Non-fiction | Archive | Voyager Rare Books Maps & Prints

Cape River Gold Field – Report of William Rands – 1891

William Rands was Assistant Geologist to Robert Logan Jack. This is his report to the Queensland Parliament on the Cape River Gold Field.

18 foolscap pages of the usual intense observation and detail exhibited by the Queensland geological team of the period. Covers Union Reef, General Grant Reef, Hayward Reef, The Big reef, The Just-In-Time Reef, Hughes Leader, The Mystery Reef (no Mystery!), Springs reef, Mount Remarkable, Morning Star, Martin’s, Bell-Gay, Victoria, and Governor Blackall Reefs and many many more. Crushing reports with yield from Ellen Boss, Treasure and Albion as complied by Commissioner Gill.
An appendix provides a short geological description of rocks and thin section slides of 43 samples taken in the area. The thin section slides being prepared by Clarke of Charters Towers.

The report contain a folding coloured page showing 8 geological sections the first across Mr Davenport and the cape River. And a very nice coloured Geological Sketch Map of part of the Kennedy District by William Rands (50cms by 25 cms) … note our image on the Voyager website is partly truncated because of the limitations of our scanner.

Quality Cape River Report with fine example of the Map

$90.00

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Rose-Coloured Spoon-Bill – Shaw and Nodder – 1792

An original copper engraved and hand coloured image of the beautiful and elegant rose-coloured spoon-bill also known as the Roseate Spoonbill. It was published by Shaw and Nodder in London on 1st January 1792.

A native of South America it is much more colourful than the common spoonbill and by the time it reaches maturity its colour deepens almost to a rich scarlet.

George Shaw was in charge of Natural History at the British Museum. Nodder was a natural history artist and worked for Banks on his Florilegium.

Framed in Voyager Natural History style in black cored cream mat and gilt frame.

Very rosey spoonbill striking an elegant pose.

$190.00

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The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 1915 September – Exploration in the Northern Japanese Alps – Walter Weston

An exceptional mountaineering report detailing explorations in the wild and unfamiliar regions of the northern Japanese Alps, featuring the ‘Great Lotus Peak’ (O Renge), Shirouma, Shiro-Uma-Dake, Yari-Ga-Take, Akashina, Nakabusa, Yarigatake, Hodaka and the Shirasawa ravine, illustrated with photographic plates and a fold-out colour map. With interesting remarks on ancient customs practiced in remote high altitude villages.

Weston (1861-1940), is regarded as the father of mountaineering in Japan. It is largely due to him that Japanese Alpine Club was created. The map to illustrate this paper was based on the latest maps of the Topographical Survey of Japan, with alterations and additions, as existing maps needed many corrections in the mountain regions.

Weston’s post in Japan was that of a Chaplain at Yokohama, but he found leisure to go off into the interior of the country, and particularly these mountain districts, of which he knew more than any other European.

The remainder of this complete edition includes the exploration of the Itari River, Forest and their Pygmies by Cuthbert Christie

$90.00

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Facts in Mesmerism – With Reasons for a dispassionate inquiry into it by Rev Chauncy Hare Townshend – Very Scarce First Edition 1840

An extremely rare First edition, published by Longman, London 1840

An extensive study and defence of mesmerism by Chancy Hare Townshend (1798-1868) and English priest, poet, collector of natural history and a man with a passionate interest in mesmerism. He was a good friend of Charles Dickens who dedicated “Great Expectations” to him [Townshend had the manuscript of Great Expectations at the time of his death].

Mesmerism (named after Franz Mesmer) a hypnosis based on the theory of animal magnetism. Due to its spiritual associations and uncanny effects it was controversial in the early 19th century. Towsnhend describes in detail the mental states mesmerism induces, which he defines as similar to a state of sleepwalking. Fascinating content including the accounts of experiments carried out by the author in which he hypnotised his subjects into feeling his own sensations and possessing knowledge that they could not have known.

Townshend has quite a Wikipedia write up and the hilarious meeting with poet John Clare is worth a read

Rare and valuable first edition of an early work on Mesmerism

$90.00

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The Unknown Guest [and Other Essays] – Maurice Maeterlinck

The Unknown Guest by Nobel Prize winning author, playwright and poet Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck. Published by Methuen, London in 1925 a fourth printing. Bound in original green cloth, 340 pages some flecking to soft paper page edges but generally a pretty good copy of a hard to get book.

An unusual group of essays including the title offering we have … Phantasms of the Living and the Dead; Psychometry; the Knowledge of the Future and The Elberfield Horses.

An intellectual potpourri if there ever was one.

$40.00

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The Constitution of Man – George Combe – 1871

An 1871 edition of this important book published by MacLachlan and Stewart, Edinburgh. Over 350 page in very good condition still tight in its original cloth binding with rich dark green endpapers.

George Combe (1788-1858) was an ardent phrenologist and writer. Born in Edinburgh he founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1820. He led the field there for over twenty years and this was his great work.

Originally a lawyer with a successful practice. In 1816 Johann Spurzheim came to Edinburgh and Combe was invited to a private dissection of the human brain which greatly impressed him. This spurred him on to make his own investigations and he was satisfied that the fundamental principles of phrenology were sound, namely “that the brain is the organ of the mind; that the brain is an aggregate of several parts, each subserving a distinct mental faculty; and that the size of the cerebral organ is, caeteris paribus, and index of power or energy of function”.

Many of the principles set out in The Constitution of Man would challenge modern morality.

Combe – Distinguished in his field

$50.00

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Cape River Gold Field – Report of William Rands – 1891

Rose-Coloured Spoon-Bill – Shaw and Nodder – 1792

The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 1915 September – Exploration in the Northern Japanese Alps – Walter Weston

Facts in Mesmerism – With Reasons for a dispassionate inquiry into it by Rev Chauncy Hare Townshend – Very Scarce First Edition 1840

The Unknown Guest [and Other Essays] – Maurice Maeterlinck

The Constitution of Man – George Combe – 1871

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