Non-fiction

Folding Georgian Guinea Scales c1805

A very good set of early Guinea Scales with contemporary instructions label. Manufactured Stephen Houghton who took over from Anthony Wilkinson at Ormskirk, Lancashire. Wilkinson had died in 1804. We have two very good examples this probably the best.

Self-erecting and known generally as the Lancashire Gold Balance. The brass beam is rectangular in section and has a hinged “turn and swing” overweight which counter poises the beam for the guinea or half-guinea. Once folded the end-button release mechanism sets and releases nicely.

A small rectangular sliding weight on the load arm registers in graduations to show discrepancies in of under-weight coins.

The collapsing mechanism makes the whole entirely portal in the gentleman’s trouser.

Functioning Georgian Gold Sovereign Scale

$190.00

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The Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition – An Account of the Crossing of The Continent of Australia from Cooper’s Creek to Carpentaria.

High quality faithful facsimile of the rare Burke and Wills publication of 1861 – Reprinted from “The Argus”.

Published by the Libraries Board of South Australia in 1963. Octavo, ive, 36 pages, folding map. Bound in deep blue leatherette, gilt titles to spine. Neat ownership signature to front ends – distinguished collector.

A super copy of this key exploration account, excellent multi-folding [vertical] map of the Track … of Burke, Wills, King and Gray and the course of Howitt and party to trace the remains of the Expedition.

Burke and Wills perished but not forgotten

$75.00

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Fossil Fern Fragments – Lune River Tasmania – Early Jurassic Forest circa 182 million years old.

Three nice small examples of fossil fern from the Lune River area deep in the southern reaches of Tasmania. Nicely cut and polished.

The dating of the examples in this location to the middle of the early Jurassic Period (182 Ma) was by isotopic measurements on zircons found in the volcanic sandstone hosting the fossils (Bromfield et al 2007). Also refer the excellent guide by P. Manchester.

A nice cabinet group weighing circa 60gms.

Fossil ferns from Jurassic Tasmania .

SO SORRY SOLD

$30.00

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The Long Labrador Trail – Dillon Wallace – First Edition 1907

A first edition published by The Outing Publishing Company, New York in 1907.

Octavo, 308 pages plus appendix of weather information daily. Nicely illustrated with 29 photographic images, coloured frontispiece and folding map at rear. The beautiful pictorial covers complete a very book. A very good copy.

In 1903, Dillon Wallace (1863-1939) accompanied Leonidas Hubbard on an exploratory trip through Labrador planning to follow the Naskaupi River to Lake Michikamau where no previous Europeans had been. They followed the wrong river and got into so much difficulty. Hubbard fell ill and died of starvation. Wallace survived and wrote his first book The Lure of the Labrador Wild published in 1905. In that book, he blamed Hubbard for the mistakes he made leading to his own death, which infuriated Hubbard’s wife

Wallace planned a much more adventurous expedition, which would become the subject of this book. Hubbard’s wife on hearing of the expedition planned her own, along the same lines. She also wrote a book “A Woman’s Way Through Unknown Labrador” … neither refer to each other!

Wallace in Labrador a second time with success and unmentioned competition.

$120.00

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Vanished Fleets [Tasmania] – Alan Villiers

Published by the Cat & Fiddle Press, Hobart in 1974.

A special maritime history of Van Diemen’s Land by the knowledgeable Alan Villiers. Superbly illustrated.

Villiers himself crewed on the whale-ship Sir James Clark Ross into the Southern Ross Sea in 1923-24.

Covers Captain Kelly (see Voyager book on Kelly); The voyage of the “Woodman”; the loss of the “George III”; the adventure of the whaler “Essex” and Captain Tregurtha’s Log; Hobart Clippers and “Graveyard Island”.

The illustrations include – The “Royal William”; the “James Craig”; the “Hobart Regatta”; the “Fram” (Amundsen) in the Derwent; the “velocity” and the “Tasmanian Cape Horn Trader in Hard Weather”.

A smorgasbord of Tasmanian and cold water Sail

$50.00

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Batavia’s Graveyard – The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History’s Bloodiest Mutiny – M Dash

First edition of Mike Dash’s book on the bloody Batavia story. Published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 2002.

Thick octavo, 398 pages including extensive bibliography. A very good. Illustrated with maps and charts.

The Dutch East India vessel Batavia struck an uncharted reef off the West Coast of Australia on her maiden voyage in 1629. A total of 332 men, women and children were on board. A few headed off in a life boat to seek help. The remainder ended up on a small coral island less than a kilometre long. A band of mutineers began a cold – blooded killing spree … only eight remained alive when help arrived three months later. The ringleader Jeronimus Cornelisz a failed apothecary and heretic.

Gruesome true story of the strangest atrocities following a shipwreck off Australia in 1629.

$35.00

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Folding Georgian Guinea Scales c1805

The Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition – An Account of the Crossing of The Continent of Australia from Cooper’s Creek to Carpentaria.

Fossil Fern Fragments – Lune River Tasmania – Early Jurassic Forest circa 182 million years old.

The Long Labrador Trail – Dillon Wallace – First Edition 1907

Vanished Fleets [Tasmania] – Alan Villiers

Batavia’s Graveyard – The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History’s Bloodiest Mutiny – M Dash

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