Non-fiction

A Strange Career – The Life and Adventures of J. G. Jebb [South America and Mexico] – 1895

John Gladwyn Jebb led as an adventurous life as could be possible. This book was compiled by his widow and carries the introduction of none other than possibly the greatest adventure writer H Rider Haggard.

English born Jebb’s adventures began as a military man in India. Soon he was conducting privately funded explorations into Central and Southern America. Involved in numerous business dealings… helped to start White Line … was in involved in armaments. He moved to the US and the Wild West … bear hunting, gold mining and a few conflicts with local bandits and Indians. Off to Mexico to make his fortune gold mining (made it and lost it) and much of the later part of the books is about his times in Mexico padded a bit with history of the region.

Published by Blackwood, Edinburgh in 1895 octavo, 271 pages, frontispiece of the great man, illustrated by John Wallce. Pictorial boards nice but a little rubbed especially at the tips. Overall, still a particularly good copy of a rather hard to find book.

Inspiration for Rider Haggard – John Jebb Adventurer

$50.00

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In the Great White Land (A Tale of the Antarctic Ocean) – Gordan Stables

Published by Blackie, London in the early 1930’s.

Octavo, 288 pages thick spongy paper and despite the spongy quite clean with some marks to the extreme per edge. Coloured frontispiece and three full page illustrations. Prize label on front end papers. Rare in the striking illustrated dust jacket.

Three stories and despite the subtitle starts with … “Far Away in the Frozen North” an Arctic adventure on the good barque Walrus and the oft frozen Captain Mayne Brace (great pun). Story two “Under the Southern Cross” requires no clue as to the general location with many icy encounters. Finally “On the Great Antarctic Continent” and the beauty and marvel of the Ice-Cave. The sledging journey across the tableland and the dash for the pole takes its lead from the great Heroic Era accounts.

Adventure in the frozen South – very South.

$80.00

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King of the Australian Coast [Phillip Parker King] – Marsden Hordern

Marsden Hordern’s magnificent book about “the Work of Phillip Parker King in the Mermaid and Bathurst 1817-1822”.

A quality production by the Miegunyah Press. Published in 1998 a second limited release. Large octavo, 441 pages nicely illustrated throughout some in colour many from images drawn or painted by PPK. A heavy book. Eight folding historic maps in facsimile in pocket at rear.

Very good condition.

We agree with the summary of this work .. Phillip Parker King stands with Cook and Flinders in the history of exploration and charting of the Australian coastline. To a degree until this book he has not been given the credit deserved … this sumptuous book makes amends. It is the go to reference of PPK and his time in and around the Australian coastline. A must have and already highly sought after.

Phillip Parker King in Australia in Full.

$90.00

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The Itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna from 1502 to 1508; With a Discourse on Varthema and His Travels in Southern Asia by Sir Richard Carnac Temple – Argonaut Press Limited Numbered Edition 1928 – Edited Penzer

Limited to 975 copies printed on Japon Vellum printed by Walter Lewis at the University Press, Cambridge – this numbered 642.

Well bound quarto, blue cloth covered boards quarter backed in vellum, titles gilt to spine and a lovely gilt embossed image to front taken from the original 16th Century work. Effectively two works – the lengthy “Discourse” after introductions … preface, tables, analysis etc of lxxxv (85 pages) then work itself from the 19th Century Badger/ Winter translation 121 pages, including useful index. Useful maps where appropriate in the discourse. Very good near fine copy.

Verthema travelled at the time of Drake and Magellan which provides perspective and in 1502 he went from Italy to Egypt and Syria and then to Arabia Deserta [Damascus, Medina, Jedda etc] … then in 1503 to Arabia Feliz [Aden, Dhamar, Lahaj etc] and on to Ethiopia in 1504. By later that year he was in Persia [Hormuz, Muscat etc] and India [Gogha, Cambay, Chaul, Calicut etc] Then to Ceylon in 1505 … Bengal and east to the Malacca and the Spice Islands, Java and Borneo. On his way back he assisted the Portuguese in various skirmishes – they being the dominant invasive force at the time. Back home in 1507 via Mozambique.

What makes this book particularly interesting is the history of the translations and the impact of early “reviewers” views. The original work was in Italian, translated to Latin and then English by Richard Eden in 1577. Various others held view and the influential traveller Garcia da Orta Poo Pooed Varthema’s account. Because of this and similar the account was thought to be full of fiction … not so and this book goes a long way to settle the myth and put Verthema back where he belongs as a truly remarkable early traveller.

His account of being chased by elephant in Africa is worth the read alone.

Verthema’s extensive really 16th Century Travels – Once Poo Pooed – but now seen as true.

$190.00

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Hindu Life and Customs – The Sunwheel – Helen Gordon 1935

First edition published by King, London in 1935. The author was Lady Russell a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Octavo, 220 pages, end paper maps of South India [Northern] to front and South India [Southern] to back. Many illustrations from relevant black and white photographs [of good quality] and a few brightly coloured decorative plates – frontispiece of Arunja driving the Chariot of the Sun.

For anyone wanting a fairly thorough introduction to Hindu life and customs this is the book set out in three Parts – Plateau, Plains and Hills [incl. village life, salutation to Siva, incense rock, blue mountains]; Hindu Temples and Their Gods [incl. great festivals, cult of Minakshi, marriage of the Gods]; Hindu States and Their Rulers [incl. travels in the Land of the Celestials, birthday festivities, pantomime and dance].

The whole ends with a good bibliography for those that wish to explore further, glossary and useful index.

The Hindu World for those that wish to understand it.

$25.00

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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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A Strange Career – The Life and Adventures of J. G. Jebb [South America and Mexico] – 1895

In the Great White Land (A Tale of the Antarctic Ocean) – Gordan Stables

King of the Australian Coast [Phillip Parker King] – Marsden Hordern

The Itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna from 1502 to 1508; With a Discourse on Varthema and His Travels in Southern Asia by Sir Richard Carnac Temple – Argonaut Press Limited Numbered Edition 1928 – Edited Penzer

Hindu Life and Customs – The Sunwheel – Helen Gordon 1935

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

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