Prestige Items

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyan – Peter Pauper Press

A lovely little production by the superb Mount Vernon, Peter Pauper Press printed delightfully on rag paper.

The Edward Fitzgerald translation illustrated by Jeff Hill. No date but likely 1970′s

Unpaginated but 62 pages with 9 full page illustrations, the verses printed crisply within decorative borders. Decorated paper covered boards the design of which carries over to the dust jacket. Very good condition albeit a little ageing to the jacket.

The Rubaiyat should require no introduction .. every library should have several versions of which this a special one.

The Rubaiyat by the special Peter Pauper Press.

$40.00

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Tasmania – Cessation of Transportation Medal – Cast 1853

A very good example of the dual-purpose Cessation of Transportation (to Tasmania) medal and 50-year Jubilee medal. Often found with an offensive hole drilled presumably so it could be worn … ours free of this blight and in pretty good condition.

The Anti-transportation league received good news from England via the steamer Harbinger that had reached Melbourne with the official notification that the transportation of convicts to Van Diemens Land was over. The name change to Tasmania was not officially in effect until 1856.

Nine thousand pewter medals were cast and given to children in the Colony, 4000 in Hobart, 3000 in Launceston and the rest in outlying areas. 100 bronze examples were cast and given to the movers and shakers in the anti-transportation league and one gold example which was given to Queen Victoria.

A substantial medal 58 mm in diameter and 4 mm thick, 65 gm. With a portrait of Queen Victoria on one side and the Australian Coat of Arms with Sun Rising and Emu and Kangaroo Supports.

A unique dual celebration and an important Colonial Medal.

$440.00

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Rasmie’s Buddie [Shetlandic Poetry] – Haldane Burgess

This is the fourth edition of this most curios collection of “Poems in the Shetlandic” by Haldane Burgess illustrated by Frank Walterson.

Published in beautiful Lerwick, Shetland by the local publishing company. Octavo, xxii,104 pages including the useful if not essential comprehensive glossary of Shetlandic words at the end. Very good condition in a like dust jacket.

First published in the 19th century the work comprises forty seven poems which follow a very good biographical memoir of the poet by Manson and a preface by expert Lawrence Graham.

There are smatterings of English .. “The Shetland words are rather tough, – And there are folk you’d reach – Who’d like the “’Buddie” right enough; – But can’t make out the speech. – I have knocked about the world, – Seen and read a thing or two – And picked up some plain English, – Which I’m pretty sure would do”

But the fun in this work comes with the translation and the relaxing island style.

Shetlandic poetry – what a way in to a beautiful dialect ..

$35.00

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Elements of Medical Logick, illustrated by Practical Proofs and Examples – Sir Gilbert Blane – 1821

Published by Thomas and George Underwood, London in 1821. This is the second edition .. with Large Additions, Particularly in the Practical Part. Extremely scarce regardless.

The “Windsor Copy” meaning from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, cancelled in the 1948 cull performed by the then merciless Royal Librarian.

Octavo, 280 pages, inscribed on the end paper “from the Author” i.e. a gift to the then George IV’s Library. There is an additional note of recognition “with thanks acknowledges the Rect of this book. J.G. LT, Oct 2nd 1821”. Rebound beautifully in half calf by Roger Perry, separate red leather title label characteristically hand tooled not blocked.

An interesting read … an unusual index which provides brief explanations assists e.g. … Alexander the Great his method of dispelling sleep; Artificial ills to be corrected by artificial remedies; Aristotle a great observer of nature; Banks, Sir Joseph found colchiucum remedy for gout; Boyle his recommendation of a fantastick remedy; Cadiz the yellow fever more frequently there, than any where in Europe; Exceptions the danger in erecting them into rules; Exercise necessary to the soundness and perfections of the vital organs; Lymphatik system no sound nor available physiology before its discovery; Opium of essential benefit in the cure of gravel; Sensation can be excited by the imagination; Galvanism not identical with the nervous power but an exciter of it … and probably more relevant examples.

Sir George Blane was a celebrated medic of the time. He was a Fellow of the Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh and Gottingen, a Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St Petersburgh and the appointed Physician to the King. An important history of medical work.

Royal Library Pedigree of an Important Medical Reference.

$340.00

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One Ceremony One Song. An Economy of Religious Knowledge Among Yolnu of North-East Arnhem Land. A PhD Thesis – Australia National University – 1978 – Ian Keen

An original copy of the monumental Thesis written by Ian Keen to obtain his PhD from ANU in 1978. Keen to go on to be a respected anthropologist holding positions at Queensland University and ANU and spending time at Oxford, visiting Professor at Osaka etc.

Perfect bound in blue cloth covered boards, gilt titles to front and spine. Typed on one side 412 pages with 19 pages of plates from the authors photographs; 72 Figures in text; 45 tables of information and 4 maps. This copy gifted to “Jimmy” clearly an associated academic with a few marginal notes etc. Over 3 kgs in weight so if Overseas a postage supplement will be necessary.

The English born author was late to the academic world having first worked as an art restorer before doing an undergraduate degree at the University of London under Mary Douglas in his mid thirties. He did well and soon won a scholarship to work on Aboriginal religion through song symbolism in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia. This thesis demonstrates the depth of his research and provides a meticulous record of his findings.

He commenced his work on the island of Milingimbi in 1974 and worked there for fourteen months before completing a further 10 months on the mainland at Nanggalala. Its is not surprising that “’writing up” took him some time.

His “Abstract” explains his examination of the relationship between the organisation, ownership and content of religious practice and knowledge, marriage and power relations in Yolnu society. He argues that older men require the authority gained through their control of secret ceremonies and religious knowledge, in order to sustain a polygamous regime. Making possible a system of marriage through which some men gain many wives. Keen’s description of the various ceremonies is highly detailed … we doubt if any broadly published material covers such content with similar vigour.

A special reference relating to the Yolnu of Northern Australia.

$280.00

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Travels Researches and Missionary Labors During Eighteen Years’ Residence in Eastern Africa – Together with Journeys to Jagga, Usambara, Ukambani, Shoa, Abessinia and Khartum; and a Coasting Voyage from Mombaz to Cape Delgado. – J.L. Krapf – 1860

With and appendix by noted geographer and cartographer Ernest George Ravenstein (1834-1913) … the snow-capped mountains of Eastern Africa; the sources of the Nile; the languages and literature of Abessinia and Eastern Africa, etc and a concise account of geographical researches in Eastern Africa up to the discovery of the Uyenyesi by Dr Livingstone, in September last.

First US edition published by Ticknor Fields, Boston 1860. Octavo, xl, 484 pages with folding map and extensive bibliography of the literature and languages of Eastern Africa. bound expertly in full morocco.

Johann Ludwig Krapf (1810-1881) a German born missionary who carried out much fundamental exploration in East Africa often with Johannes Rebmann. They were the first Europeans to see Mount Kenya and the snow there and on Mt Kilimanjaro. He first arrived in Ethiopia in 1836 and became heavily involved in linguistics including some languages no longer spoken. Later in Kenya he wrote the first dictionary and grammar of the Swahili language.

So important were the travels around the mountains and the reporting of the snow clad peaks and the prospects for the source of the Nile that Krapf’s record spurred the London Royal Geographical Society to fund the Burke and Speake expedition in an attempt to settle matters once and for all.

Krapf a cornerstone account that inspired the Burke Speake expedition to confirm the source of the Nile.

$280.00

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The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyan – Peter Pauper Press

Tasmania – Cessation of Transportation Medal – Cast 1853

Rasmie’s Buddie [Shetlandic Poetry] – Haldane Burgess

Elements of Medical Logick, illustrated by Practical Proofs and Examples – Sir Gilbert Blane – 1821

One Ceremony One Song. An Economy of Religious Knowledge Among Yolnu of North-East Arnhem Land. A PhD Thesis – Australia National University – 1978 – Ian Keen

Travels Researches and Missionary Labors During Eighteen Years’ Residence in Eastern Africa – Together with Journeys to Jagga, Usambara, Ukambani, Shoa, Abessinia and Khartum; and a Coasting Voyage from Mombaz to Cape Delgado. – J.L. Krapf – 1860

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