Prestige Items

Rare Large Sized Microscope Size – Lantern Fly – China

No date or maker but this presentation was a specialty in the late Victorian / Edwardian era. Reference authority “Bracegirdle” shows a number of “outsized” examples but none quite like this.

In modern terms known as the spotted lantern fly. The insect is on the move and a potential threat in Australia – modelling has shown that it could survive well in western and north-western Victoria. When we say a threat, it was endemic to China and Vietnam but moved into South Korea in 2006, Japan in 2009 and the USA in 2014 … so the move is on.

Here the little blighter is beautifully preserved and presented in Canada Balsam … we know that CB was the mounters choice due its quality and the cursive narrative says so.

A microscopical rarity outsized mount of the Spotted Lantern Fly.

$190.00

Updating cart…

A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway – True First Edition 1964 – Predates American Edition by one day

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast”.

A fine copy of this important work. The best we have seen. And, as this is Voyager’s favourite book we have seen a few.

Published by Jonathan Cape, London in 1964. Octavo, 192 pages. We can’t find a mark and the dust jacket is perfect, as if new, except price clipped – a gift givers prerogative.

Scarce Collectable Hemingway First Edition – As fine a condition as will be found

$240.00

Updating cart…

Amsler Polar Planimeter [Measuring the area of complex irregular shapes/ boundaries] c1910

Plush-lined fitted case some 12” long contains a polar planimeter invented by Swiss mathematician Jacob Amsler. All in very good condition and working order.

The instrument was a revolutionary change from the complex Cartesian system base instruments used before. This device uses polar co-ordinates.

With this device two arms are connected with a pivot both arms moving around the anchor. As the pivot moves back and forth it traces an area whose net measurement is zero. The means that the area traced by the tracer point exactly equals the area of the closed curve. The area is equivalent to 2pi X the product of the length of the tracer arm, the radius of the counting wheel and the number of revolutions of the counting wheel.

In more modern times mathematicians apply “Green’s theorem”.

Amsler’s radical and very useful new design

$190.00

Updating cart…

Australian Ashes Cricket Team 1934 [Bradman, Woodfull, Ponsford et al] Unusual Original Advertising Memorabilia.

Significant size would frame and display nicely – fragile so handle carefully. One of the most usual pieces of period advertising we have come across.

With the strong message “Well laundered sports wear gives confidence” we are told to “Send your cricket and tennis flannels and Ladies sports frocks” for proper laundry treatment to provide the above mentioned confidence.

Nice image of the team, not all in baggy green and a strangely suited L Darling.

The 1934 Ashes were held in England and Australia won off the back of some solid batting by Bradman and Ponsford. England started well wining the first test – Verity took 15 wickets. The next two were drawn but Bradman/ Ponsford scored a partnership of 388 at Headingley and 452 at the Oval to take the urn.

Dimensions 50cm by 25cm, the odd wrinkle as one would expected but generally in good condition – take care of it!

Bradman 1934 Ashes treasure – how has it survived?

$160.00

Updating cart…

WWI Copper Flask in Original Bespoke Leather Carrying Case [Super Condition] – Captain McCracken

Captain Kenneth Mills McCracken was a member of the Royal Field Artillery attached to the Royal Flying Corps. His service record covered the entire of WWI 1914-1918 so likely one of the few that survived his dangerous role.

Born in 1895 and from Newcastle-Upon Tyne he was a medical student at Edinburgh University when World War One broke out.

The Royal Flying Corp was the air arm of the British Army at the start of the war and it was not until 1918 that it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service to become the Royal Air Force.

McCracken’s record shows that he was skilled in artillery observation; so, he was likely an aerial observer or photographer. At the beginning of the war their photographic efforts were very primitive almost hopeless until 1915. By 1918 they could make decent images from 15,000 feet and had a team of 3,000 people analysing the results. The Royal Flying Corp didn’t get into aerial combat until the later part of the war.

The item is in great condition. The full leather casing is 25cm by 10cm, stitching perfect – nicely embossed with McCracken’s details. The copper thermos has a ding but is a solid actually useable item. The screw on top is undamaged and goes on and off easily.

Special WWI Item in great condition with interesting provenance

$290.00

Updating cart…

Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure – Rare “Hare Bowl” – 1822

Qing Dynasty decorated bowl recovered by Mike Hatcher from the Tek Sing shipwreck. A special example.

In our view one of the more interesting Tek sing bowls with the rather cute Hare image to centre. Large and deep by comparison with others – 16.2cm by 5.8cm deep. The decorative rim with three panels of scrolls or net-like design. Chrysanthemum design and bamboo leaves underneath. and bamboo. Very good condition given its 200 plus years and most of that time underwater. Retains the Nagel auction and catalogue stickers underneath for provenance.

Price $290.00
A Tek Sing special – Nice strong and uncommon Hare decoration.
________________________

The Tek Sing Shipwreck – Background

The Tek Sing (Chinese for “Bright Star”’) was a large Chinese Junk which sank in 1822 in the South China Sea at the Belvidere Shoals. She was 50 meters long, 10 metres wide and weighed a thousand tons. Manned by a crew of 200. The great loss of life has led to the Tek Sing being referred to as the “Titanic of the East”.

Sailing from the port of Amoy (now Xiamen), the Tek Sing was bound for Jakarta, with a cargo of porcelain goods and 1,600 Chinese immigrants. After a month of sailing, Captain Lo Tauko took a shortcut through the Gaspar Straits and ran aground on a reef and sank in 100 feet of water.

The next morning and English East Indiaman captained by James Pearl sailing from Indonesia to Borneo passed through the Gaspar Straits. He found debris from the sunken Chinese vessel and survivors. They managed to rescue 190 people.

In 1999, marine salvor Mike Hatcher discovered the wreck. His crew raised what has been described as the largest cache of Chinese porcelain ever recovered. It was auctioned by Nagle in Stuttgart, Germany the following year

$290.00

Updating cart…

Rare Large Sized Microscope Size – Lantern Fly – China

A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway – True First Edition 1964 – Predates American Edition by one day

Amsler Polar Planimeter [Measuring the area of complex irregular shapes/ boundaries] c1910

Australian Ashes Cricket Team 1934 [Bradman, Woodfull, Ponsford et al] Unusual Original Advertising Memorabilia.

WWI Copper Flask in Original Bespoke Leather Carrying Case [Super Condition] – Captain McCracken

Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure – Rare “Hare Bowl” – 1822

Product Categories