Non-fiction

Spore Coal – Tasmania – Microscope Slide

A very good prepared slide of spore coal (Pelionite) labelled as from Tasmania. Late 19th or early 20th century in preparation we do not know by who but we recognise their handwriting!

The most likely location for spore coal is around Barn Bluff and walkers on the Overland track may encounter outcrops. Joseph Will operated a mine in the area in the 1890’s. Seemingly, the coal type is loaded with oil a fact that was hotly debated in the technical press around the 1920’s.

Rare slide preparation subject – Tasmanian

$50.00

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The Dragon and the Lotus – Crosbie Garstin

Published by Heinemann in London, a first crown edition 1930. Thick octavo, 343 pages with sketches by the author of some standard and the handy endpapers for the geographically limited.

An informative and entertaining travel account which starts at the Ritz in Piccadilly amongst Cabinet Ministers, Army Officers and American musical Comedy Stars!

It does get more serious, and Garstin takes us nicely on his journey starting in earnest in the Pacific at Oahu then on to Japan, southward to Hong Kong, Macao then in to Tonking and the “House of Marvels”. Then to Yunnan-fu and Hue and the “Funeral of a King” and the “Marble Mountains”. To Saigon and north to Angkor and the “Vat” west to Bangkok and the river to Ayuthia for a bit of leisure and on home.

Travelling in Asia in a different era …….

$50.00

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IMAGO MVUNDI (MUNDI) – Vol 39 – With R.V. Tooley Obituary

The Journal of The International Society for the History of Cartography.

Published by Imago Mundi, King College London in 1987. Small folio, 136 pages plus advertisements. Illustrated with maps, charts and diagrams. original blue cloth with gilt titling and device. Very good condition.

An annual publication and the pinnacle of cartographic research. Superbly presented.

Contents include in French … La Mappemonde du Liber Floridus .. Danielle Lecoq; Vicente Pintado Surveyor General of Spanish west Florida – The man and His Maps by John Herbert; A Mapp of the Parioch of Tranent … cartography of John Adair by Moore and Notes on Vincenzo Coronelli by Rhodes. A the delightful obituary of Robert Vere Tooley (1898-1986) … the Master Map Collector and cataloguer extraordinaire.

Extensive book reviews provided an excellent bibliography for cartography enthusiasts.

Imago Mundi cannot be improved

$50.00

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Polar Item – Scott Centenary (1912 – 2012) – Christie’s Sale

One of the collectable Christies/ Bonham Polar Sale Catalogues.

Christies Travel, Science and Natural History Catalogue with a special emphasis on the Antarctic and the Scott Expeditions. Quarto, 60 pages illustrated to the expected impeccable standard.

Some exceptional travel items catalogued with a good Australian and Pacific content. Includes forty pages of unique Antarctic items that will make any enthusiast salivate.

Our favourites … Mawson’s specimen boxes, Shackleton’s sledge harness, letters from Apsley Cherry-Garrard to his mother (“I sleep under Bowers. It is going to be a very warm hut and we live very well here”), Ponting’s best photographs and Scott’s marching compass. Well we like it all really. We all missed the boat on this one!

Unique Polar items and other travel delicacies

$60.00

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The Proud Admiral – 19th Century Oil on Board

A good sized oil painting 60cm by 47cm for the artwork.

A traditional 19th Century Naval pose of an Admiral, likely French, resting on his eye glass looking rather vaguely out at sea. Wearing his full naval regalia.

Painted on board, artist unknown. The oils showing a lot of craquelure. Mounted in a simple gilt frame.

Admiral contemplating his achievemenets!

$590.00

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Sinfonia Antartica – Vaughan Williams – London Philharmonic- 1970 Recording

In 1947 Vaughan William’s was invited to compose music for the Ealing Studios film “Scott of the Antarctic”. He was gripped by the subject and by 1949 was reshaping the themes into a Symphony.

It was first performed in Manchester in 1953. This superb vinyl recording by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult in 1970.

Each movement has a literary superscription. In some early recordings these were read out (once by Geilgud) although it is clear that Vaughan Williams intended them to be read silently by the listener, especially as he instructed that the third movement should flow continuously into the fourth for dramatic effect.

The words to the Epilogue come from Scott’s Last Journal … “I do not regret this journey; we took risks, we knew we took them, things have come out against us, therefore we have no cause for complaint”

Antartica is a deliberate spelling.

Vaughan Williams provides … a gigantic reflection on man’s isolation and ultimate vulnerability within the extreme untamed wilderness.

$40.00

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Spore Coal – Tasmania – Microscope Slide

The Dragon and the Lotus – Crosbie Garstin

IMAGO MVUNDI (MUNDI) – Vol 39 – With R.V. Tooley Obituary

Polar Item – Scott Centenary (1912 – 2012) – Christie’s Sale

The Proud Admiral – 19th Century Oil on Board

Sinfonia Antartica – Vaughan Williams – London Philharmonic- 1970 Recording

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