Middle East

Horrie The Wog-Dog – With the A.I.F in Egypt, Greece, Crete and Palestine – Ion Idriess

An interesting and often amusing war account. Written by Ion Idriess from the War Diary of Private J. B. Moddy, of the Machine Gun Battalion.

The puppy Horrie was found in the Western Desert and, looked after by Moody, becoming the Battalion mascot. Horrie was transported “unofficially, in a special travelling pack from one conflict to another. Photographs from the “action” illustrate the work nicely and prove to any doubters that Horrie was in the thick of it.

Published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney in 1955, the first 1945. Octavo, 232 pages with 17 illustrations. A very good copy in a very good jacket

Idriess on “Horrie” and the A.I.F in WWII a very good copy

$70.00

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The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam – Trans Edward Fitzgerald

A Folio Society production from 1970. Their usual lavish production works well in this case – we are not always a fan.

Edward Fitzgerald had a couple of goes at translating The Rubaiyat – this is his first and best we think.

Tall octavo, unpaginated, 75 verses after introductions and a page of helpful notes at the end. Nicely, artistically, illustrated by Virgil Burnett. Decorative end paper, gilt and silvered ornate pattern over red cloth covered boards, gold paper covered custom slipcase.

A nice and attractive Rubaiyat that would make a super gift.

$40.00

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Tasmania’s A.I.F. Lighthorsemen – Peter J. Pickering

Self published in 2006 the full history of C Squadron, 3rd Light Horse Regiment – exclusively Tasmanian in WWI.

Large format, soft cover, perfect bound. 142 pages, plus appendices. Magnificently illustrated, the original images, superb coloured charts of campaigns bring the whole story to a new level.

Largely based on the authorised account of Sir George John Bell DSO CMG. The regiment went to Gallipoli and then back to Egypt and withing days thrown action in the western deserts and to the east of Suez. Among the soldier was a young wool classer Hudson Fysh who near the end of the campaign would take his first flying lessons. He would go on to fly London to Australia and later found QANTAS at Longreach in Queensland.

Edition limited to 250 copies of which this is signed and numbered 219 by the author. Also signed by the then Governor of Tasmania William Cox.

Scarce and very readable account – Tasmanian Heroes

$150.00

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Seven Pillars of Wisdom – a triumph – T.E. Lawrence (Of Arabia) – August 1935

Published by Jonathan Cape London 1935 – Seven Pillars of Wisdom a triumph – “The Sword also means Clean-ness + Death”. First trade edition second impression August after the July first.

The Trade Edition preceded by the incomplete “Oxford” edition of 1922 (8 copies only were printed) and the very rare privately printed “Subscribers Edition” of 1927 (170 copies).

Thick quarto, 672 pages, original brown cloth covered binding with gilt titles to spine and device to front. Carries the bookplate of Eric Ambrose on front paste down and his discrete personal label on the end papers. Eric Ambrose was a distinguished British architect and a Fellow of his Professional Body. Avery good copy

Frontispiece portrait of a bust of Lawrence, 4 folding maps as called for, 2 facsimiles and a total of 54 illustrations – 46 of which are dramatic portraits of men who appear in the book. Albeit without the rare dust jacket this is the cleanest we have seen of this edition. The boards clean and unmarked and only the slightest bit of foxing limited to the rough cut paper edges.

Lawrence “took pains to bring objects and artists together”. A classic book written by Lawrence after a very successful war leading

the Arabs against the Turks, considered one of the most important books on war especially political and guerrilla warfare.

Churchill called it “One of the greatest books ever written in the English language”

Lawrence of Arabia’s great book. First trade great condition – 1935

We simply have to give you some of Chapter 1 … “The everlasting battle stripped from us care of our own lives or of others’. We had ropes about our necks, on or heads prices which showed that the enemy intended hideous tortures for us if we were caught. Each day some of us passed; and the living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God’s stage: indeed, our taskmaster was merciless, merciless, so long as our bruised feet could stagger forward on the road. The weak envied those tired enough to die; for success looked so remote, and failure a near and certain, if sharp, release from toil. We lived always in the stretch or sag of nerves, either on the crest or in the trough of waves of feeling ..

$290.00

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Acta Iranica – the King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art – Margaret Cool Root.

A scarce hardback edition from the superb series on Iranian studies Acta Iranica published by the International Committee of Scholars of the Indo-Iranian Studies at the University of Liege. Peer reviewed and published by E.J. Brill in Leiden, Netherlands.

This edition Volume IX of the third series published in 1979. “Essays on the Creation of an Iconography of Empire” by the esteemed Margaret Cool Root.

Large octavo, 357 pages followed by LXXII pages of plates from original photographs, illustration within the text one triple folding architectural plate.

The author completed her Doctorate at Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia in 1976. This book is an expanded version of the work included in her Thesis. She is now Professor of her discipline at Michigan University.

Achaemenid Art is the Art of the Kings, the official art of the Achaemenid Dynasty, arising from a clan of Persian people of that name who would ruled the Near East from 550 BC to 331 BC [the arrival of Alexander the Great]. An architectural, sculptural and artistic delight is contained in this large body of work.

A scarce element on the history of an interesting period dominated by the Persian Achaemenid.

$70.00

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Smelling the Breezes – A Journey Through the High Lebanon – R and M Izzard

Published by the Travel Book Club, a Foyles invention in conjunction with Hodder, London in 1959. A first edition.

Octavo, 253 pages with a few illustrations from photographs. A very good clean copy.

The authors, the Izzards were an adventurous lot, tramping 300 miles through the high country behind and down from the Lebanon. A really interesting account of an area rarely tackled with such attention to detail and respect for the people, environment, history etc.

The Lebanon and up at the back in the High Country.

$25.00

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Horrie The Wog-Dog – With the A.I.F in Egypt, Greece, Crete and Palestine – Ion Idriess

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam – Trans Edward Fitzgerald

Tasmania’s A.I.F. Lighthorsemen – Peter J. Pickering

Seven Pillars of Wisdom – a triumph – T.E. Lawrence (Of Arabia) – August 1935

Acta Iranica – the King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art – Margaret Cool Root.

Smelling the Breezes – A Journey Through the High Lebanon – R and M Izzard

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