinal Effects of the Resin of Acaroides Resinifera, or Yellow Resin from Botany Bay. By Charles Kite, Surgeon Gravesend, and C.M.S – contained in the Memoirs of the Medical Society of London – Published 1795 [but written in 1790]

A complete volume being Volume IV of the Society printed by Darton and Harvey for Charles Dilly, in the Poultry [London]. Very rare in any form. Published 1795. Incidentally the Medical Society was formed in 1773.

Octavo, 447 pages after preliminaries and before index. Neat library binding with paper title label. Cancelled stamp of the Bath Medical Library [Heaven knows why]. One loose gathering and a little age but a very worthy copy of this most interesting FIRST.

Many of the papers have merit but we must focus here on the paper relating to the Botany Bay resin. {Note resin and gum interchangeable below per Kite’s use]

Charles Kite who died in 1811 [no record of dob] is known for this work and another on “raising the apparently dead” he was the first to publish an example of using an electric shock [static electricity] to resuscitate a cardiac arrest.

We understand Charles Kite came up with the name Acaroides Resinifera for the plant, whilst it is now known as Xanthorrhoea or Grass Tree. Cook noted it in his journals in the year 1770 and it is now widely accepted that the gum was used for a variety of purposes by the aborigines including for its medical properties.

After an introduction relating to its use in stomach complaints Kite gives some historical background – refers to Philip’s journal {p. 59,60] but goes on to say the best information came from Mr Bowes Surgeon on the Lady Penrhyn. Bowes after describing the tree precisely goes on to where the “gum” is found, its quantity and how it is easily got especially in a hot sun. Kite goes on to record thirty experiments concerning the “gum” – various solutions and extractions. Kite proceeds to describe various cases where the “gum” has been used and the outcomes … also cases noted by other medics including Thompson of Rochester; Andrews of Brompton and Harris of Gravesend.

Comprehensive trial of the Botany Bay Resin by Charles Kite 1790/95 – Surely a FIRST

$490.00

Updating cart…

Folding Georgian Guinea Scales c1805

A very good set of early Guinea Scales with contemporary instructions label. Manufactured Stephen Houghton who took over from Anthony Wilkinson at Ormskirk, Lancashire. Wilkinson had died in 1804. We have two very good examples this probably the best.

Self-erecting and known generally as the Lancashire Gold Balance. The brass beam is rectangular in section and has a hinged “turn and swing” overweight which counter poises the beam for the guinea or half-guinea. Once folded the end-button release mechanism sets and releases nicely.

A small rectangular sliding weight on the load arm registers in graduations to show discrepancies in of under-weight coins.

The collapsing mechanism makes the whole entirely portal in the gentleman’s trouser.

Functioning Georgian Gold Sovereign Scale

$190.00

Updating cart…

U.F.O – Evaluating the Evidence – Bill Yenne

Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure [Recovered by Mike Hatcher] – Shipwreck in the Gaspar Straits 1822

The True-born English-man: A Satyr – Daniel Defoe – This Copy Published in 1716

Carl Zeiss Microscope Vertical Illuminator with Aperture Diaphragm – Original Box – c 1930’s

Folding Georgian Guinea Scales c1805

Product Categories