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WG Lawes of Savage Island and New Guinea – Joseph King – 1909 First Edition

Published by The Religious Tract Society London in 1909, a First Edition. Original binding with snag top of spine glued otherwise a pretty good complete copy. Gilt titles and image all bright.

388 pages with folding coloured map of PNG and 21 most interesting black and white photographs. Lawes (1839-1907) went to Niue in 1861 for 11 years before then serving in Papua New Guinea in and around Port Moresby for 32 years from 1874. A tough man who worked with Chalmers met Bully Hayes and built the first church and school in Port Moresby.

Pioneering Missionary in PNG – Cornerstone PNG

$120.00

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The Antiquity of Man – Arthur Keith – 2 Volumes (Piltdown Man)

1928 edition by Sir Arthur Keith’s first published 1925 as a single volume. Reviewed and enhanced.

A famous work in that it includes several chapters on the greatest scientific hoax ever … The Piltdown Man … there should be a BBC mini-series on this crime. Charles Dawson discovered the skull fragments that were to provide the “missing link” between apes and man. He was then assisted by the distinguished Dr Smith Woodward. In this book Keith is not sure at all and his chapter headed “The difficulties of reconstruction” alludes to error and alternative interpretations and perhaps even the reality. The reality was exposed in1953 when the bones were found to have consisted of the mandible and some teeth of an orangutan combined with the cranium of a small brained modern human. Grafton Elliot Smith a fellow anthropologist sided with Dawson and Woodward at the Royal Society claiming that Keith’s views were motivated by ambition. Keith later recalled “Such was the end of our long friendship”.

Whilst Piltdown makes the book special there are other excellent anthropological finds well written up, not the least being the Pleistocene skull found at Talgai (near Warwick Queensland) in 1884 but brought out of a cupboard in 1914 and properly categorised by Sir T.W. Edgeworth David …. Robert Etheridge also had a hand.

Much could be said about the author Sir Arthur Keith whose interest in the origins of man stemmed from being put in charge of the Museum of the Royal Society of Surgeons at an early age.

We have included an image of the painting of key players investigating the skull of Piltdown Man … Arthur Keith is seated in the middle with Dawson and Smith Woodward standing behind him to the right …. note a painting of Charles Darwin on the wall behind the group.

Early Man and Piltdown examined but not exposed

$90.00

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The Whole Course of Chirurgerie – Peter Lowe (Originally 1597)

Leather bound and beautifully gilt embossed all edges richly gilt from the Classics of Medicine Library 1981.

Originally published in 1597 an edition from which this fine facsimile is produced along with engravings taken from the second edition of 1612. Peter Lowe of Scottish decent practiced in Paris at the time of writing this monumental work being appointed to the King of France. His dedication is to James the VI of Scotland.

The engravings are enlightening – instruments for cutting off fingers and toes, siring or squirt for the care of hollow wounds, instruments to cut and knit the fistula in the fundament, portraiture of a man Rim-burst (ouch!)

Chirurgerie in the 16th Century advanced by Lowe

$50.00

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Hunters of the Great North (Arctic Exploration) – Vilhjalmur Stefansson – 1922 – Signed Copy to the “Cheerful Philosopher” Gerber Schafer

Published by Harcourt, New York. A special book by the Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist. On the whole this book covers the experiences of 1908 – 1907 when he lived with the Inuit of the Mackenzie Delta returning alone across country. References to later expeditions are included.

A first edition 1922 with the scarce dust jacket and the glorious pictorial boards. Very good condition, the scarce dust jacket a bit chipped and some tape used at the rear to repair a tear which has left a mark on the back board now Brodart protected. Private library embossed stamp (no ink) of Eotthe Gozdiskowski on title page very clean and crisp binding firm.

Signed as a gift much later March 17 1942 “to Sgt Gerber D Schafer The Cheerful Philosopher the story of a first trip North to remind him of his first talk with Vilhjalmur Stefansson”.

Well illustrated covering expedition preparation, the trip down 2,000 of the Mackenzie River and the first impressions of the Eskimos, Captain Klinkenberg and the SeaWolf, Discoverer and the Whaling fleet … learning to live like an Eskimo the end of the summer and lost in the Mackenzie delta, snow house, eskimo skin boat and rafting the Porcupine, hunting Caribou, Seals and Polar Bears … real men’s work.

Stefansson (1879 – 1962) whilst born Canadian was of Icelandic parents. His portfolio of exploration is massive and varied. History has him admired but there were disasters. In 1913 – 1916 he led the Canadian Arctic Expedition. His ship the Karluk got stuck in ice. He left the ship with five others to go hunting and the ship was carried away, crushed and sank and 11 men died in various attempts to survive. Some members were ex Shackleton’s British Antarctic Expedition. Survivors thought Stefansson’s departure was deliberate. More curious was his 1921 expedition to claim Wrangle Island north of Siberia, first intended for the Canadian’s who after the Karluk disaster said “no thank you” … so they planted the Union Jack for the British which surprised the Russians as it was their territory and an international incident occurred.

Aside from the above there were many wonderful achievement in his “mixed bag” and he was awarded the 1921 Founders Medal by the Royal Geographical Society. Later in life he was leader of this and that and hung out at Romany Marie’s Greenwich Village Café.

Sergeant Gerber Schafer was known as the “Cheerful Philosopher” and certainly was an incredible individual. In 1918 he was involved in an early aeronautical accident and broke his spine. He was paralysed from the neck down and needed full time care to stay alive. Nevertheless, he decided he could make a real contribution in life and raised money for many good causes from his bed … his achievements too many to list are worth tracking down if you are looking for inspiration….

Rare Arctic Account signed a gift to inspirational Gerber Schafer

$140.00

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Darwin and the Beagle – Alan Moorehead

Published in 1969 by Hamish Hamilton, a little ageing tone but really a very good copy with a complete unmarked dust jacket.

Alan Moorehead’s capable and well illustrated account of the Beagle period of Darwin’s great life. Balanced and readable hallmarks of the author.

More than Galapagos

$25.00

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The Contented Botanist – Sophie Ducker

Published in 1988 by Melbourne University at the Miegunyah Press and produced to their usual exceptional standard. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket.

Unusual and important work. William Harvey (1811-1886) was one of the great Victorian Botanist. He travelled the Pacific and produced and book on Australian flora Phycologia Australica. He knew Hooker and Professor Asa Gray and corresponded with them. His visits to Australia included meeting the convicts at Port Arthur. This work based on his letters and paper unearthed at the Harvard University herbarium is brilliantly put together by the exceptional Sophie Ducker.

Important records found and presented

$40.00

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All products

WG Lawes of Savage Island and New Guinea – Joseph King – 1909 First Edition

The Antiquity of Man – Arthur Keith – 2 Volumes (Piltdown Man)

The Whole Course of Chirurgerie – Peter Lowe (Originally 1597)

Hunters of the Great North (Arctic Exploration) – Vilhjalmur Stefansson – 1922 – Signed Copy to the “Cheerful Philosopher” Gerber Schafer

Darwin and the Beagle – Alan Moorehead

The Contented Botanist – Sophie Ducker

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