Travel & Voyages

The Early Maps of Colombia up to 1850 – Kit S. Kapp

The Map Collectors’ Circle publication No 77 by Captain Kit S Kapp published in 1971. Very good condition. T.M. Perry, Australian map expert’s stamp to front cover.

170 maps identified over 32 pages plus 10 full page plates of prime examples. Very good condition.

Colombia a country of contrasts, snow-capped mountains, fertile plains and exotic jungles. First colonised by the Spanish in 1538. The subsequent successful looting of Cartagena by Sir Francis Drake created further interest in the region and the mapping thereof. See if you can spot “El Dorado … the Golden One”

Captain Kit passed away a few years back … he was a much loved member of the map community and a friend of Mick Tooley’s

Colombia … the original gold maps

$25.00

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Maps of the Canary Islands Published before 1850 – C Broekema

The Map Collectors’ Circle publication published Nos 74 by C. Broekema in 1971. Very good condition with T.M. Perry, Australian map expert’s stamp on the front cover.

147 maps identified over 24 pages plus 13 plates of prime historical and decorative examples. Very good condition and a hard one to find.

The Canaries has always held a special place in hearts of travellers and cartographers. Known in antiquity and actively visited by Europeans from the 14thC. Appears on the Medici Portlan map of 1351. On the Hereford Mappamundi it is named “Insulae fortunatae sancti Brandani” … the “Fortunate Isles” moniker dates back to Hesiod, who spoke of the islands where perpetual summer reigned.

Canary Islands more than just a holiday. Perry’s copy.

$25.00

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The Maps and Prints of Paolo Forlani – Woodward – A Newberry Library Production 1990

A special item, a descriptive bibliography of the maps and prints of 16th Century Venetian, Paolo Forlani.

Published as Occasional Publication No 4 of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Geography – The Newberry Library, Chicago 1990.

Small quarto scale, perfect bound, 60 pages, clay coloured soft covers. Very good condition.

The compiler, David Woodward a legendary American cartographic expert.

The work starts with careful explanations in the Preface and Acknowledgements, then a list of Abbreviations and Explanations before a list of the Illustrations. Followed by 21 full page plates of examples .. some very special, given the unique nature of the items and, their lack of general publication … the globe just beautiful.

Followed by a full bibliographic description of the known works. Rounded off with a section of references, index of persons identified and connected, and a geographical index for those geographically challenged.

Special work on Paolo Forlani, one of the premier and most decorative 16thC cartographers

$30.00

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The Crossing of the Copula – Jean Filloux – First English Edition 1955

A first English edition of Filloux’s adventure in the North Atlantic, translated by Gretchen Besser.

Published by Collins. London in 1955. Octavo, 253 pages plus diagrams of the vessel, nicely illustrated throughout with images from photographs taken on the voyage. End paper maps on which one has dates written by a previous owner, helpful we think. A couple of snags to what is a complete dust jacket, a pretty good copy.

Filloux, a penniless young engineer took a berth on the Copula, a 47 foot catamaran rigged like a Chinese Junk. They took their time. Thirteen months, to voyage from Bordeaux o New York … with time off in the Canaries (forced on them) and in the Windies having reached Martinique (chosen plan). Well written unusual account

Copula across the Atlantic an round the Windies – not your usual vessel or adventurer.

$25.00

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The Kon-Tiki Expedition – Thor Heyerdahl (With Original Photograph of the Raft)

Well certainly not a rare book, probably the biggest selling modern maritime adventure book. But a very good copy.

A 1959 edition by which time it had already run to 23 impressions. Octavo, 235 pages with eighty odd photographic images.

Thor Heyerdahl set off on the most amazing raft voyage with five companions determined to prove his migration theories. This account, praised by Somerset Maugham as “an incredible adventure which happens to be true. It would be a very dull reader who did not admire and envy the courage of the six men who took part in it”. Very good copy.

We also have what appears to be an original photograph of the raft on its way … the camera work is rather shaky so clearly taken from another vessel.

Leaving Callao in Peru for Tahiti, they almost made it running aground on the Raroia Reef were the raft was smashed to smithereens.

Kon-Tiki nice copy with photograph.

$30.00

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Last Voyage – Ann Davison – First edition 1951

First edition of Ann Davison’s autobiographical account which ends in the most dramatic shipwreck and the loss of her husband.

An incredible individual, after all of this, she became the first woman to single-handedly sail across the Atlantic.

Published by Peter Davis, London, 1951. Octavo, 248 pages, two photographs of Ann and Frank … it was not that sort of adventure. Very good condition.

The Last Voyage begins with her earlier life as an aviator in the 1930’s delivering mail around the UK. She married Frank Davison a fellow aviator when they both worked at the Hooten airfield near Liverpool. They has a long held ambition for sailing and bought a run-down 70 foot ketch “Reliance”. Doing it up sent them broke and before the work was finished they sailed to avoid their creditors. They encountered incredible storms in the Channel and the Irish Sea … they foundered on the Portland Bill. Taking to their cork life raft they battled to survive and Frank died out of pure exhaustion ..

Now scarce and one of the most personal accounts we have read.

$35.00

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The Early Maps of Colombia up to 1850 – Kit S. Kapp

Maps of the Canary Islands Published before 1850 – C Broekema

The Maps and Prints of Paolo Forlani – Woodward – A Newberry Library Production 1990

The Crossing of the Copula – Jean Filloux – First English Edition 1955

The Kon-Tiki Expedition – Thor Heyerdahl (With Original Photograph of the Raft)

Last Voyage – Ann Davison – First edition 1951

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