Prestige Items

Madeira Spectroscopic, being a Revision of 21 Places in the Red half of the Solar Visible Spectrum with a Rutherford Diffraction Grating at Madeira in the Summer of 1881 – C Piazzi Smyth – Astronomer Royal Scotland – 1882.

Anyone who follows Voyager will know how much we adore Charles Piazzi Smyth read his wiki – too much for here. The Piazzi is after his Italian father-in-law and astronomer who influenced the Smyth family to set up their own observatory when CPS was very young. At near to sixteen he was off to South Africa to assist in astronomical experiments and it all expanded from there – his work of the Great Pyramid of Cheops is also something else.

Newton has written that the only way to improve the quality of astronomical images [having regard to size and quality of optics] was to take instruments higher in the atmosphere. CPS became an expert in this and pioneered trips to Teneriffe and Madeira to lug his instruments to higher ground – always accompanied by his knowledgeable wife. There we gave you a bit – like all these people of the times his brothers and sisters had similarly interesting lives.

Solar spectroscopy became a particular interest … as an aside he promoted the use of the Browning Rainband Spectroscope [we usually have one for sale]. At Madeira he went for the diffraction grating rather than prism combination. The results are scientific glory and nicely presented in this work published by Johnston, Edinburgh in 1882.

Square quarto, cloth binding with gilt rule and titles, 32 pages, 18 plates on in striking colour, vignette to title page. Some foxing but excuse it for its rarity, author and spot in astronomical history.

Charles Piazzi Smyth [1819-1900] top rank astronomer and pyramidologist.

$490.00

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Men without Women – Ernest Hemingway – 1955 Jonathan Cape Edition.

The hardest of the Jonathan Cape editions to find, and collectable because of that and the striking wrap around dust jacket by Hans Tisdal with his special font design.

This edition published in 1995 the second printing in this new crown format same year as the first of type. Octavo, 222 pages, a little age but excuse if for its rarity.

Maybe only Hemingway could choose this title for this collection of short stories encompassing every emotion.

Fourteen short stories including The Killers; A Simple Enquiry; An Alpine Idyll; Banal Story; Hills Like White Elephants and Che ti dice la Patria.

Reality of life from Hemingway – scarce edition

$120.00

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Vacuum Pump with Dome – Griffin and Tatlock c 1930 – Super Example

A very good working example of a vacuum hand pump, complete with glass dome from notable maker Griffin and Tatlock [a design by John Griffin]

Nice oak handle, the brass pump body retains its original lacquer, valve moves freely and pumps seals nicely. The glass dome with bell top handle is ground for contact with the pump base plate [in operation this would be grease/ vaseline sealed. There is a small chip to the inside rim but not impinging on the “sealability” of the instrument.

Carries the Griffin and Tatlock branding plaque. We can date this to around 1930 as John Griffin and sons merged with the distinguished Scottish form Baird and Tatlock circa 1925.

Dimensions approx. – 40 cm long 30 cm high and 18 cm wide. Not really suitable for overseas and will require a postage supplement dependent on buyer location.

Rare complete and working a genuine sucker.

$440.00

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For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway 1943 Scribner’s US Edition – Nice Copy

Published by Scribner’s, New York in 1943. Technically a first edition cited on copyright page as 1940 although 1943 on title .. so we would call it a second impression of the first.

Bound in the first edition oatmeal cloth covered boards, with red and black titling and banding to spine and facsimile signature to front. Dust jacket in near first state except no price on inside flap and photographers name, for portrait on rear, missing from first.

Thick large size octavo, 471 pages, top edge stained blue, as it should be. A very good copy, the dust jacket with a few minor chips and closed splits, really pretty good and now protected.

Hemingway’s classic about the Spanish Civil War. Tells the story of Robert Jordan a young American volunteer, attached to the Republican guerrilla unit.

Hemingway wrote the novel initially in Havana, Cuba. The work is based on Hemingway’s first-hand experiences as a reporter for the North American Alliance.

For those unfamiliar with where the title came from Hemingway helpfully provided reference to the words of English Poet and Dean of St Pauls John Donne (1572-1631) – it is well worth the understanding - … “never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee” … check it out – it will make a difference.

Ernest Hemingway – Perhaps his Strongest - Ding

$190.00

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The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, under the Command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N., during the years 1832 to 1836 – Edited, introductions and Notes by Charles Darwin

Originally published by Smith and Elder in parts from 1839-1843. Considered a superb example of scientific publishing.

This is the three-volume facsimile published by Nova Pacifica, Wellington, New Zealand in 1980. Til then the only reproduction and even now the standout in terms of quality.

Limited to 750 copies. Three volumes quarto, 34 cm by 26 cm. Original quarter blue leather binding with salmon buckram covered boards. Separate contrasting title labels and gilt to spine, marbled end papers. Various pagination, complete, illustrated in colour and black and white including tipped in plates. A very good set. Very heavy may require a postage supplement especially Overseas.

Volume one comprises Fossil Mammalia by Richard Owen [part 1] and Mammalia by George R Waterhouse [part 2]. Volume two comprises Birds by John Gould [part 3] and Anatomical Appendix by T.C. Eyton. Volume three contains Fish by Leonard Jenyns [part 4] and Reptiles by Thomas Bell [part 5]

Who can afford the original? This super facsimile set the best alternative.

$790.00

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From the Niger to the Nile – Lieutenant Boyd Alexander – First Edition – Two Volumes 1907

Published by Edward Arnold, London first and second impressions of the first edition of a two-volume set. Very nice condition in the original red cloth covered boards with gilt titling.

Large octavo, xvi, 358 pages and 420 pages with numerous illustrations and maps, three folding. A little fading to spines.

Heavy items which may require overseas postage supplement to our standard charge.

An uncommon set and fundamental exploration account particularly relating to the area around Lake Chad.

The expedition was originally designed to survey the northern parts of Nigeria and prove that Africa could be travelled west to east using the available natural waterways. Alexander was accompanied by his brother Claud, Captain G.B. Gosling, and a Portuguese explorer collector Jose Lopes. They set off in February 1904 from the mouth of the Niger travelling upriver to Lokoja. A survey was then completed of the Murchison Range. Claud died of typhoid. Alexander and Gosling continued on to explore Lake Chad, circling and charting the entire body. In June 1906 Gosling died of blackwater fever. Alexander pressed on with Lopes, and eventually reached the Nile later in 1906. Returning to England he received the highest award in exploration … The Founder’s Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He completed these volumes partly in honour of his brother.

The story does not finish there. Alexander returned to Africa with Lopes in 1909, visiting his brother’s grave and continuing to Ouadai, east of Lake Chad and then on to Nyeri, in modern day Kenya where he was killed in a dispute with locals. His body was recovered by French soldiers, taken back, and buried next to his brother.

Boyd Alexander across Africa via Lake Chad with quite some difficulty.

$360.00

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Madeira Spectroscopic, being a Revision of 21 Places in the Red half of the Solar Visible Spectrum with a Rutherford Diffraction Grating at Madeira in the Summer of 1881 – C Piazzi Smyth – Astronomer Royal Scotland – 1882.

Men without Women – Ernest Hemingway – 1955 Jonathan Cape Edition.

Vacuum Pump with Dome – Griffin and Tatlock c 1930 – Super Example

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway 1943 Scribner’s US Edition – Nice Copy

The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, under the Command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N., during the years 1832 to 1836 – Edited, introductions and Notes by Charles Darwin

From the Niger to the Nile – Lieutenant Boyd Alexander – First Edition – Two Volumes 1907

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