Non-fiction

The Travels of Marco Polo – Manuel Komroff

Our favourite edition of the Travels of Marco Polo edited and introduction by Manuel Komroff.

Published by Garden City, New York, a first in this form 1930. Large royal octavo, xxxii, 370 pages including the index. Embossed black cloth covered boards with gilt titles and design to spine. Dust jacket complete but protected in unremovable protection. Top edge stained blue as required. Illustrated by Witold Gordon with 32 full page coloured designs. A little age and a few spots – still a very worthy copy.

The work leans on two earlier translations by British orientalists. First, that of William Marsden (1754-1836) published in 1818 … importantly Komroff identifies a missing part of this work. Secondly, that of Yule (1820-1889) published by Murray in 1871 elements of which Komroff provides important revisions.

After an excellent 32 page introduction the work follows the traditional plan … Prologue … Book I – Account of Regions Visited or Heard of On the Journey from the Lessor Armenia to the Court of the Great Khan at Shangtu; Book II – Account of the Great Kublai Khan, His Capital, Court and Government. Also, of Cities and Provenances Visited on Journeys Westward and Southward; Book III – Japan and Archipelago, Southern India, and the Coasts and Islands of the Indian Sea; Book IV – The Wars Among the Tartar Princes and Some Account of the Northern Countries. Index etc

New York born, Manuel Komroff (1890-1974) was a multi-talented writer and translator. He spent time in Russia during the Russian Revolution. The illustrator, Witold Gordon (1885-1968) was born at Warsaw and after emigrating to New York became a recognised artist. At the time of this book he was commissioned to do the murals at the Radio City Music Hall and in 1939 completed a 6,000 square foot mural for the New York World Fair. The works in this book are considered his finest examples of his modernist aesthetic style.

Marco Polo – The Best Travels – Nicely Illustrated.

$90.00

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Modern Cottage Architecture [By Various Architects] – Maurice Adams – First Edition 1904.

Published by Batsford, London in 1904, First Edition. Quarto, 29 pages after preliminaries followed by 50 full page plates of external views and floor layouts. Printed on thick heavy paper which makes the plates more manageable and has kept them in fine condition despite handling.

Editor Maurice Adams provides an introductory essay on “Cottage Building and Notes on the Subjects”. He was author of “Artists Homes” [nice idea] and “Old English Homes”

Not the book for a modernist or “Block” follower but a super book for those that salivate over unique English country home. Cottage not to be confused with a tiny house – some of these clearly in the Mansion category.

[Not so] Modern Cottage Architecture – wish we had one

$120.00

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First Fleet Journal – Collins – An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, with Remarks on the Dispositions, Customs, Manners etc of the Native Inhabitants of That Country, to which is Added some Particulars of New Zealand from the MSS of Lieutenant Governor King: and an Account of a Voyage performed by Captain Flinders and Mr Bass; by which the Existence of a Strait separating Van Diemen’s Land from the Continent of New Holland was ascertained. Abstracted from the Journal of Mr Bass.

Published London 1804 by T. Cadell Jnr and W Davies, The Strand. Second edition edited and abridged by Maria Collins [Collin’s wife] from the original work and augmented with new information available.

Quarto, xx, 562 pages with 8 engraved in-text illustrations [2 original hand colouring]; plus 24 engraved plates [three original hand colouring] and 2 maps – one folding. Bound in full speckled calf in period style by Perry. Gilt title on separate red leather title label, alternating maritime gilt decorations to compartments between five raised bands. List of engravings and instructions to binder – ticked off by a careful reviewer. Some minor signs of cropping but nothing disturbing, the magnificent black and white full-page plates are bright and clean. Coloured plates show some age and are truly magnificent.

This account is the last published of the First Fleet Journals. In its content and style, it represents the earliest history of Australia as an English Colonial settlement … the others being more personal narratives. The fine engravings taken from water colours by Edward Dayes who in turn took them from drawings by convict artist Thomas Watling.

David Collins was Secretary to First Governor Arthur Phillip. At an early age he had joined the Marines and had seen action in the American War of Independence. In 1786 he volunteered for the First Fleet as Deputy Judge Advocate in the Marines. After two years instructions were received that the Marines were to return to England. Collins decided to remain at some personal cost. On Phillip’s departure in 1792 he stayed and helped hold the fort until Hunter arrived in 1795. Collins left the next year and two years later this account was published. From his central role he was in the perfect position to chronicle the events at the Colony as they unfolded.

The chart of the Colony comprises the Three Harbours of Botany Bay, Port Jackson and Broken Bay and the cultivated grounds in and around the different settlements, with the Course of the Rivers Hawkesbury and Nepean.

Frontispiece of David Collins in his regalia.

The fine full page views include … the Governor’s House at Rose Hill; by Water to Parramatta with a distant view of the Western Mountains; Eastern view of Sydney; Western View of Sydney Cove; Direct South View of Sydney; South East View of Sydney including the Church; North View of Sydney Cove; The Brick Field, or High Road to Parramatta; View of Sydney in Norfolk Island;

There is also an unusual folding chart of New Zealand drawn by Too-gee.

Of further interest is Collin’s sympathetic comments regarding the aboriginal people and his lengthy Appendix is a special work in itself … he covers their Government and Religion; Stature and Appearance; Habitations; Mode of Living; Courtship and Marriage; Customs and Manners; Superstitions; Diseases; Property; Dispositions; Funeral Ceremonies and Language. The nine full size engraved plates are extra special and represent the very first ethnographically accurate portrayal of the Aboriginal inhabitants of the Sydney region.

Collins First Fleet Journal with its Fine set of Engravings

$1,790.00

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Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure – Dish decorated in Lotus, Lingzhi and Peach – 1822

Qing Dynasty decorated dish recovered by Mike Hatcher from the Tek Sing shipwreck of 1822. Nice condition.

Beautifully decorated with bands of lotus flower around a central spiral and set in alternate designs of lingzhi fungus and fruiting peach. Similar decorations to external rim, potters mark at bottom. Bright and clean. 15cm in diameter 6cm high, weighs 220gm. Retains Nagel auction sticker.

Price $240.00

Bright well decorated treasure from the Tek Sing
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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

$240.00

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Daphnis et Chloe By Longus with aquarelles by G. P. Jornard – Surely the world’s prettiest book

Published on the Champs-Elysees, Paris in the 1920’s by Editions Nilsson.

This superb book contains six mounted watercolours (aquarelles) that match the quality of the watercolour adorning this beautiful onion skin paper front cover.

Small quarto, 154 pages. This book often found as effectively a soft cover – this copy hard bound, pretty basic half red cloth over brown papered boards, top edge gilt. Whilst we say basic it’s done a good job in protecting the aquarelles … the odd bit of spotting in the text. Overall, a very worthwhile copy.

A Greek pastoral novel written by Longus during the second century AD. Based on the island of Lesbos a young couple having been brought up adopted by a goat herder and a shepherd respectively having been abandoned at birth eventually find love. It was a difficult road but it ends well.

The artist was Germaine Paule Jounard, she was a highly respected artist of the period and completed many illustrations particularly for the frencg fashion industry at the time.

What better romantic gift than this

French 1920’s with beauty and style

$190.00

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Queensland Royal Geographical Society Journal – Diamond Jubilee Issue 1885-1945. Interesting Papua New Guinea content – Including the Kokoda Trail

The journal as published by the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Queensland). Octavo, soft wrappers, 113 pages after preliminaries, folding chart, images from period photographs, sketch map of Papua New Guinea etc. A very good copy bar innocent marks to the covers … pretty clean and bright inside.

After various historic introductions articles re “Queensland Pastures – Their Development and Improvement; Across Papua’s Mighty Delta by A.L. Ethell; Irrigation (Queensland); The Interior of Eastern Papua by Captain Vernon – which describes the immediately post war Kokoda with interesting observations

Nicely illustrated and with a fold out sketch map from Bootless Bay (near Port Moresby) to Buna showing a vertical cross section of the Kokoda track.

A special issue of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Queensland) Journal with particular interest to New Guinea collectors and readers.

$60.00

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The Travels of Marco Polo – Manuel Komroff

Modern Cottage Architecture [By Various Architects] – Maurice Adams – First Edition 1904.

Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure – Dish decorated in Lotus, Lingzhi and Peach – 1822

Daphnis et Chloe By Longus with aquarelles by G. P. Jornard – Surely the world’s prettiest book

Queensland Royal Geographical Society Journal – Diamond Jubilee Issue 1885-1945. Interesting Papua New Guinea content – Including the Kokoda Trail

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