Curiosities

Summer of Smoke – Tennessee Williams – 1957

Published by Secker & Warburg as a softcover in 1957 originally completed by Tennessee Williams in 1948. Perfect bound 8-0 pages with wrap-around green paper cover to the blue soft cover binding. Excellent condition bar ownership stamp and personal library reference on half title.

A play in two parts with thirteen scenes. The play was successful after a re-write [published here] in 1952… it again took another form and was re-titled “the Eccentricities of a Nightingale” in 1964.

The entire play is set in Glorious Hill, Mississippi and is set in the early part of the 20th Century. The story centres on the potential romance between Alma Winemiller a highly strung minister’s daughter and John Buchanan a rather wild and undisciplined young doctor.

The “Author’s Production Notes” covering two pages are succinct but very helpful … focussing on the scenes, mood etc they provide a super introduction for those who enjoy the reading of a play of some standard.

Tennessee Williams and the Summer and Smoke

$30.00

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Riddle of the Titanic – Robon Gardiner & Dan Van der Vat

Published by Weidenfield and Nicolson, London in 1995 a first edition soft cover. 312 pages, nicely illustrated. A very good copy.

Regarded as one of the more thorough Titanic books, with much about the before and aftermath. Written in the context of the finding of the wreck ..

Questions remain unanswered … Why was the man at the helm when she hit the iceberg packed off to South Africa? … Why did her reluctant Chief Officer still feel uneasy about a ship on which he had never sailed before … and, Why did one of her stewards “wish the bally ship at the bottom of the sea”?

Titanic well researched and written …

$25.00

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Royal Society of Tasmania – Papers & Proceedings – 1926 [the Dutch in Tasmania and Crowther]

Contains an important historical paper by Clive Lord on the planting of the Dutch Flag in Tasmania.

Geoffrey Ingleton’s copy … Ingleton Catalogue stamp no 14258 on rear cover.

Perfect bound in original paper covers, 196 pages with 11 plates and 22 figures within the text.

Contents further include inter alia … Isostatic Background of Tasmanian Physiography; the Constitutional Separation of Tasmania from New South Wales 1825; Oil Shales of Tasmania; Tasmanian Spiders; Tasmanian Cetacea; New and Little Known Tasmanian Lepidoptera; Notes on the Tasmanian Race (Crowther) etc etc. As well as the formalities … Annual Report etc.

The Dutch plant their flag and Crowther on the Tasmanian Aborigines

$60.00

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Brisbane City Medal Celebrating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee 1897

Minted by Stokes and Sons, 31 mm diameter circa 14 gms weight. Reference Carlisle 1897/43

Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee was celebrated with enthusiasm around the Commonwealth. This medal was issued by the Municipality of Brisbane to celebrate the event.

On the obverse we have Jugate busts of a young and older Queen Victoria, around Queen Victoria’s 60th Year of Reign *1837 to 1897* … mint name Stokes & Sons in tiny letter on the rim below the date.

The reverse has at its centre within a wide rim the Shield of the Municipality, quartered with top left … horses, sheep and bull; top right … farmer with plough, wheat sheaf and spade; bottom left early steam-ship and lighthouse; bottom right … sailing ship at Brisbane Port loading produce including bale of wool and barrels. Around the rim *Municipality of Brisbane* Incorporated 1859.

Collectable Victoriana Unique to Brisbane.

$40.00

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WWI Maritime and Travel Original Annotated Photograph Album – Over 180 Images

A most interesting collection spanning the years of WWI and shortly afterwards. Taken and compiled by a marine officer, over 180 original photographs, taken with some expertise, nicely presented in its original Morocco bound photograph album. The photographer has presented each photograph framing it within white borders and added very neatly in white a useful description.

The condition of the photographs is good overall, a few are faded or marked in some way from the passage of time, others are crisp and clean. A few have been removed or fallen out and few are loose inside …we have not studied where they could go … the album is robust and showing minor age wear, the whole package is very presentable and more or less complete. We wish we knew the photographer … he was clearly officer material on the Orontes and had a wife and child … we have included his image as the “thumbnail” … does anyone know who he was …?

The album can be split into two distinct periods. The first, before January 1919 being mainly onboard the HMT Orontes a vessel that plied the England – Australia route for the Orient line. With the outbreak of WWI, it became a troop carrier. The photographer appears to have also served on SS Derbyshire in a similar capacity. During this phase he took images of a number of famous vessels used in the war effort and numerous images of views, landmarks, architecture, and the people at various ports of call.

The second element post January 1919 is devoted to a circumnavigation on SS Cufic which head across the Atlantic to Nova Scotia, down to the Panama Canal and across the Pacific to New Zealand and Australia, Durban, Cape Town, and Home.

Photographs of vessels include … RMS Mauretania; Kaiseren Auguste Victoria [surrendered in 1919 and used to bring American troops home]; HMS Renown [in New York Harbour with the Prince of Wales on board]; HMS Carpathia [of Titanic rescue fame and later torpedoed and sunk]; RMS Pannonia; SS Explorer; SS Demosthenes [used to carry Australian troops]; HMS Sydney [in Colombo Harbour just after the sinking of the German Cruiser Emden]; SS Derbyshire [Colombo – Rangoon Line]; HMT Osterley; SS Cufic and HMT Orontes.

Examples of the touring images include …

The Flatiron (previously Fuller) skyscraper – New York
Washington Arch – New York
Statue of Liberty – New York
Top of Woolworth Tower – New York
5th Avenue – New York
A Glimpse of Wall Street – New York
Brooklyn Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge – New York
Boston views
The Citadel Quebec
Main Street Gibraltar
A “Blimp” convoying
A Glimpse of the US army
Panama Canal scenes
On route to Calcutta
Homeward bound in the Bay of Biscay
Cinnamon Gardens Colombo
Cape St Vincent – Portugal [Incorrectly described Spanish]
Hindu Temple South India
Colombo Harbour
Ox waggon Rangoon Burma
On the Temple steps – India
Native of South India
Children of North India
Hindu dockworker
The Pagoda Calcutta
Burmese Shrine to the God Dagan
The Schegadon Pagodas Rangoon
The lake Rangoon
A Burmese girl off to the well
Anzac Day 1918 some fancy costumes
Sierra Leone West Africa
Leaving Table Bay HMS Britannia escorting
South African troops on board – the first bugle call – “Cookhouse!”
Scene in Native Quarter Durban
Australian sheep Hamilton Victoria
Sydney Zoo
Wellington New Zealand
Tahiti South Sea Islands
Main Street Papeete
Tahitian Friends
Papeete from Crows Nest
A Harbour view Tahiti
A big dam Panama Canal
Electric Mule Panama Canal
Leaving Liverpool Jan 18, 1919 – “Bon Voyage” [a self portrait]
The first port Louisbourg – Cape Breton Island [Nova Scotia]
Snow scene St John Nova Scotia
Lock gates and numerous others – Panama Canal
“Star of Holland” mid -Pacific [a US Tall Ship]
New Zealand including memorial to Robert Scott
Melbourne – picking up the Pilot
Quarantine procedures in Melbourne
A number in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane … and the way home via South Africa

Superb, interesting unique photographic record. Now over 100 years old.

$590.00

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Dalmorton Quartz Mining Co [NewSouth Wales] – Original Manuscript Record of Formation and Original Share Issue – 21st October 1872

Gold bearing Quartz had been found by loggers in Northern New South Wales on the rugged road in the mountainous regions between Glenn Innes and Grafton.

Directors John Edge Manning, Thomas Miller, John Henry Seamer (Alderman and Timber Merchant), Charles Dawn and George Harley put forward a Prospectus for the Dalmorton Quartz Mining Co to exploit the resource. This manuscript … broadsheet folded and written over effective 3 then sides records the structure of the issue in terms of capital and proposed calls on initially partly paid shares and bears the no of shares allocated and signature and address of the original subscribers who total 70 in number.

From nothing Dalmorton rapidly became a thriving centre with up to a thousand miners and a town of 13 pubs, a school, 2 butchers, 4 stores, police station, stables, jail, post office etc. Ten years later discovery of gold at Mount Morgan and at Kalgoorlie drew miners away and the area went into decline. The town of Dalmorton was fully abandoned by the 1970’s.

Current day unlisted public company Revolution Metals Limited has reopened a number of prospects in the area and appear to be doing rather well.

Original Australian Gold Mining Company Historical Document – 1872

$140.00

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Summer of Smoke – Tennessee Williams – 1957

Riddle of the Titanic – Robon Gardiner & Dan Van der Vat

Royal Society of Tasmania – Papers & Proceedings – 1926 [the Dutch in Tasmania and Crowther]

Brisbane City Medal Celebrating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee 1897

WWI Maritime and Travel Original Annotated Photograph Album – Over 180 Images

Dalmorton Quartz Mining Co [NewSouth Wales] – Original Manuscript Record of Formation and Original Share Issue – 21st October 1872

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