0
products in your shopping cart
Total:   $0.00 details
There are no products in your shopping cart!
We hope it's not for long.

Visit the shop

Prestige Items

list view
  • Mrs Isabella Beeton’s – The Book of Household Management comprising information for the Mistress, Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen-Maid, Butler, Footman … Published 1892 [First with Australian Recipes]

    Mrs Isabella Beeton’s – The Book of Household Management comprising information for the Mistress, Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen-Maid, Butler, Footman … Published 1892 [First with Australian Recipes]

    Published 1892, Ward Lock, London 1892 … with Several Hundred new recipes.

    Importantly, this is the new edition introducing recipes from Australia including Soup from Kangaroo Tails, (Whole and sitting) Wallaby Roast and Parrot Pie (at least a dozen parrots required).

    With 13 full coloured plates of which two folding and steel engravings in the text. A very sound copy that has been expertly re-backed by Roger Perry Quality Bookbinders with new headbands and original end papers.

    Mrs Beeton with Australian Treats

    $260.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • Seven Pillars of Wisdom  – a triumph – T.E. Lawrence (Of Arabia)  –  August 1935

    Seven Pillars of Wisdom – a triumph – T.E. Lawrence (Of Arabia) – August 1935

    Published by Jonathan Cape London 1935 – Seven Pillars of Wisdom a triumph – “The Sword also means Clean-ness + Death”. First trade edition second impression August after the July first.

    The Trade Edition preceded by the incomplete “Oxford” edition of 1922 (8 copies only were printed) and the very rare privately printed “Subscribers Edition” of 1927 (170 copies).

    Thick quarto, 672 pages, original brown cloth covered binding with gilt titles to spine and device to front. Carries the bookplate of Eric Ambrose on front paste down and his discrete personal label on the end papers. Eric Ambrose was a distinguished British architect and a Fellow of his Professional Body. Avery good copy

    Frontispiece portrait of a bust of Lawrence, 4 folding maps as called for, 2 facsimiles and a total of 54 illustrations – 46 of which are dramatic portraits of men who appear in the book. Albeit without the rare dust jacket this is the cleanest we have seen of this edition. The boards clean and unmarked and only the slightest bit of foxing limited to the rough cut paper edges.

    Lawrence “took pains to bring objects and artists together”. A classic book written by Lawrence after a very successful war leading

    the Arabs against the Turks, considered one of the most important books on war especially political and guerrilla warfare.

    Churchill called it “One of the greatest books ever written in the English language”

    Lawrence of Arabia’s great book. First trade great condition – 1935

    We simply have to give you some of Chapter 1 … “The everlasting battle stripped from us care of our own lives or of others’. We had ropes about our necks, on or heads prices which showed that the enemy intended hideous tortures for us if we were caught. Each day some of us passed; and the living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God’s stage: indeed, our taskmaster was merciless, merciless, so long as our bruised feet could stagger forward on the road. The weak envied those tired enough to die; for success looked so remote, and failure a near and certain, if sharp, release from toil. We lived always in the stretch or sag of nerves, either on the crest or in the trough of waves of feeling ..

    $290.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • Easter Island – Reports on Archaeological Field Work Conducted by William Mulloy at Easter Island for the Easter Island Committee – 5 Volumes [Complete]

    Very scarce outside institutional libraries these reports represent the high point in archaeological research and conservation at Easter Island by the island’s foremost authority William Mulloy.

    William Mulloy was with Thor Heyerdahl during his expedition to Easter Island and contributed to the important publication resulting. Mulloy went on to take greater interest resulting in a lengthy extensive series of work. He was Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wyoming at the time.

    Five reports all published by the Easter Island Committee, funded by the international Fund for Monuments Inc of Washington DC.

    Comprising – Bulletin One published 1968 reprinted 1975. Large format soft flesh coloured card wrapper, pages vii 24 ii and 43 including 24 illustrations from photographs and 6 figures including maps etc. Comprising Archaeological Field Work conducted February to July 1968 relating among other things to the restoration of Ahu Ko te Riku and Ahu Tahai.

    Bulletin Two of December 1970 reprinted 1979 regarding the restoration of Ahu Vai Uri. Same format, binding, and condition. Pages vii and 43, including 20 illustrations from photographs.

    Bulletin Three (although not printed so on cover – this is Bulletin 3) of December 1970 reprinted 1979, on the restoration of Ahu Huri a Urenga and two unnamed Ahu at Hanga Kio’e. Same format, binding, and condition. Pages xi, 47 with 20 illustrations from photographs, maps, and plans.

    Bulletin Four published 1975 regrading the Ceremonial Center of Orongo part 1 (we think all published). Same format, binding, and condition. Pages viii and 40 pages with 18 illustrations from photographs, maps, and plans.

    Bulletin Five published in 1975 by Patrick Carlton McCoy under instruction from William Mulloy – Easter Island settlement Patterns in the Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric Periods [A Survey]. Same format, binding, and condition. Pages x and 164 with 18 Tables; 61 Illustrations including images from photographs, superb maps, plans, diagrams etc – a most extensive body of work.

    Original Reports by William Mulloy for the Easter Island Committee – Complete Set

    $290.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • High Latitudes – A History of Swedish Polar Travels and Research – Gosta Liljequist

    High Latitudes – A History of Swedish Polar Travels and Research – Gosta Liljequist

    Published in 1993 a monumental book by Polar Participant Professor Gosta Liljequist who was metrologist in the Norwegian-British-Swedish expedition to the Antarctic in 1949-52 and also leader of the 1957-58 expedition to Svalbard … so he is in here.

    Weighting nearly 3 kgs so pricey to mail Overseas, cannot be found elsewhere in Australia. Largo quarto, 606 pages, with many illustrations from expedition photographs, maps, charts etc a worthy production. Very good copy in a very good dust jacket.

    Hard to summarise but we start with the Pioneers 1758-1863 including Anton Martin, the first scientist to go truly North. Involvement with the French Le Recherche Expedition; then Otto Torell and Spitzbergen and his later expeditions to the Aeolus Group north of Svalbard. Quennerstedt’s zoological studies in the west Ice in 1863.

    Then we have the Nordenskiold Epoch between 1863-1883 and here for sure too much to write about at both ends of the World. If you haven’t got the book on the Vega this covers it with many other ventures.

    We move through some interesting low budget expeditions that did much for the dollar spent and on to Andree and the ill-fated balloon attempt … the searching for him and his companions was a lengthy event and a good Noir movie was made out of it.

    We are only a third through and too many highlights to record here. Interesting side stories – the Arctic flight of the German Graf Zeppelin in 1931 – then the attempt from Stockholm to New York.

    The Many Swedish Polar Achievements all in one place. Never again.

    $280.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • A Living Voice of the Living Bush – William Ricketts – Wonderfully Annotated and Signed.

    A Living Voice of the Living Bush – William Ricketts – Wonderfully Annotated and Signed.

    First and only edition published by the Victorian Forestry Commission in 1965 celebrating the incredible art of William Ricketts. Larger format soft cover, 24 pages with sixteen colour illustrations. A bit marked and aged on the cover, clean inside, forgive any deficiencies for his manuscript additions.

    The annotation on the first blank page reads as follows … “From my Mountain of Remembrance where we remember with love everything that was created … [followed by his creation symbol underscored with his signature] … The Prayer of the Mountain – The Prayer of the Forest – My prayer – all are one Prayer … “

    Added in different hand the name of the receiver.

    William Ricketts (1898-1993) misunderstood and maybe he misunderstood … regardless he made beautiful objects. If it offends, well then that’s a bit sad. He was a religious man and felt the earth and whether he misrepresented and misplaced .. well that gives a job for the academic critics. Just enjoy them. They were badly damaged in a massive storm a couple of years ago … we hope they have been resurrected.

    In the 1950’s he spent quite some time with the Pitjantjatjara and Arrente people in Central Australia … they inspired his work among the trees in the Dandenong Mountains.

    William Ricketts – A rare annotation we believe.

    $60.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • Radio-Activity. An Elementary Treatise, from the Standpoint of the Disintegration Theory – Frederick Soddy M.A. – First Edition 1904

    Radio-Activity. An Elementary Treatise, from the Standpoint of the Disintegration Theory – Frederick Soddy M.A. – First Edition 1904

    An important work in the history of science. Explaining all of the then known facts by the theory of radio-activity and the explosive disintegration of elementary atoms.

    Voyager scientific hero Frederick Soddy (1877-1956) was to win the Nobel Prize in 1921… “for his contributions to our knowledge of the chemistry of radioactive substances, and his investigations into the origin and nature of isotopes”.

    Published by “the Electrician” Printing and Publishing Co, London in 1904.

    Octavo, brown cloth covered boards with gilt lettering on front and spine. Xi, 214 pages; 40 illustrations, diagrams and charts; publishers catalogue. Some age but a worthy copy of an important and scarce work.

    Soddy in conjunction with Rutherford developed the disintegration theory of radioactivity from experiments conducted between 1901-1903.

    Following this work Soddy lectured in physical chemistry and radioactivity at Glasgow University. By 1913 his theory of disintegration had been further developed and the concept of isotopes developed … i.e. that certain elements exist in two forms which have different atomic weights. He became Professor of Chemistry at Aberdeen in 1914 and after WWI went to Oxford where he stayed until retirement in 1937.

    Important work Soddy on Radio-Activity – early days.

    $180.00

    Loading Updating cart…
LoadingUpdating…

Product Categories