Prestige Items

Elements of Agricultural Chemistry – Humphry Davy – First Edition 1813

A first edition of this important scientific work by (Sir) Humphry Davy (1788-1829).

Published by Longmans, London in 1813. Presented as a series of lectures in the subject.

Quarto, bound in three quarter leather over marbled boards, separate leather title. Pages viii, 323, lxiii, 5, with ten engraved plate one large and folding. Some foxing and age as always.

Knighted later, Davy was the leading chemist of the day. He worked with early batteries and possessed what was the most powerful battery at the time which he used in his often flamboyant lectures.

He is widely attributed with the discovery of electrochemistry and isolated many elements for the first time particularly the alkaline metal … sodium, potassium, lithium etc. After this work he invented the miners safety lamp that takes his name and which has saved thousands of lives.

He later became the President of the Royal Society and took on Michael Faraday as his assistant and note taker. They were both injured in experiments involving the explosive Nitrogen trichloride … a chemical that can be formed in swimming baths through the interaction of Chlorine and Urine.

Humphry Davy the most respected scientist of the period – his lectures and the chemistry of agriculture .. and don’t pee in the pool!

$690.00

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Keith Miller – Signed letter three days before the First Ashes Test in Brisbane November 1954

The great Keith Miller was getting near the end of his test career and was overlooked as Captain for this Ashes series in Australia.

At the time he was the main writer for the Sydney based “Sporting Life”. Here he is writing to Sri Lankan identity Percy Samarawickrama.

On Sporting Life letterhead …

Dear Percy

Many thanks for your kind thought in sending along the drawing which I thought excellent.

We start the Test against England on Friday and I think the games should be fairly even.

So far the English batsmen have failed, but they are too good to miss out for much longer.

Anyway, Percy many thanks again, it was appreciated.

Your sincerely
Keith Miller

Envelope post marked 22nd November 1954. The first Test of the 1954/55 ashes series was to begin four days later on Friday 26th November at Brisbane.

Miller made a good contribution with bat and ball despite being injured for the second Test. The Brisbane Test went Australia’s way and they lead the series before Sydney. Captained by Len Hutton England fought back, both through the bat as Miller suggests but, and also through the ball. England’s new terrific fast bowler Typhoon Tyson took 28 wickets in a Series won by England 3:1.

Cricket legend Keith Miller forecasts an improvement in the English batting line up, but not the “Typhoon”, four days before the first Ashes Test 1954.

$175.00

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A Night to Remember [the Sinking of the Titanic] – Walter Lord – First UK edition 1956

First UK edition of this classic Titanic book published by Longmans, Green etc London in 1956. Still regarded as the best account of the Titanic disaster and the basis of the Classic Movie of 1958 starring Kenneth Moore.

Octavo, 187pages, numerous illustrations from period photographs and end paper diagrams of the fated ship. Jacket art by Ley Kenyon.

The author was in the American Intelligence Service during WWII, was an obsessive collector of uniform buttons from the American Civil War and spent twenty years researching for this book … not all the time of course.

A really special book that Voyager has read through twice without a pause. The photographic images are super …menus First and second Class; Lord Astor looking, well, aristocratic; the Gymnasium; the Café Parisien … the lifeboat that the Countess of Rothes was later to “man” the tiller.

Titanic Gold – UK First Edition 1956

SO SORRY SOLD

$80.00

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James Cook’s Second Voyage – A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Around the World – Fine Large Scale Facsimile in 2 Volumes

Facsimile of James Cook’s Second Voyage – Towards the South Pole – 2 Volumes

A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World Performed in His Majesty’s Ships the Resolution and Adventure, in the years 1772, 1773, 1774 and 1775. In which is included Captain Furneaux’s Narrative of his Proceedings in the Adventure during the Separation of the Ships: By James Cook Commander of the Resolution.

Illustrated with Maps and Charts, and a Variety of Portraits of Persons and Views of Places, Drawn during the Voyage by Mr. Hodges, and Engraved by the Most Eminent Master.

This is the account of Cook’s second voyage. The success of Cook’s first voyage led the Admiralty to send him on a second expedition to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible in search of any southern continents. Cook proved that there was no Terra Australis which supposedly lay between New Zealand and South America, but became convinced that there must be land beyond the ice fields. Cook was the first to cross the Antarctic Circle. Further visits were made to New Zealand, and on two great sweeps Cook made an astonishing series of discoveries and rediscoveries including Easter Island, the Marquesas, Tahiti and the Society Islands, Niue, the Tonga Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, and a number of smaller islands. Rounding Cape Horn, on the last part of the voyage, Cook discovered and charted South Georgia, after which he called at Cape Town. William Hodges was the artist with the expedition. This voyage produced a vast amount of information concerning the Pacific peoples and Islands, proved the value of the chronometer as an aid in finding longitude, and improved techniques for preventing scurvy.

Also, includes the account of Captain Furneaux in the Adventure during his time separated from the Endeavour.

Originally published by Strahan & Cadell, London in 1777. This edition in two volumes by the Libraries Board of South Australia in 1970.

Complete with facsimile images – portrait frontispiece (Basire’s engraving of Cook from the painting by William Hodges) and 63 plates, charts and portraits, many folding. Light beige canvas cloth covered boards, separate title labels to spine. Very clean internally, high quality paper. A super set.

The second Voyage of James Cook to seek out the Great Southern Land – and to do so much more.

$390.00

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William Buelow Gould – Convict Artist of Van Diemen’s Land – Garry Darby

Published in 1980 by Copperfield as part of the Art Library.

Large quarto, 136 pages, illustrated not only the plates of artwork, which are magnificent but also in the lengthy introduction about the artist and his work. A fine copy.

William Gould (1803-1853) arrived in Hobart in 1827. Whilst he is known to have been at time a drunken and rebellious convict his work in totality describes a complex individual who undoubtedly had a love for nature.

This is the first effective catalogue of the known works of Gould. Unusual for the period and Australia principally a still life artist (how can you not admire the cat with the fish that grace the jacket) but also luminous landscapes and characterful portraits of Aboriginal people. The biographical details comprise the first eighty pages.

William Gould now a much admired and more understood convict artist.

$75.00

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Coins and Tokens of Tasmania – 1803-1910 – Roger McNiece

The definitive work. We really admire people like McNiece who through their passion for their interest put the hard yards in, the effort, to produce such a useful work. Tooley, Spence, King etc all come to mind.

Published by Platypus Publication, Hobart in 1969, a first edition. Rather rare. Printed on the Mercury Presses bound by Walch .. how more Tasmanian can you get.

Octavo, 112 pages, numerous illustrations to help one along. A very good copy in an excellent dust jacket bar a small closed tear to rear.

Roger McNiece was a founding member of the Tasmanian Numismatics Society.

And, more than coins and tokens. We start with Specie .. the currency of NSW and the consequences of the Settlement of Van Diemen’s Land. Sorrell and Brisbane’s reforms. Arthur and the Sterling Money Act. The allowance for South American Dollars, Sicca Rupees [we had to encourage gentlemen in service in India to retire in VDL], Mexican Dollars ..

Then Paper Currency and Police Fund Notes and Treasury Bills. A lengthy chapter on Private Promissory Notes and numerous individual issuers. A chapter on Barter and the use of Rum Therein. Special Bank Issues and then the last third of the book taken up with Trade Tokens – so collectable.

More than Coins and Tokens – the McNiece Standard

$80.00

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Elements of Agricultural Chemistry – Humphry Davy – First Edition 1813

Keith Miller – Signed letter three days before the First Ashes Test in Brisbane November 1954

A Night to Remember [the Sinking of the Titanic] – Walter Lord – First UK edition 1956

James Cook’s Second Voyage – A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Around the World – Fine Large Scale Facsimile in 2 Volumes

William Buelow Gould – Convict Artist of Van Diemen’s Land – Garry Darby

Coins and Tokens of Tasmania – 1803-1910 – Roger McNiece

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