Non-fiction

They Reigned Supreme [Steam Ships in Tasmania] – Thomas W. Fox

Self published second printing, scarce as hen’s teeth.

Red card wrappers, 50 pages plus advertisements, including one for Purdon & Featherstone Shipyard! Illustrated with a few images of steam boats.

Excellent account of the steam ships that used to ply the Derwent, Tamar and coastal routes in Tasmania. From the very beginning to the very end.

Lengthy list of vessels in alphabetic order with details regarding their construction, when and where they were put to use and by whom. Often ending in a mishap.

After the boats comes a chapter on the famous O’May family who for three generations were at the heart of the Derwent ferry services. Then a brief section on boat builder and a most interesting account of River Steamer racing.

Super primary reference for anyone interested in the now gone steamer activity in Tasmania.

$50.00

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The Andes and the Amazon – Life and Travel in Peru – C. R. Enock – 1913

A scarce copy of this important travel exploration account into Peru.

Published by Fisher Unwin, London in 1913, a fifth printing, first in this form. Octavo, red cloth covered illustrated covers, xvi, 380 pages, portrait frontispiece. Slight foxing otherwise a very good copy. the pictorial covers are a delight

C Reginald Enock was a mining engineer turned adventurer. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society London, the World’s greatest Club. His adventures in Peru had previously been summarised and presented by none less than Markham in the Society Journals.

Enock explored a new high pass over the Eastern Cordillera; made the sources of the Maranon and Huaylas Rivers; visited the ruins of Huanuco and attempted the highest peak in Peru, Huascarn, at 22,000 feet.. although unsuccessful, it was not climbed until 1932 … by Austrians of course.

In his expeditions he mulled over the origins of the indigenous population and postulated links with Asia much in the lines but sometimes conflicting with the Alfred Russell Wallace viewpoint.

Enock and serious exploring in remote Peru …

$120.00

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Unpublished Work – “The Dream and the Reality” – Single Handed Transatlantic Yacht Race 1968 – Brian Cooke.

A unique item, the typescript account of Brian Cooke relating to his participation in the 1968 Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race (STAR) east to west from Plymouth to Newport Rhode Island.

182 pages of foolscap, corrected in manuscript. Having read through it all … it is an exceptional account ready for the press … we are not sure why he did not follow through with the publication.

Cooke was very much an amateur before this event and he states clearly in his Preface that the book has been written “to indicate the way in which the dream of crossing the Ocean became a reality to me … what is involved for the ordinary person … to know first hand that it is quite a feasible proposition and a very worthwhile challenge …”.

We like the way the book proper starts … “It was 1949, when I was walking down St James’s Street, London one lunchtime. I looked in a Bookshop window. One of the books on display was by Allcard describing the Atlantic voyage he had made. It was the dust cover that took my eye. On it was a photograph of Allcard, at sea, sailing his yacht single-handed, looking up at his sails, which conveyed to me a most vivid picture of satisfaction and achievement”

The first sixty eight pages are taken up with establishing and preparing for the dream. First the yacht that had been commissioned to be built by an acquaintance with the wherewithal connected to his work at the Westminster Bank. The first trials, the personal training, the qualifying voyages etc all very interesting. At page sixty nine we have the race start proper. What follows is a very detailed account of the events of the race, nothing tedious in our view. Cooke came in sixth, out of 48, many had to turn back. Those ahead were either trimarans or larger boats, on any handicap system he may have won.

The appendices are good for perspective and emphasise his comments in the Preface that preparation is key. We have the “sailing instructions” from the Royal Western, Plymouth. The list of yachts by nation, rig, length, hull, and rating where available. Daily records of sailing achievements and sail changes. Provisions of all sorts … we are amused to see Mars Bars, Steak and kidney puddings, HP sauce etc.

Yachting treasure unpublished major single-handed yacht race

$380.00

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Early Manuscript – Harpsichord or Piano Arrangement of Hayden’s Seven Last Words from the Cross 1808/9

Composizioni del Sig Giuseppe Hayden sopra le sette ultime Parole del nostre Redenfore in Croce. Consistenti in Sette Sonate con un Introduzione et al Fine Teremota ridote per il Clavicembalo ou Forte Piona Opera 19.

Copied by hand from a score published in Vienna, presso Artaria Compagni 9, 1808.

Oblong folio manuscript comprising title page and 26 pages in early paper backed flush wrappers, all in a fine state. A delightfully executed manuscript copy inscribed “De Musica Fran H Hausser 1808/9” with the later library label of K Knittle.

The piano arrangement of Hayden’s Seven Last words of the Cross, authorised by Hayden. Arranged from a string quartet version from the same Publisher, Artaria in 1786. The piano version was first issued a year later … reference catalogue authority Hobken -Verzeidchis XX/1C.

Joseph Hayden born 1732 died in May 1809 so this manuscript could be coincidental or in honour of his death. The original work was orchestral and commissioned by the Cannon of Cadiz, Spain for a Good Friday service in which they traditionally performed new works of music the theme of which was based on Christ’s seven last words on the Cross. The format was always to be a ten minute adagio to follow the calling of each of the last words by the Church hierarchy. It was performed in a very austere environment with dark curtains hung and very little light intruding. In 1801 Hayden is recorded as saying that he had great difficulty complying with the “rules”. Nevertheless, the work is regarded as a great success and in many ways experimental for the time.

Hayden was paid in a very unusual way … he was sent a cake filled with gold coins. Just as well he ate it!

Beautiful manuscript score of an unusual piece by Joseph Hayden likely written in the year of his death.

$270.00

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Cruising the Coral Sea – Alan Lucas

This is the third edition nicely updated with aerial images and some extra anchorages. A really super book about the tropical coast of Queensland and the Ocean and Islands. The kind of book that is probably difficult to continue to produce spoilt by the accessibility of the internet. But nowhere is so much useful and interesting information presented in an orderly and balanced fashion.

Published by Horwitz in 1976, large octavo, 336 pages with a multitude of maps, sketches, the aforesaid photographic images etc.

After a useful introduction we have a description of the reefs , the islands past present and notes on conservation. Then a handy chapter on catching and cooking your own food .. and the number of poisonous creatures encountered. Safety in the waster … not just sharks but the stingers even the small ones that can kill. Then into the detail of the approaches and anchorages and what a good anchorage looks like …

A special book on Queensland and only dated where it is interesting …

$30.00

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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

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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They Reigned Supreme [Steam Ships in Tasmania] – Thomas W. Fox

The Andes and the Amazon – Life and Travel in Peru – C. R. Enock – 1913

Unpublished Work – “The Dream and the Reality” – Single Handed Transatlantic Yacht Race 1968 – Brian Cooke.

Early Manuscript – Harpsichord or Piano Arrangement of Hayden’s Seven Last Words from the Cross 1808/9

Cruising the Coral Sea – Alan Lucas

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

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