Non-fiction

The Hand its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as Evincing Design – Sir Charles Bell – 1833

Published by William Pickering, London in 1833. A second printing same year as the first, revised and expanded.

Octavo, 314 pages with numerous engravings throughout the text. Bound in contemporary half calf, spine gilt ruled with raised bands and separate leather title label. A very nice copy of an important fundamental work.

Constituted the fourth volume of the remarkable Bridgewater Treatises (See our other listing).

A landmark book by Scottish Surgeon Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842). He was the first Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the London College of Surgeons and established the Medical School at the University of London where he headed up the Surgery Department.

Medical Classic by Sir Charles Bell

$180.00

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Yacht Sails – Their Care and Handling – Ernest Ratsey and W.H. de Fontaine – First edition 1948

A first edition 1948 published by Norton of New York with an sticker for Putnam, London below.

Octavo, 258 pages, with 12 plates from photographs and circa 110 technical diagrams. Dust jacket with a tape strip along top and bottom, internally clean, a good copy.

Described as … A book of useful information for the yachtsman interested in getting the most from his sails – including chapters by Roderick Stephens Jnr on handling head sails and parachute spinnakers.

Other chapters include … recent developments in yacht rigs; light sails – the genoa jib; passage sails and storm canvas; sailcloth and sail making; care and repair; rope and rope work; finding the area and centre of effort; familiar yacht rigs etc

A Sailmakers book on Sails and Rigging

$25.00

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Harpoon at a Venture (In the Scottish Islands) – Gavin Maxwell – 1955 Edition

First published in 1952 this is the 1955 Adventure Library edition of the first work by “Ring of Bright Water” author Gavin Maxwell.

Octavo, 254 pages with six maps, including in end papers 23 illustrations from photographs and eight illustrations in the text.

Maxwell had active service with the Special Forces in WWII. After the war he purchased the Isle of Soay off Skye in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. There he attempted to start a Basking Shark fishery … which failed due to lack of finance.

This book covers his exploits in that regard and provides a perfect picture of the Scottish Islands and the adventurous activities that ensue.

Gavin Maxwell with the Sharks before the Otter.

$35.00

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Capsize! – A Story of Survival in the North Atlantic – Nicolas Angel

A first English edition published by Norton, New York and London in 1980. Published the prior year in French.

Octavo, 176 pages nicely illustrated from photographs with charts etc.

The trimaran RTL-Timex capsized in a storm sailing from Bermuda to New York. The crew, under skipper Alan Gilksman, made the raft and a frantic nine days of gales and high seas ensued. Several ships missed them before they were finally recovered … just in time for some crew members who almost perished.

Frightening North Atlantic Experience .. impossible to put down

$25.00

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The Seamans Secrets (1633) – John Davis – Fine Facsimile from John Carter Brown University – 1992

Published by Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, New York 1992. Reproduced from a n original in The John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. Hard to come by.

Longer title … “The Seamans secrets. Divided into two parts, wherein is taught the three kindes of sayling, horizontall, paradoxall, and sayling upon a great circle. Also an horizontall tyde-table for the easie finding of the ebbing and flowing of the tydes, with a regiment newly calculated for the finding of the declination of the sunne, and many other most necessary rules and instruments, not heretofore set forth by any. Newly corrected and amended, and the fifth time imprinted.”

Octavo, very good condition with no jacket as published. Facsimile reprint with a very good historical introduction by A.N. Ryan. Illustrated, one folding at rear, and with tables and charts. Original unpaginated but runs to circa 110 pages … here after 26 page introduction and further reading list, references etc.

John Davis (1550? – 1605) published the first edition of this book in 1595. He made three voyages in search of the North West Passage. He was associated with Sir Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert promoters of English colonisation in North America. Through the Gilbert’s he knew Walter Raleigh and the famous mathematician and cosmographer Dr John Dee.

Nice reproduction of important early maritime navigation book.

$50.00

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The Life and Work of Sydney Long – Joanna Mendelssohn

A first edition published by McGraw Hill, Sydney as part of the Copperfield Art Series, 1979.

Folio, 284 pages in complete dust jacket all in very good if not better condition. With numerous illustrations of the great man’s work including 38 in full colour including folding colour frontispiece.

Sydney Long (1871-1955) was born in Goulburn, New South Wales.

One of Australia’s greatest artists partly inspired by the Heidelberg School. By 1897 he had developed his own style, with possibly his most admired painting being completed that year … The Spirit of the Plains. Painted in a soft colour palette a naked Grecian wood nymph leading a procession of dancing Brolgas … simply wonderful. His paintings in this style, often with low key eroticism, were the foundation of a new art style Australian Paganism and influenced the likes of Norman Lindsay.

Long sold his early works at good prices which financed time spent in London just before WWI where he turned to etching and engraving and held positions of distinction in several Societies.

Sydney Long the definitive work

$120.00

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The Hand its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as Evincing Design – Sir Charles Bell – 1833

Yacht Sails – Their Care and Handling – Ernest Ratsey and W.H. de Fontaine – First edition 1948

Harpoon at a Venture (In the Scottish Islands) – Gavin Maxwell – 1955 Edition

Capsize! – A Story of Survival in the North Atlantic – Nicolas Angel

The Seamans Secrets (1633) – John Davis – Fine Facsimile from John Carter Brown University – 1992

The Life and Work of Sydney Long – Joanna Mendelssohn

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