Travel & Voyages

The Journal of George Blaxland (Across the Blue Mountains) 1813 – Centenary Issue 1913

Full title … “A Journal of a Tour of Discovery across the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, in the Year 1813, by George Blaxland, with References and Explanatory Notes, Maps etc by Frank Walker – president Australian Historical Society.

Octavo, original red cloth binding, 56 pages with the new illustrations to support the journal. Map of the Route Across the Mountains. Missing the front blank endpaper, someone has pasted maps inside rear board as reference. A little loose as usual, still a good to better copy.

The first crossing of the Blue Mountains by Europeans, an expedition led by Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth in 1813. All three wrote accounts, only Blaxland’s was published in 1823, in England. Early editions near impossible to come by.

Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson in the Blue Mountains …

$60.00

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How to Identify Old Maps and Globes – Raymond Lister

To a collector this title might seem a bit glib … but the book is much more than that an in particular is a special refence for watermarks and cartographers.

Small quarto, 265 pages first edition published by Bell, London in 1965. 59 plates. Still extremely relevant. Very good condition.

Starts with an “Outline of the History of Maps and Charts”; Celestial Maps; Methods of Maps Production; Decoration and Conventional Signs; Terrestrial and Celestial Globes and Armillary Spheres. And then a lengthy appendix (22 pages) on The Use of Watermarks in dating Old Maps and Documents – nicely illustrated; a Bibliography (8 pages); List of Cartographers etc 1500 to 1850 (34 pages) and Index to whole.

Identification – takes you further than expected.

$35.00

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The Compleat Plattmaker – Edited by Thrower – Six Distinguished Contributors

Essays on Chart, Map, an Globe Making in England in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.

First edition published by the University of California Press in 1978.

Edited by Norman Thrower who was the Clark Library Professor, 1972-1973. A collection of six scholarly essays by leading authorities, including Helen Wallis the Map Librarian at the British Library.

Octavo, 241 pages nicely illustrated with some images rarely seen because of the focus of the essays. Very good condition.

Content comprises … Geographie is Better than Divinitie – the Dyas of Samuel Pepys; Manuscript and Printed Sea Charts of 17thC London; Mapping the English Colonies in North America; John Seller and the Chart Trade in 17thC England; English Cartography 1650-1750; Edmond Halley and Thematic Geo-cartography.

Special publication worth it for Pepys alone and Moxon’s pocket globe!

$40.00

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The Mapmakers Art (Essays on the History of Maps) – Edward Lynam

There seems to be a posthumous book for every Head of the Maps Room at the British Museum.

This one from the work of Edward Lynam who preceded Skelton (see our copy of his posthumous book). Perry’s copy with his signature.

Published by the Batchworth Press, London a first edition1953. Small quarto 140 pages nicely illustrated throughout with some map images that rarely appear elsewhere. A couple of chips to the dust jacket, a very goo copy considering the age and likely use.

We like this one a lot … the angle being an early and unusual approach to map making with an aesthetic appeal. Starts with the Character of England in Maps; Period Ornament, writing and Symbols on Maps; Saxton; Flemish Engravers; William Hack and the South Sea Buccaneers [Magnificent]; Early Days in the Bahamas etc.

Finishes with a full list of books and articles by Edward Lynam

Voyager Favourite – a unique approach.

$40.00

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Maps – A Historical Survey of Their Study and Collecting – R.S. Skelton

A first edition published by the University of Chicago Press in 1972.

Octavo, 138 pages all in very good condition.

Expert Raleigh A. Skelton (known as Peter) was in charge of the Map Room at the British Museum … he was also Editor of the illustrious cartographic journal Imago Mundi … and worked closely with Tooley.

Unfortunately he passed away before this book was absolutely complete. His notes and extensive references made the final putting together of it an easier task than would otherwise have been.

A super work starting with The History of Cartography – An Introductory Survey; the Preservation an Collecting of Early Maps; the Historical Study of Early Maps … the Past, Present and Future. And a lengthy bibliography of Skelton’s published efforts compiled in chronological order by Robert Karrow

Skelton – his final views after a long career toiling over his love of maps

$25.00

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Heroes of the Polar Seas – J. Kennedy Maclean – 1910

Title continues … A Record of Exploration in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas by J Kennedy Maclean. Published by Chambers Edinburgh, thick octavo, 404 pages. Magnificent pictorial boards, well illustrated with two maps of the top and the bottom. Some spotting and spine ends a bit pulled, otherwise a pretty good copy.

The pictorial boards may give the impression this was for a younger audience. The quality of the content and writing suggest the market was father and son.

Written chronologically with an introduction of “Gains and losses of Polar Enterprise” before the “Pioneers”. The search for the North-west passage and Franklin and much about his horrors. Nares and then the fatal “Jannette” an incredible story often lost in these accounts. The discovery of Franz Josef Land and the North-east Passage by Nordenskiold. Peary and the success of the North Pole after twenty years … and Cook.

In the South, Scotland’s share of the then exploration and Scott’s Discovery Expedition. Shackleton’s Farthest South (so close) and the great race for the Pole.

At the time of publication the race to the pole had just been won and the tragedy of Scott’s expedition known but not fully understood. Tributes had begun to flow.

A Voyager favourite … an obscure but relevant Polar item.

$90.00

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The Journal of George Blaxland (Across the Blue Mountains) 1813 – Centenary Issue 1913

How to Identify Old Maps and Globes – Raymond Lister

The Compleat Plattmaker – Edited by Thrower – Six Distinguished Contributors

The Mapmakers Art (Essays on the History of Maps) – Edward Lynam

Maps – A Historical Survey of Their Study and Collecting – R.S. Skelton

Heroes of the Polar Seas – J. Kennedy Maclean – 1910

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