Scotland

$Madeira Spectroscopic, being a Revision of 21 Places in the Red half of the Solar Visible Spectrum with a Rutherford Diffraction Grating at Madeira in the Summer of 1881 – C Piazzi Smyth – Astronomer Royal Scotland – 1882.$

Madeira Spectroscopic, being a Revision of 21 Places in the Red half of the Solar Visible Spectrum with a Rutherford Diffraction Grating at Madeira in the Summer of 1881 – C Piazzi Smyth – Astronomer Royal Scotland – 1882.

Anyone who follows Voyager will know how much we adore Charles Piazzi Smyth read his wiki – too much for here. The Piazzi is after his Italian father-in-law and astronomer who influenced the Smyth family to set up their own observatory when CPS was very young. At near to sixteen he was off to South Africa to assist in astronomical experiments and it all expanded from there – his work of the Great Pyramid of Cheops is also something else.

Newton has written that the only way to improve the quality of astronomical images [having regard to size and quality of optics] was to take instruments higher in the atmosphere. CPS became an expert in this and pioneered trips to Teneriffe and Madeira to lug his instruments to higher ground – always accompanied by his knowledgeable wife. There we gave you a bit – like all these people of the times his brothers and sisters had similarly interesting lives.

Solar spectroscopy became a particular interest … as an aside he promoted the use of the Browning Rainband Spectroscope [we usually have one for sale]. At Madeira he went for the diffraction grating rather than prism combination. The results are scientific glory and nicely presented in this work published by Johnston, Edinburgh in 1882.

Square quarto, cloth binding with gilt rule and titles, 32 pages, 18 plates on in striking colour, vignette to title page. Some foxing but excuse it for its rarity, author and spot in astronomical history.

Charles Piazzi Smyth [1819-1900] top rank astronomer and pyramidologist.

$490.00

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Vacuum Pump with Dome – Griffin and Tatlock c 1930 – Super Example

A very good working example of a vacuum hand pump, complete with glass dome from notable maker Griffin and Tatlock [a design by John Griffin]

Nice oak handle, the brass pump body retains its original lacquer, valve moves freely and pumps seals nicely. The glass dome with bell top handle is ground for contact with the pump base plate [in operation this would be grease/ vaseline sealed. There is a small chip to the inside rim but not impinging on the “sealability” of the instrument.

Carries the Griffin and Tatlock branding plaque. We can date this to around 1930 as John Griffin and sons merged with the distinguished Scottish form Baird and Tatlock circa 1925.

Dimensions approx. – 40 cm long 30 cm high and 18 cm wide. Not really suitable for overseas and will require a postage supplement dependent on buyer location.

Rare complete and working a genuine sucker.

$440.00

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Gallows Orchard – Claire Spencer – First Edition 1930

First edition of Gallows Orchard – in or opinion – in the best dust jacket design we have ever seen.

Published by Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith. Octavo, 285 pages, a little age, generally very good condition.

Lucy antagonises a small village in Scotland … she has numerous suitors but in the end the village folk have their way. Murder, marriage and death ….

This was Scottish born Clair Spencer’s first novel. By this time, she was in the US married to publisher Harrison Smith.

Approaching 100 years – First edition challenging story

$70.00

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Robert Louis Stevenson – Memories – 1926

A very unusually presented biographical work on Robert Louis Stevenson published by Peter Davies, London in 1926. Not a first printing but extremely scarce regardless.

Tall slim octavo, card covers with affixed wrap around picturesque cover with yap edges. Internally twenty five pages of tipped in images from original photographs with narrative opposite. A mixture of the people, mainly family, in his life … his life in Scotland and in Samoa [which probably saved him from ill-health] and his magnificent schooner “Casco”.

Some age to yap cover, internally pretty good, gift inscription on front ends.

An unusual piece of R.S.L. ephemera, near a hundred year old and of an emotional quality

Robert Louis Stevenson – His Life nicely presented

$35.00

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Clay Pipes from Port Arthur 1830-1877 – Maureen Byrne’s 1977-1978 Excavations at Port Arthur – Descriptive Account by Alexandra Dane and Richard Morrison.

Maureen Byrne was emerging as one of Australia’s best archaeologists before she tragically died from a terrible asthma attack in 1978, she was only 24-year-old. [See also our copy of her work on the Ross Bridge]

The massive collection of clay pipe fragments she found are held at Port Arthur. Dane and Morrison produced this thorough analysis. Published by the Department of Prehistory at the ANU, Canberra – Technical Bulletin No 2 – issued in 1979.

Large sized, original wrappers, spiral bound fifty-five pages with eleven pages of plates covering a multitude of examples.

Port Arthur established as a convict settlement in 1830 and remained so for a quarter of a century, after that it was a home for the poor and those with metal health issues. This work identifies that at some time it was likely a home for a number of military officers.

The pipes [over a thousand of them] were mainly made in Scotland which in the Victorian era was the centre of such pipe making in the World. Makers are identified – Mc Dougall, Murray, Coghill, Burns etc and the many decorative bowls that followed such lines as heraldic, heads, botanicals etc.

An unusual subject the detail of which could make you the star of the next dinner party – do people still have dinner parties?

Port Arthur its history through the pipes left behind.

$40.00

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Manuscripts in the Charter Chest at Cluny Castle: relating to the Clan Chattan and the Cluny of 1745.

Privately printed by R&R Clark, Edinburgh, 1879.Octavo, original wrappers, worn at spine and foxed on covers, but excuse it for its rarity. All edges gilt, 60 pages.

Previous owners signature in black ink on cover and inscription … the last of the direct line of 17th Highland Chief, Albert Cameron Macpherson (1854-1932).

A most interesting and unique historical document from the charter chest (a form of safe) of the Scottish seat of Cluny Castle. The clan Macpherson took their name in the 15th century and with a confederation of other clans formed the might Clan Chattan, During the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, Ewan Macpherson supported the failed attempt against the English. He fled to France with a number of others of wealth … they had a nice time, unlike those that remained.

Cluny secrets told nowhere else.

$90.00

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Madeira Spectroscopic, being a Revision of 21 Places in the Red half of the Solar Visible Spectrum with a Rutherford Diffraction Grating at Madeira in the Summer of 1881 – C Piazzi Smyth – Astronomer Royal Scotland – 1882.

Vacuum Pump with Dome – Griffin and Tatlock c 1930 – Super Example

Gallows Orchard – Claire Spencer – First Edition 1930

Robert Louis Stevenson – Memories – 1926

Clay Pipes from Port Arthur 1830-1877 – Maureen Byrne’s 1977-1978 Excavations at Port Arthur – Descriptive Account by Alexandra Dane and Richard Morrison.

Manuscripts in the Charter Chest at Cluny Castle: relating to the Clan Chattan and the Cluny of 1745.

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