Non-fiction

Tasmanian Invention – 1909 Patent – Fred Dando (of Beaconsfield) Game of Skill

British Patent no 19,390 by Fred Dando of Beaconsfield, Tasmania. Lodged 1908 and accepted ‘as patented” in 1909 – four pages of text and one double page with excleent drawings showing how the invention is constructed.

The invention relates to an improved game of skill and apparatus for playing same the game being played preferably by two persons one against the other, from each end of a race or box whereat is located a compound lever designed when quickly depressed to project a marble or ball to the desired distance and height to strike and, if possible, displace one of a series of marbles or balls of similar size arranged centrally one each on a tier located transversely at about midway of the said race or box [Long sentences patented also!]

The compound lever near each end of the box is designed to be struck by the players finger and thus cause its inner part upon which the marble is placed to project it forward with the object of striking on the before mentioned shelves and which latter are numbered 1 to 5 representing the players count when a marble is struck or displaced

The apparatus is made in the form of a two part box hinged together under the tier of shelves and capable of being folded together while also pockets or recesses are provided at each end for the players marbles and further the edges of the box are perforated and numbered to receive count pins etc etc…

Voyager considering making this device although probably not meet modern safety standard (hum) or have many digital application (ho hum) … but good marble chucking fun!

Games ingenuity in Beaconsfield in 1909

$70.00

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Tasmanian Tiger – Extinct or Merely Elusive – Andy Park – Australian Geographic 1986

Dick Smith’s Journal the “Australian Geographic” was something special in the early editions. Here in Vol 1 No 3 of 1986 we have one of the great sources of Thylacine information in an special 18 page segment written by Andy Park and illustrated (so well) by Rod Scott.

Great images of “Benjamin” the last tiger in captivity, sad images of early reward posters, turn of the century “Tiger Hunters” and an assessment of the Nullarbor mummy ( surely mis-dated). The then “Tiger Searchers” including Dr Eric Guiler and of course Peter Wright with his expedition headquarters near Lake Adelaide. And the sightings, and not just in Tassie. A nice chronology ends the piece to bring historical perspective to the article. Dr Bob Brown given credit for his contribution and well deserved.

Just a Journal but no better Tassie Tiger

$40.00

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Tropical Diseases – Patrick Manson

A pristine copy of Manson’s “Manual of the Diseases of Warm Climates”.

A superb facsimile of the 1898 original but in a deluxe binding from the Classics of Medicine Series. Published 1984, 608 pages after preliminaries. Superb full leather with elaborate gilt work to front, back and spine. All edges richly gilt. Illustrated as per the original. Gift condition.

Sir Patrick Manson (1844-1922) was a Scottish physician who made important discoveries in parasitology and was the founder of the filed of tropical medicine. He discovered that filariasis in humans in transmitted by mosquitoes – his discovery directly invoked the mosquito-malaria theory

Tropical Diseases in Luxury Binding … postage included

$70.00

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Governor Phillip in Retirment – Sir Frederick Chapman – Ed George Mackaness – Limited to 200 Copies and Boldly Signed by Mackaness

Original narrative by Sir Frederick Chapman. Here presented edited with an introduction, notes and commentary by noted historian George Mackaness. Published in 1962 this soft covered collectable was limited issue of only 200 copies all signed and numbered by Mackaness. This copy being number 11 nicely signed and complete as original.

Sir Frederick Chapman’s family knew Phillip in his later years – Mackaness uncovered previously unpublished material which adds to his usual well researched offering.

Governor Phillip More of his Illustrious Life

$40.00

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The Retospect: Or, Review of Providential Mercies: With Anecdotes of Various Characters, and an Address to Naval Officers – Aliquis (Richard Marks)

The author was formerly a Lieutenant in the Rpyal Navy, and now a Minister in the Established Church

Published in London by James Nisbet of Oxford Street, 1816, a first edition.

A contemporary half leather binding. 12mo. 239 pages. Green leather spine and corners over marbled boards. Corners lightly rubbed and scuffed but nicely presented and tightly bound. Spine with 5 raised bands with blind-stamp decorated compartments and original red leather title label. Clean text throughout. A very good copy of this scarce book especially the 1816 edition.

Marks, Richard (1778–1847) was born in 1778 at North Crawley, Buckinghamshire, the son of Thomas and Mary Marks. Enlisting in the wartime navy in 1797, he found a ready outlet for a self-described partiality for water, gunpowder, and ‘deeds of dangerous enterprise. Here he recalls how he immediately immersed himself in the opportunities for ‘unabated licentiousness’ of contemporary shipboard life, ‘the broad road of destruction, loud in blasphemy, and ever ready to burlesque the Holy Scriptures’. Two narrow escapes from shipwreck in successive ships seemed only to confirm him in a life he openly describes as deliberate rebellion against God. After returning to England in 1810, following thirteen years of unrelenting sea service, Marks relinquished prospects of further advancement in the navy in order to follow an inner call to the ministry. He was admitted to Magdalene College, Cambridge and in 1813 he was ordained as a priest. He gave up his naval half pay, and served an initial seven-year curacy in a remote village parish. From 1820, following these ‘wilderness years’, as he later called them, he ministered for the remaining quarter century of his active life among ‘the humble cottagers’ of Buckinghamshire, as vicar of Great Missenden

Aliquis had experience

$120.00

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Mendel’s Principles of Heredity – W Bateson

Full red/burgundy leather binding and beautifully gilt embossed all edges richly gilt from the Classics of Medicine Library 1990. Very good condition 296 pages. With coloured plates and figures in the text. A facsimile of the famous 1909 published work by W Bateson.

Mendel understood how it works

$50.00

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Tasmanian Invention – 1909 Patent – Fred Dando (of Beaconsfield) Game of Skill

Tasmanian Tiger – Extinct or Merely Elusive – Andy Park – Australian Geographic 1986

Tropical Diseases – Patrick Manson

Governor Phillip in Retirment – Sir Frederick Chapman – Ed George Mackaness – Limited to 200 Copies and Boldly Signed by Mackaness

The Retospect: Or, Review of Providential Mercies: With Anecdotes of Various Characters, and an Address to Naval Officers – Aliquis (Richard Marks)

Mendel’s Principles of Heredity – W Bateson

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