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The Big Game of Central and Western China – Harold Frank Wallace FRGS, RZS – First Edition 1913

Being an Account of a Journey from Shanghai to London Overland Across the Gobi Desert by Harold Frank Wallace.

A first edition published by John Murray, London in 1913. Royal octavo, 318 pages after preliminaries and including appendices and index.

Bound in original yellow cloth covered boards with decoration and facsimile signature of author to front. Top edge gilt. Some rubbing externally and a hint of glue in the front hinge. A very good copy with barely a mark internally. A sought after travel and hunting account written in a very readable style. Well illustrated with a frontispiece and 22 illustrations from drawings by the author (very talented) and thirty-eight illustrations from photographs.

In 1911 the author accompanied the experienced George Fenwick-Owen into the interior of China. Their primary objective was to secure a specimen of the Takin of which then little was known in the west, along with a collection of smaller animals for the British Museum. Their journey lasted precisely one year. The course of their journey had to be varied because of the outbreak of the Revolution. The book on the whole is well balanced towards a special travel account with excellent observations on the topography, the people, customs, manners, law etc the latter could not be more demonstrated by the sad image of the man caged for opium crimes.

Chapters include … the Call of the Red Gods; Shanghai; the Father of rivers [Yangste]; Hwa-Shan the Flower Mountain; Sian -Fu the Magnificent; Notes on caves and the Home of the Takin; Fensiang-Fu an inland town; Modern Rehoboam and His Capital; the Western Kanus; Rumours of war; On the Fringe of the Desert and Across the Desert. Animals sought include the aforementioned Takin … White-maned Serow; Roe deer; Wapiti; Przewalski’s Gazelle; Mongolian Gazelle etc.

The appendices make interesting reading with Field Measurements; Estimates of Expenses and Tables of Distances and Stages.

Central and Western China in 1911

$240.00

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Il Pentamerone; or, The Tale of Tales – Basile – Translated Sir Richard Burton KCMG – First and Limited Edition – 1893

Being a Translation by the Late Sir Richard Burton, K.C.M.G., of Il Pentamerone;OveroLo Cuntode Li Cunte, Trattenemiento de Li Peccerille, of Giovanni Battista Basile, Count of Torne (Gian Alessio Abbattutis).

First edition in two volumes published by Henry and Co, London 1893. Published posthumously by his devoted wife Lady Burton.

A limited edition of 1,500 copies. Two volumes, octavo, 282 pages, [283]-562 pages. Original dark blue (near black) buckram cloth, gilt lettered. Minor rubbing to spine ends. Overall a very good clean set of a sought after Burton work.

The stories in the Pentamerone were collected by Basile and published posthumously by his sister Adriana in Naples in 1634 and 1636 under the pseudonym Abbatutis. The stories were later adapted by a number of authors including the Brothers Grimm who acknowledged the use of stories in the Pentamerone in Cinderella, Rapunzel, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty and Hansel and Gretel.

Basile recorded the stories in Neapolitan and is regarded as the first writer to record the Neapolitan intonations. The style is heavily Baroque with many metaphorical expressions.

The term Pentameone comes from the Greek “pente” or five and “hemera” day. The work is set within a “frame story” with fifty separate tales being told over the course of five days … referencing Baccaccio’s Decameron of 1353 which has a ten day structure.

Beautiful stories translated by the genius that was Sir Richard Burton. Limited first edition.

$170.00

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Britannia: Rowing alone across the Atlantic. – John Fairfax – First Edition 1971

The record of an adventure. First edition published by Kimber, London in 1971. Octavo, 221 pages well illustrated with designs of the boat, endpaper maps. Very good condition albeit the dust jacket has some ageing and clear tape over closed tears. A valuable book in a number of quarters.

John Fairfax was broke when he decided he wanted to row across the Atlantic. Despite this he managed to get his rowing boat built to specification. He practiced on the Serpentine in Hyde Park. It took him 180 days to get from the Canary Islands to Miami a remarkable achievement.

He received congratulation from many including, in a lengthy “salute” from Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11.

Rowing Across the Atlantic – well give it a go!

$40.00

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Atlantic Cruise in Wanderer III – Eric Hiscock – 1968

Published by Oxford University Press 1968, Octavo, 159 pages with 80 colour photographs and 7 charts by the author and his voyaging wife.

A first edition 1968 of Eric Hiscock’s Fourth book of sailing adventures … this time in the North Atlantic after having completed two circumnavigations.

The new Wanderer (no III) a 30-foot yacht taking in Western France, Spain, Portugal across to the Windward Islands and the Bahamas. Then up north to Bar Harbour, Maine and reversing back hugging the New England Coast and all the way down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Hiscock North Atlantic two year cruise

$25.00

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Neurological Fragments – J Hughlings Jackson

Originally published by Oxford Medical Publications in 1925. Selected by the Classics of Medicine Advisory Board for their unusual fine treatment and republished in this form in 1983.

Octavo, 227 pages with index and including as an introduction a biographical memoir by James Taylor and “recollections” by sir Jonathan Hutchinson and Dr Charles Mercier.

Bound in full burgundy leather with lavish gilt decoration to boards, marbled endpapers, rich gilt edges and silk marker ribbon. A lovely production. Contains 21 separate studies.

John Hughlings Jackson (1835-1911) was a pioneering neurologist. He was from Yorkshire and qualifies at St Barts, London in 1856. After a spell at York he returned to London and progressively held more senior positions in his field. His work on epilepsy was of particular note.

Jackson and his neurological fragments

$70.00

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The Journey of Burke and Wills – Max Colwell

Published by Paul Hamlyn, Sydney in 1971 a first edition. Quarto, 152 pages a very good if not fine copy.

A surprisingly good book on the Burke and Wills expedition. A large format heavily illustrated almost coffee table book style … but it’s the images and the nuances that make this book different and a good fill in regarding the personalities and interactions of all involved. We particularly like the letter written after Landell’s resignation … “sheer cowardice”

Burke and Wills another perspective

$30.00

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All products

The Big Game of Central and Western China – Harold Frank Wallace FRGS, RZS – First Edition 1913

Il Pentamerone; or, The Tale of Tales – Basile – Translated Sir Richard Burton KCMG – First and Limited Edition – 1893

Britannia: Rowing alone across the Atlantic. – John Fairfax – First Edition 1971

Atlantic Cruise in Wanderer III – Eric Hiscock – 1968

Neurological Fragments – J Hughlings Jackson

The Journey of Burke and Wills – Max Colwell

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