Non-fiction

Illustrated Games of Patience – Lady Adelaide Cadogan – 1880

Card games of all sorts were all the rage in Victorian times among all classes. Here we have none other than Lady Cadogan the leading expert on the many many variations of a card game generally known as Patience.

This is fourth more glamorous edition published by Sampson Low, London in 1880. Quarto, strangely paginated around the description both in narrative and pictorially of each game. The images are truly delightful a feature that is carried over to the decorated green cloth binding. A very good copy of a scarce form.

The names of the various game forms points to the French derivations .. La Belle Lucie; Le Cadran; La Quinzaine; La Loi Salique; Les Quatre Coins; Le Moulin; Le Shah etc although ending with the rather drearily named “the British Constitution”

Patience is a blessing .. let’s have more of it!

$80.00

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Ross Bridge Tasmania – Studies in Historical Archaeology – Maureen Byrne

Maureen Byrne was a professional archaeologist which makes this “local history” rather more honed and full of well researched fact.

Anyone who loves Tasmania either as a local or a visitor cannot help fall in love with the town of Ross and its magnificent convict built bridge.

Published in 1969 by the Australian Society of Historical Archaeology in conjunction with the Ross Council and its then appointed Bridge Restoration Committee .. now there’s a worthwhile cause.

Squarish perfect bound card covered, 51 pages with folding plans at rear. Extensively illustrated from photographs taken by the author. A very good copy.

The bridge was to undergo restoration with the removal of badly laid thick tarmacadam … this was the chance to call in the expert Byrne. A special record was made … the best part being something that could have received better treatment earlier .. 186 carvings, 31 over the top of each arch. Among the carvings along with those involved in the creation of the bridge we have … Jorgen Jorgensen the Danish adventurer then part of life in Van Diemens Land; Governor George Arthur resplendent in his top hat; John Headlam a hated school master in his mortar board; William Kermode a local grazier .. along with horned goods and wild beasts.

Comparison with Italian bridge architecture add interest.

The Ross Bridge rivals European Bridge Architecture with its numerous carvings.

$50.00

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The Horse Tramways of Adelaide 1875-1907 – L.S. Kingsborough

Now this is a local history of special interest. The intensity and variety of horse drawn trams in the city of Adelaide and its suburbs was special by any standards.

A card covered perfect bound publication of the Adelaide Libraries Board so done to a good standard with photographic images, diagrams etc that really enhance the understanding.

Squarish octavo, 86 pages plus a5 pages of appendices. Published in 1965 a rare and very good condition copy.

The number of enterprises paints a picture in itself .. Adelaide and Suburban Tramway Co; Unley and Mitcham Tramway Co; Adelaide and Hindmarah Tramway Co; Port Adelaide, Queenstown, Alberton and Portland Estate Tramway Co … and many more

Horse drawn trams … everywhere … what fun .. and green?

$50.00

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The Canary Jacket – Ann Shead – First Edition 1968

First edition published by Collins, London and Sydney in 1968. A “novel of early Australia” by the distinguished author.

Octavo, 256 pages, a very good copy in a complete and clean dust jacket.

Australian author Ann Shead came from Cornish stock. This story start in Cornwall and smuggling which leads to transportation to New South Wales. The realities of life downunder for convicts bound out to serve a Master are to the fore of the narrative. Things do improve and the book ends pleasantly high and rewarding.

Convicts doing it tough but seeing it through in the end … the lucky ones in the Lucky Country.

$30.00

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Discovery – Stories of Modern Mineral Exploration – Alan Trengove

A fine copy of the first edition published by Stockwell Press in 1979.

Octavo, 278 pages, illustrated from photographs and numerous maps of mineral areas.

Starts with the “Forgotten Frontier” … Cape York and the Weipa area. Then the Bowen expanses, Pilbara before the arrival of the super mines, Gold and the advent of the offshore drilling ships. Closes with an appendix “A History of Resources of Metallic Ores” by King. Well its all a history really.

What is now a super background to the history of mineral exploration in Australia.

$30.00

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The Wreck of the Amsterdam – Peter Marsden – First Edition 1974

The Dutch East Indiaman set out on her maiden voyage in 1748 loaded with cargo and silve7r, with three hundred people on board.

A storm in the English Channel forced the captain to beach her near Hastings after a near mutiny.

She’s still there and at the occasional low tide remnants can be seen from the shore. Peter Marsden was the Field archaeologist at the London Guildhall Museum and he was called in when a party of workmen with access to a digger tried their luck and found something rather special.

First edition published by Hutchinson, London in 1974. Octavo, 288 pages, heavily and well illustrated. A very good copy.

The Wreck of the Amsterdam; a long time afterwards fresh discoveries are made.

$30.00

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Illustrated Games of Patience – Lady Adelaide Cadogan – 1880

Ross Bridge Tasmania – Studies in Historical Archaeology – Maureen Byrne

The Horse Tramways of Adelaide 1875-1907 – L.S. Kingsborough

The Canary Jacket – Ann Shead – First Edition 1968

Discovery – Stories of Modern Mineral Exploration – Alan Trengove

The Wreck of the Amsterdam – Peter Marsden – First Edition 1974

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