Travel & Voyages

Encyclopedia of the Antarctic – Edited Beau Riffenburgh- 2 Volumes

Published by Routledge in 2006 this two-volume set is regarded as the font of all things Antarctica.

A substantial effort the number of distinguished contributors runs to over a hundred.

Two quarto volumes, 1,272 pages heavily illustrated with all sorts, high technical level with many maps, charts, explanatory diagrams etc. Very good condition. Weighs in at circa 3.6kgs so not really suitable for Overseas postage.

The elements relating to the History of Exploration and History of Science are understandably our favourites. Other broader topics include … Atmosphere; Birds; Conservation; Geography; Glaciology; Technology; Oceanography; Physics and astronomy etc.

It is all here in the Encyclopedia of the Antarctic – more than a winter’s reading

$480.00

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Lake Victoria to Khartoum with Rifle and Camera – Captain F.A. Dickinson [Introduction by Winston Churchill] – First Edition 1910.

A rare book and one of the rarest books in the Churchill cannon. If you have a first edition of Churchill’s “My African Journey” then you are lucky and you will appreciate that this book by the guide of that event would make the perfect companion.

Published by John Lane (Bodley Head), London, 1910.. in the days when you spoke to John Lane. Thick octavo, 334 pages after preliminaries and before publishers catalogue. Well over a hundred illustrations from photographs [not included in the pagination]. Bound in unusual orange/ red cloth covered boards, gilt titles and embellishment, decorative lines. The covers are quite well faded especially to the spine and the odd mark, this is common for this binding. Otherwise internally very clean indeed, just a couple of light spots on the title.

Churchill in his introduction lavishes praise on Ricketts as a guide and organiser. The party walked/ travelled the whole Uganda and more, some 1,500 miles. Churchill did some of it on bicycle. A lot of bagging went on along the way – all very jolly. Churchill took them to Khartoum and enlivened the conversation with his first hand account of encounters during his various African military skirmishes.

Churchill in Africa – mutual admiration – Ricketts

$390.00

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The Antarctic Diary of Victor Campbell – “The Wicked Mate” – Edited King

Victor Campbell was part of Robert Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition. He led the Northern Party, six men who explored the coast of King Edward VII Land. They spent ten months at Cape Adare and then moved to Inexpressible Island, described as a stormy and desolate place (an understatement). They were marooned here over the winter and had to hole up in a man made ice cave. When the weather eased a little in October they made there way back over 230 miles of sea ice.

Campbell’s papers and diary were acquired by the University of Newfoundland. This made their publication for the first time possible. Edited by King who was librarian and the Scott Polar Institute, illustrated with Campbell’s sketches and numerous photographs, many of which not published before.

Published by the brilliant Erskine Press, part of Bluntisham Books in 2001. Large squarish format octavo, 192 pages, very good near fine condition.

Victor Campbell’s Antarctic Diaries – The Northern Party

$80.00

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The Downfall of Prempeh [The West African Ashanti Expedition] -Baden-Powell 1896

A very special book by the Major Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell (later Lord Lieutenant General) founder of the Boy Scouts (the first Chief Scout).

First edition published by Methuen, London in 1896. Octavo, 199 pages, nicely illustrated and with a map. Red cloth covered boards, gilt titles to spine, a little spine fading, otherwise a clean and impressive copy.

The capital of Ashanti land , Kumassi, sits 75 miles inland from Cape Coast Castle on the West African Gold Coast – now Ghana.

This is about a military expedition to effectively oust the leader Prempeh because he was totally mad and made his subjects follow his passion which was basically sacrificing people, lots of them, all of the time. They had special places for these rituals and even a massive cauldron style object over which heads were severed. He had a passion for killing virgins sometimes hundreds at a time … not nice man. A think we can agree this was one Colonial intervention that was justified.

Anyway, Baden-Powell writes so well and we learn a lot about the preparations for the forces sent in, how they were organised and the difficulties and calamities they came across. The ending was rather strange but we will leave that for the reader.

Ashanti of the Gold Coast – Baden-Powell Expedition

$180.00

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Major Mitchell’s Map -1834 [Exploration and Surveying New South Wales] – Alan Andrews

A quality production by Blubber Press, Hobart published in 1992. Octavo, 402 pages, illustrated throughout, end paper maps. A fine copy as if new.

Mitchell and his team spent seven year surveying the often difficult terrain of New South Wales to produce of the greatest maps ever produced .. this is the magnificent story of that accomplishment

Mitchell’s Great Achievement

$50.00

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Proud Intrepid Heart – Leichhardt’s First Attempt to the Swan River 1846-1847 – Dan Sprod – Signed, Limited Numbered Edition

Published by Blubber Press, Hobart in 1989. Quarto, 334 pages, well illustrated and printed on quality paper (Teton Warm White) by Griffin Press. A very good if not fine copy. Limited signed edition number 169 of 600.

This is Liechhardt’s second expedition after the successful mammoth exploration from the Darling Downs to Port Essington. This, an even more adventurous plan, was a failure and later members of his team were to write negatively about Leichhardt’s leadership.

This book contains his journals, published for the first time and presented so well by Dan Sprod. Drawing also on other unpublished accounts he attempts to set the record straight.

Leichhardt’s second … the real story … put so well

$60.00

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Encyclopedia of the Antarctic – Edited Beau Riffenburgh- 2 Volumes

Lake Victoria to Khartoum with Rifle and Camera – Captain F.A. Dickinson [Introduction by Winston Churchill] – First Edition 1910.

The Antarctic Diary of Victor Campbell – “The Wicked Mate” – Edited King

The Downfall of Prempeh [The West African Ashanti Expedition] -Baden-Powell 1896

Major Mitchell’s Map -1834 [Exploration and Surveying New South Wales] – Alan Andrews

Proud Intrepid Heart – Leichhardt’s First Attempt to the Swan River 1846-1847 – Dan Sprod – Signed, Limited Numbered Edition

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