Victoria

WWI Maritime and Travel Original Annotated Photograph Album – Over 180 Images

A most interesting collection spanning the years of WWI and shortly afterwards. Taken and compiled by a marine officer, over 180 original photographs, taken with some expertise, nicely presented in its original Morocco bound photograph album. The photographer has presented each photograph framing it within white borders and added very neatly in white a useful description.

The condition of the photographs is good overall, a few are faded or marked in some way from the passage of time, others are crisp and clean. A few have been removed or fallen out and few are loose inside …we have not studied where they could go … the album is robust and showing minor age wear, the whole package is very presentable and more or less complete. We wish we knew the photographer … he was clearly officer material on the Orontes and had a wife and child … we have included his image as the “thumbnail” … does anyone know who he was …?

The album can be split into two distinct periods. The first, before January 1919 being mainly onboard the HMT Orontes a vessel that plied the England – Australia route for the Orient line. With the outbreak of WWI, it became a troop carrier. The photographer appears to have also served on SS Derbyshire in a similar capacity. During this phase he took images of a number of famous vessels used in the war effort and numerous images of views, landmarks, architecture, and the people at various ports of call.

The second element post January 1919 is devoted to a circumnavigation on SS Cufic which head across the Atlantic to Nova Scotia, down to the Panama Canal and across the Pacific to New Zealand and Australia, Durban, Cape Town, and Home.

Photographs of vessels include … RMS Mauretania; Kaiseren Auguste Victoria [surrendered in 1919 and used to bring American troops home]; HMS Renown [in New York Harbour with the Prince of Wales on board]; HMS Carpathia [of Titanic rescue fame and later torpedoed and sunk]; RMS Pannonia; SS Explorer; SS Demosthenes [used to carry Australian troops]; HMS Sydney [in Colombo Harbour just after the sinking of the German Cruiser Emden]; SS Derbyshire [Colombo – Rangoon Line]; HMT Osterley; SS Cufic and HMT Orontes.

Examples of the touring images include …

The Flatiron (previously Fuller) skyscraper – New York
Washington Arch – New York
Statue of Liberty – New York
Top of Woolworth Tower – New York
5th Avenue – New York
A Glimpse of Wall Street – New York
Brooklyn Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge – New York
Boston views
The Citadel Quebec
Main Street Gibraltar
A “Blimp” convoying
A Glimpse of the US army
Panama Canal scenes
On route to Calcutta
Homeward bound in the Bay of Biscay
Cinnamon Gardens Colombo
Cape St Vincent – Portugal [Incorrectly described Spanish]
Hindu Temple South India
Colombo Harbour
Ox waggon Rangoon Burma
On the Temple steps – India
Native of South India
Children of North India
Hindu dockworker
The Pagoda Calcutta
Burmese Shrine to the God Dagan
The Schegadon Pagodas Rangoon
The lake Rangoon
A Burmese girl off to the well
Anzac Day 1918 some fancy costumes
Sierra Leone West Africa
Leaving Table Bay HMS Britannia escorting
South African troops on board – the first bugle call – “Cookhouse!”
Scene in Native Quarter Durban
Australian sheep Hamilton Victoria
Sydney Zoo
Wellington New Zealand
Tahiti South Sea Islands
Main Street Papeete
Tahitian Friends
Papeete from Crows Nest
A Harbour view Tahiti
A big dam Panama Canal
Electric Mule Panama Canal
Leaving Liverpool Jan 18, 1919 – “Bon Voyage” [a self portrait]
The first port Louisbourg – Cape Breton Island [Nova Scotia]
Snow scene St John Nova Scotia
Lock gates and numerous others – Panama Canal
“Star of Holland” mid -Pacific [a US Tall Ship]
New Zealand including memorial to Robert Scott
Melbourne – picking up the Pilot
Quarantine procedures in Melbourne
A number in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane … and the way home via South Africa

Superb, interesting unique photographic record. Now over 100 years old.

$590.00

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The Birds of Australia in 3 Volumes [the S.A. White Facsimile] -Gregory Mathews

A numbered limited facsimile edition of the complete work in three volumes, reproduced faithfully without alteration or correction. Published in South Australia by State Publishing. The original published in 1910-1927 by Witherby & Co, London. Regarded as the last great bird plate book relating to Australia with the consequential accuracy in form and description.

Folio on quality paper so rather heavy. Printed by offset lithography and bound in half grey polished leather. Published in 1989 based on a set held in the S.A. White Collection. Fine condition.

Unpaginated but 182 pages each. A total of 105 full-page colour plates. 500 sets were produced. Getting hard to find and here sold at an attractive price.

Mathews and his Birds of Australia.

$340.00

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George Bass 1771-1803: His Discoveries, Romantic Life and Tragic Disappearance – Keith Bowden – First Edition 1952

A very good first edition of this well researched and written book on Bass.

Published by the Oxford University Press Melbourne in 1952. Octavo, 171 pages with illustrations and a fine dust jacket.

The author Keith Macrae Bowden was the author of the official Australian Dictionary of Biography re Bass and therefore holds a certain authority on the subject explorer.

After various introduction we have a family history and the first naval activity on HMS Shark and HMS Reliance. Off to Australia and the exploratory adventures on the Tom Thumb before a trip to South Africa. Time in Port Jackson and the discovery of coal before the “Discovery of the Bass Strait” and the final whale boat voyage. Plans for a fortune and his Pacific voyages and on to South America and his disputable fate.

Nice appendices on the Tom Thumb; Source of Information and a succinct listing of the subjects achievements.

George Bass a fairly full life

$50.00

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Shipwrecks – Being the Historical Account of Shipwrecks along the Victorian Coast from Cape Otway to Port Fairy 1836-1914 – Margaret Mackenzie.

This is the third enlarged self published edition 1964 printed by National Press, Melbourne. Small octavo, 135 pages illustrated. A very good copy, bookplate of previous owner on front free end paper.

The author of this book had a lifetime interest in the subject. What makes the book all the more astonishing is that she was twelve years blind before she started to put it together with the help of her daughter Jean.

Covers eighteen important shipwrecks starting with the elusive “Mahogany Ship” … then the Thistle; Children; Joanna; Enterprise; Schomberg; Champion; Marie Gabrielle; Young Australia; Loch Ard; Eric the Red; Olivia Davis; Edinburgh Castle; Fiji; Newfield; La Bella; Falls of Halladale and the Antares.

Some nice detail and a super sketch map of the wreck locations. To read this is to have a pretty thorough knowledge of the events … the author sure did.

Victorian Shipwrecks – a Key Reference

$25.00

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George Bass – Discovery of the Bass Strait – Commemorative Bronze Medal – 1968

George Bass, Surgeon and Explorer carried out two voyages to confirm the Bass Strait and the separation of Tasmania (then Van Diemen’s Land) from mainland Australia – known affectionately in Tasmania as “The Other Island”.

First, in 1797 he set off in an open whaleboat with a crew of six. They sailed to Cape Howe at the farthest point of South-east Australia and, from there sailed west along the Gippsland coast to Western Point, at the entrance to Port Phillip. Observations of the rapid tide and long south-western swell supported his view that a large Strait lay in front of him.

In 1798 he set out again, with Matthew Flinders in the sloop Norfolk and circumnavigated Van Diemen’s Land. They visited the Derwent River which had previously been named by Captain John Hayes. On return to Sydney, Flinders promoted the naming of the Strait after Bass … the then Governor, John Hunter agreed.

Bass’s later life was adventurous and possibly … likely … tragic, making the date of his death noted on the medal questionable.

The medal was struck in 1968. It was produced by K.G. Luke & Sons, Melbourne for the Numismatic Association of Victoria. 160 examples were produced in this bronze form and a similar number in silver. 50mm in diameter, 48gms weight, with a high relief bust of Bass facing right, carrying his spyglass. On the reverse a delightful image of the whaleboat, the sloop Norfolk and the chart and route of the vessels, appropriately dated.

Unusual medal to celebrate the achievements of George Bass

$140.00

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Australian Bristlebird (Dasyornis Australis) [Endangered] – Sir William Jardine – 1826

An original hand-coloured engraving of Bristlebird published in Edinburgh 1826 by Scotland’s greatest naturalist Sir William Jardine (1800-1874). This image is one of the earliest fine engravings of the bird. First found and described by Latham around Port Jackson in 1801.

The engraving was published as part of Jardine’s first great work “Illustrations in Ornithology” a now scarce and valuable collection of bird engravings. Printed on thick wove paper (30cm by 23cm) with a strong plate impression, good strong colouring and generally clean condition. Would frame up nicely for display.

The Bristlebirds are named after the stiff “’hair like” feathers that arise around the beak. They are thought to assist in catching insects upon which they feed and also provide protection to the eye. There are a number of sub-species of the Eastern, Rufous and Western Bristlebirds. Subclassifications of those number six of which one is extinct, one critically endangered and two endangered and the other two on the way. Bush fires and land clearing the main culprits.

Jardine was the 7th Baronet of Applegirth, Dumfriesshire and founder of the Ray Society. He was a superb artist in his own right but utilised the great illustrators of the day to complete his works including, Edward Lear, Selby, Stewart, Thompson and William Holmes-Lizars

Price $180.00 Unframed

Early engraving of the endangered Australian Bristlebird … help to save them

$120.00

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WWI Maritime and Travel Original Annotated Photograph Album – Over 180 Images

The Birds of Australia in 3 Volumes [the S.A. White Facsimile] -Gregory Mathews

George Bass 1771-1803: His Discoveries, Romantic Life and Tragic Disappearance – Keith Bowden – First Edition 1952

Shipwrecks – Being the Historical Account of Shipwrecks along the Victorian Coast from Cape Otway to Port Fairy 1836-1914 – Margaret Mackenzie.

George Bass – Discovery of the Bass Strait – Commemorative Bronze Medal – 1968

Australian Bristlebird (Dasyornis Australis) [Endangered] – Sir William Jardine – 1826

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