Queensland

The Antiquity of Man – Arthur Keith – 2 Volumes (Piltdown Man)

1928 edition by Sir Arthur Keith’s first published 1925 as a single volume. Reviewed and enhanced.

A famous work in that it includes several chapters on the greatest scientific hoax ever … The Piltdown Man … there should be a BBC mini-series on this crime. Charles Dawson discovered the skull fragments that were to provide the “missing link” between apes and man. He was then assisted by the distinguished Dr Smith Woodward. In this book Keith is not sure at all and his chapter headed “The difficulties of reconstruction” alludes to error and alternative interpretations and perhaps even the reality. The reality was exposed in1953 when the bones were found to have consisted of the mandible and some teeth of an orangutan combined with the cranium of a small brained modern human. Grafton Elliot Smith a fellow anthropologist sided with Dawson and Woodward at the Royal Society claiming that Keith’s views were motivated by ambition. Keith later recalled “Such was the end of our long friendship”.

Whilst Piltdown makes the book special there are other excellent anthropological finds well written up, not the least being the Pleistocene skull found at Talgai (near Warwick Queensland) in 1884 but brought out of a cupboard in 1914 and properly categorised by Sir T.W. Edgeworth David …. Robert Etheridge also had a hand.

Much could be said about the author Sir Arthur Keith whose interest in the origins of man stemmed from being put in charge of the Museum of the Royal Society of Surgeons at an early age.

We have included an image of the painting of key players investigating the skull of Piltdown Man … Arthur Keith is seated in the middle with Dawson and Smith Woodward standing behind him to the right …. note a painting of Charles Darwin on the wall behind the group.

Early Man and Piltdown examined but not exposed

$90.00

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A Naturalist in Cannibal Land – 1913 – Arthur Stewart Meek

Meek (1871-1943) was born into a Natural History family. Before he was twenty he was at Coomooboolaroo Station in Queensland collecting for the great Lionel Rothschild for his zoo at Tring. He then travelled New Guinea and the Solomons for both Tring and the Natural History Museum. This is a second impression in very good condition.

This is the book on his travels. Amongst his great finds were the holotyoe and paratype of the Woodlark venomous snake, rare there are still only twelve specimens known. In 1906 he discovered (and shot) the first specimen of the Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing Butterfly … the largest in the world.

Many species are named after him … a crested pigeon, lorikeet, pygmy-parrot, crow, dwarf kingfisher etc and several butterflies and moths.

Meek a fearless Natural Historian who made his mark in New Guinea and the Solomons

$160.00

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Cape River Gold Field – Report of William Rands – 1891

William Rands was Assistant Geologist to Robert Logan Jack. This is his report to the Queensland Parliament on the Cape River Gold Field.

18 foolscap pages of the usual intense observation and detail exhibited by the Queensland geological team of the period. Covers Union Reef, General Grant Reef, Hayward Reef, The Big reef, The Just-In-Time Reef, Hughes Leader, The Mystery Reef (no Mystery!), Springs reef, Mount Remarkable, Morning Star, Martin’s, Bell-Gay, Victoria, and Governor Blackall Reefs and many many more. Crushing reports with yield from Ellen Boss, Treasure and Albion as complied by Commissioner Gill.
An appendix provides a short geological description of rocks and thin section slides of 43 samples taken in the area. The thin section slides being prepared by Clarke of Charters Towers.

The report contain a folding coloured page showing 8 geological sections the first across Mr Davenport and the cape River. And a very nice coloured Geological Sketch Map of part of the Kennedy District by William Rands (50cms by 25 cms) … note our image on the Voyager website is partly truncated because of the limitations of our scanner.

Quality Cape River Report with fine example of the Map

$90.00

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Report on British New Guinea, from data and notes by the late Sir peter scratchley, Her Majesty’s special commissioner – 1886

Mr. G. Seymour Fort, private secretary to the late Sir Peter Scratchley, presents a report on British New Guinea, from data and notes by the late Sir Peter Scratchley, her majesty’s special commissioner. A very important document regarding exploration to determine the best approach to problems resulting from annexation, natives, superstition, murder, rape, missionaries, financing and administration.

The report examines, in great detail; administration and appointment of officers as necessary with the key perspective being the current position of the country, its general characteristics and, somewhat importantly, complaints of the natives against white men and of white men against natives that would require swift resolution. The examination of pressing issues continues including the killing of white men, industry and judicial proceedings, missionaries, minerals, natural products, rainfall, rivers and, a key examination of the special nature of New Guinea’s relationship with Queensland.

A key piece of colonial New Guinea’s history – Scratchley established a Colony.

$290.00

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R. Hamlyn-Harris (Ed.) – “Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Vol. V” – 1916

R. Hamlyn-Harris presents the fifth volume of Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, issued in Brisbane, 10th July, 1916.

This work concerns itself with a staggeringly large number of exhibits, pieces and explorations of the Queensland Museum to that date, from fish poisoning and poisons employed among the Aborigines of Queensland to a check-list of Cephalochordates, Selachians, and fish of Queensland. Accompanied by 25 excellent plates, with additional illustrations to accompany each article.

This scarce and important publication contains articles to delight anyone with an interest in natural history, anthropology or Queensland itself.

$60.00

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“Inquiry into the ‘Jason’ Case” – Correspondence presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command – 1873

This detailed inquiry considers the facts of the ‘Jason‘ case.

Capt. John William Coath, master of the Jason was convicted of kidnapping nine men a short distance from the island of Api and removing them to Maryborough, Queensland, taking them by force out of a canoe, which was afterword hauled aboard the boat and destroyed.

The inquiry results from a petition put forward by 390 men for the remission of Capt. Coath’s sentence, five years imprisonment in Brisbane Gaol. The petition consists of correspondence and testimony under the Oath’s Act 1867 from crewmen and from two of the alleged kidnapping victims.

$60.00

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The Antiquity of Man – Arthur Keith – 2 Volumes (Piltdown Man)

A Naturalist in Cannibal Land – 1913 – Arthur Stewart Meek

Cape River Gold Field – Report of William Rands – 1891

Report on British New Guinea, from data and notes by the late Sir peter scratchley, Her Majesty’s special commissioner – 1886

R. Hamlyn-Harris (Ed.) – “Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Vol. V” – 1916

“Inquiry into the ‘Jason’ Case” – Correspondence presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command – 1873

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