Toby Tortoise And The Hare: DISNEY, Walt

Very scarce Australian edition. $150

 

 

 

 

 

Rhododendron Hybrids; A Guide To Their Origins: SALLEY, Homer E.; GREER, Harold E.

B.T.Batsford, London, 1986. A comprehensive survey of the parentage of more than 5000 hybrids of rhododendrons by two of the world’s leading rhodophiles. $180

 

The Encyclopedia of Rhododendron Species: COX, Peter A.; COX, Kenneth N.E.

Glendoick Publishing, Scotland, 1997. The Cox family has been central to Rhododendron cultivation for over 90 years. This text, one of many published by Peter Cox, is his magnum opus. Kenneth Cox is his son and continues the family’s work at Glendoick. $160

 

The Book Of The Thousand Nights And A Night; A Plain And Literal Translation Of The Arabian Nights Entertainments [complete set of 16 vols]: BURTON, Richard F.

The Burton Club, nd (c1950s). Richard Burton was one of the foremost linguists of his time and an explorer, poet, translator, ethnologist, and archaeologist as well. This translation is the most famous of all his many works and reflects his encyclopaedic knowledge of Arabic language, sexual practices and life.

This reprint was printed privately by The Burton Club for subscribers and is a complete set of ten volumes plus six supplementary volumes. $950

A History Of The Georgian People From The Beginning Down To The Russian Conquest In The Nineteenth Century: ALLEN, W.E.D.

Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1971. This classic history text of Georgia and the Caucasus is predominantly an overview of the region’s political history from 1000 to 1800 and includes aspects of social history, art and literature. The author is also known for focussing on a more specific time period in his two-volume work Russian Embassies to the Georgian Kings (1589-1605). $125

 

A History Of Eton College (1440-1910): LYTE, Sir H.C. Maxwell

Macmillan & Co, London, 1911. This fourth edition (revised and greatly enlarged) has some superb illustrations; Henry VI portrait frontispiece (from the original picture at Eton), plus title-vignette, two coloured plates, seven monochrome plates in photogravure (from original  drawings by Mr. Frederick L. Griggs), 62 engraved illustrations in the text and a folding coloured map of Eton.

Splendidly bound in full morocco by royal printers Spottiswoode, it is a signed presentation copy from Eton master E.L. Vaughan who went on to found the Eton Wick Scouts in 1914. $400

The Conquest Of The Stratosphere: PHILP, Chas. G.

Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, London, 1937. Following on from Philp’s landmark Stratosphere and Rocket Flight (Astronautics), this intriguing text covers the space race as it was in the ’30s – intrinsically focussed on sending balloons up as high as they could go! $300

The Herschels and Modern Astronomy: CLERKE, Agnes M.

Cassell & Co, London, 1895. Part of The Century Science Series. This much-heralded biography examines the lives and achievements of Sir Frederick William Herschel (1738-1822), most famous for his discovery of Uranus; his sister Caroline (1750-1848), who discovered eight comets, eleven nebulae and updated Flamsteed’s work detailing the position of stars; and his son Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), who named seven moons of Saturn, four moons of Uranus and became the first Baronet of Slough.

Agnes Clerke (1842-1907) was herself an accomplished astronomer and highly regarded writer who won the Actonian Prize in 1893. This is a rare first edition copy of her biography on this famous family. $110

India; Historical And Descriptive. Revised and enlarged from ‘les voyages celebres’ with an account of The Sepoy Mutiny in 1857-8: EDEN, Charles

Marcus Ward & Co, London, 1876. Charles Eden (1839-1900) was an Australian public servant who wrote many books on exploration and travel, including the controversial My Wife and I in Queensland, which gave a disenchanted account of colonial life. This is the first edition of his work on the history of India. $110

The I Ching or Book Of Changes [two volumes]

Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, London, 1960. This is the highly regarded Richard Wilhelm translation (Chinese to German) rendered into English by Cary F Baynes.

The I Ching, also known as the Book of Changes, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts and has influenced countless philosophers, artists and even businesspeople throughout history. In China the I Ching had two distinct functions; firstly as a compendium of ancient cosmic principles, and secondly as a divination text.

Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930) performed translations of many philosophical works from Chinese into German, of which this is still regarded as one of the finest. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, who provided the foreword for this book, was a personal friend. $100

D.D.Home; His Life And Mission: HOME, Mme Dunglas; DOYLE, Sir Arthur Conan (editor)

Kegan Paul & Co, London, 1921. Daniel Dunglas Home (1833-1886) has been called the greatest physical medium in history and conducted hundreds of séances, attended by many eminent Victorians. He had the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was a noted spiritualist (and early member of The Ghost Club), stated that Home was unusual in that he had four different types of mediumship: direct voice (the ability to let spirits audibly speak); trance speaker (the ability to let spirits speak through oneself); clairvoyant (ability to see things that are out of view); and physical medium(moving objects at a distance, levitation, etc).

This is the first edition of Doyle’s reworking of Julie de Gloumeline’s (Mme Home) book of the same name. $350

John Harrison. The Man Who Discovered Longitude: QUILL, Humphrey