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  • Letters writ by a Turkish Spy, Who Liv’d Five and Forty Years Undiscovered at Paris; Giving an Impartial Account to the Divan of Constantinople of the Most Remarkable Transactions in Europe – Complete in Eight Volumes.  Giovanni Paolo Marana – 1748

    Letters writ by a Turkish Spy, Who Liv’d Five and Forty Years Undiscovered at Paris; Giving an Impartial Account to the Divan of Constantinople of the Most Remarkable Transactions in Europe – Complete in Eight Volumes. Giovanni Paolo Marana – 1748

    A very nice set of this almost legendary work, complete and unusually in their original bindings. Fictional letters claiming to have been written by an Ottoman spy named “Mahmut the Arabian” embedded in the French Court of Louis XIV.

    Published in London by Wilde, Ballard and others in 1748. Eight volumes (Over 600 letters in all), duodecimo, engraved frontispiece to Vol I, full contemporary calf, spines gilt, some joints a bit cracked but holding. A twelfth edition of a great publishing success of the 18thC which would go on for a further fifty years.

    Contemporary bookplate of Robert Midgley dated 1748 so the first owner. And the modern book label of Edward John Kenny the Latinist of Peterhouse College, Cambridge University, visiting at Harvard etc.

    A journal of gossip and anecdotes on politics and events and shenanigans going on in France at the time.

    Written in Italian by Giovanni Paola Marana (1642-1693) a Genoese refugee in the Court of the said Louis XIV. He completed the first volume of 102 letters, and had it translated to French and published in Paris in 1684-1686. Other volumes were published as they were completed over time. English translations by William Bradshaw became available in 1687. Later volumes issued first in English in London leading some to believe they were not by Marana. However, the consistency in style and use of words really points to Marana as being the author of the full set, not doubt with the help of translators and editors of the day.

    Well liked by Daniel Defoe who wrote an aptly named “Continuation of Turkish Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy in Paris” … a sort of 18thC sequel.

    Incidentally, the last owner Professor Kenny used to gauge his candidates by seeing how nice they were to his cat Fufu … it became known as the Fufu test … that’s Latin for you.

    The Turkish Spy – A Classic By Marana

    $840.00

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  • The Theory of Relativity. An Introductory Sketch based on Einstein’s Original Writings including a Biographical Note – Henry L Brose – 1920

    The Theory of Relativity. An Introductory Sketch based on Einstein’s Original Writings including a Biographical Note – Henry L Brose – 1920

    Softcover, printed wrappers. Octavo, 32 pages with 3 diagrams in text, sewn as issued, slightly soiled and edge nibbles, still a good copy of the second edition of this important work in English concerning Einstein’s ground breaking Theory of Relativity. Published by Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

    Published February 1920 the first printing being in December 1919, with alterations as set out in the Preface. We have provided an image of this element as its interesting to read that amendments had been made after having contact with Einstein.

    Einstein’s theories, .. special and general, were published in Berlin between 1914 and 1916. This work by Brose was published before the full translations of Einstein’s work which first appeared in 1920. Brose completed the full translation for Methuen, London a work now worth many thousands of dollars.

    Henry Herman Leopold Adolph Brose (1890-1965) was an Australian physicist. He was born in Adelaide went to Prince Alfred College and then the University in Mathematics .. Rhodes Scholar to Christ Church, Oxford. He went to Hamburg in 1914 to visit relatives and was interned for the duration of WWI. It was during that time that he became in the developing Theory of Relativity. War over and back at Oxford he completed his Degree in 1919 and translated Einstein’s work the year after. He later obtained his Doctorate on the motion of electrons in oxygen under Townsend. All top end stuff.

    Brose had direct contact with Einstein, later in 1930 Einstein visited University establishments in England and Brose acted as his translator.

    Early English language papers on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity by noted Australian Physicist at Oxford.

    $90.00

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  • Relics for the Curious – Two Volumes – 1824

    First Edition set near impossible to find. Printed by Samuel Burton Leadenhall Street, London in 1824.

    Two small volumes, 184 pages, 168 pages, frontispiece to both. Bound in contemporary olive half calf, spines gilt with double red leather labels. Lightly rubbed a pretty clean and bright set.

    A collection of most peculiar anecdotes. The Literary Magnet of the time praised the contents and demonstrated their approbation of them by making copious extracts available in their rag.

    Classifies as anecdotes, clerical, professional and miscellaneous and compounded by “singular customs” and “extracts from remarkable wills”.

    Very unusual books for the well read and broadly based historian … facts contained in here designed to liven any dull dinner party … “Did you know that …”

    Relics … well anecdotes really of some strange historical happenings.

    $180.00

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  • Cook the Discoverer – George Forster – Fine Edition

    Cook the Discoverer – George Forster – Fine Edition

    Small quarto, number six in the prestigious Maritime series published by Hordern House in 2007. Limited to 1050 copies, 276 pages, bound in quarter tan kangaroo with speckled papered sides. Fine condition as new.

    The book includes a facsimile of the original book published in the German language with a new English translation to follow. Copious notes and a good bibliography the whole supported by an excellent introduction by Nigel Erskine, Curator of Explorations at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

    It was eight years after the death of Cook that Forster completed his essay on the great man Cook der Entdecker (Discoverer). Partly written as an introduction to Forster’s own translation of Cook’s Third Voyage. Foster had participated in Cook’s second Voyage along with his father who had taken over as naturalist with Joseph Banks dropping out. Forster displays a true understanding of the character of Cook and that alone makes his viewpoint worthy of this sumptuous presentation.

    Forster required reading for all Cook followers

    $140.00

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  • Original Pochoir Gazette du Bon ton – Mon Coeur Soupire – Andre- Edouard Marty – 1914

    Original Pochoir Gazette du Bon ton – Mon Coeur Soupire – Andre- Edouard Marty – 1914

    A beautiful Pochoir by Andre-Edouard Marty (1882-1974) exclusively for the Paris Gazette du Bon Ton published in July 1914.

    Mon Coeur Soupire (My Heart Sighs) and a “Dress for the Park”. A sheath draped in crepe de chine and a crinoline with tulle flounces. So French and what a dress – must have been stunning in that era … well any era really.

    Probably our favourite pochoir image.

    The ultimate in fashion print from a perfect era.

    Price $180.00 unframed.

    Sought after Bon Ton’s …. so classy so stylish

    $180.00

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  • Northward over the “Great Ice”. A Narrative of Life and Work Along the Shores and upon the Interior ice-Cap of Northern Greenland in the Years 1886 and 1891-1897. In Two Volumes. Robert E Peary. First Edition 1898.

    Northward over the “Great Ice”. A Narrative of Life and Work Along the Shores and upon the Interior ice-Cap of Northern Greenland in the Years 1886 and 1891-1897. In Two Volumes. Robert E Peary. First Edition 1898.

    Even longer title continues …With a Description of the Little Tribe of Smith-Sound Eskimos, the Most Northerly Human Beings in the World, and an Account of the Discovery and Bringing Home of the “Saviksue,” or Great Cape-York Meteorites, with maps, diagrams and about eight hundred illustrations.

    American Polar hero Peary in the North of Greenland. Eventually Peary would claim the North Pole in 1909 contested by Frederick Cook. Over time Peary was generally given the recognition but in recent years, on further analysis, the barometer is swinging back to Cook. Cook and Greely participated in the adventures covered here.

    Peary was sponsored by the US Navy and eventually given the rank of Commander. He went North many times and this account of two of those adventures, is enthralling. Well written and nicely summarised in the lengthy title.

    Published by Frederick Stokes, New York in 1898. Two quarto volumes printed on heavy paper stock, lxxx, 521 pages and xiv, 625 pages. Many illustrations as advertised one large folding image of Meteorite island, numerous maps – one large and folding at the rear. Bound in original blue cloth with decoration to front, spines faded as usual with this set, binding holding firm, a pretty good example, and very clean inside.

    An expansive work containing much information about the natives of northern Greenland and an expedition to McCormick Bay which confirmed that Greenland was an island. Peary would learn much about Inuit survival that he would take forward to his later expeditions. He also took an Inuit mistress who he would later return to Greenland in 1909. There is also much about the Cape-York meteorites and an absolute monster at over 34 tonnes. Local Inuit had been using shards of the many meteorites to make tools and weapons so who knows how big they were originally.

    Robert Peary substantial work of Arctic Exploration and Ethnology in Northern Greenland

    $320.00

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