Cape Town: South African Vigilance Committee, 1900. Octavo booklet, 58pp. (last blank), a good copy in original printed wrappers; Mitchell library duplicate copy with a few discreet stamps. The stated object of the South African Vigilance Committee was 'To set forth to the British public the necessity for the prosecution... More
Paris: chez Buisson, 1787.
First edition in French
Two volumes, quarto, with a folding map and 16 engraved plates, some folding; contemporary mottled calf. Cook's second voyage and travels in South Africa, by the famous Swedish naturalist. This is the first edition in French, the most profusely illustrated of the... More
London: Edward Moxon, 1850. Octavo, a fine copy in a handsome mid nineteenth-century polished half calf prize binding, ornate gilt spine with crimson morocco label. A handsomely bound collection of treasured voyage and travel accounts. The volume includes four classic narratives: Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, Cleveland's Voyages and... More
London: William Day, 1854.
The charm of Table Bay
Lithographed plan; 340 x 425 mm. Attractive English map of Cape Town, showing the street plan of the city with detail of public parks and thoroughfares, the waterfront onto Table Bay, cemeteries, hospitals, quarries and the like. The lower portion of... More
Paris: Libraire Ethnographique, 1847.
Pacific warriors in brilliant colour
Quarto, with a total of 55 handcoloured plates (six of which are browned), in publisher's black quarter roan with gilt lettering. Vibrantly handcoloured mid-nineteenth-century French book on native customs and costumes, with a substantial section treating Australia, New Zealand and the... More
London: Alexander Heylin, 1855.
Natal ten years after colonisation
Octavo, three folding maps and numerous illustrations, including four tinted-lithographed plates; half red morocco by Sangorski. A few light pencilled notes of a previous owner. Nice complete copy of an early sought-after history of Natal. The appendix includes discussion of the... More
Paris: Hachette, 1886. Two volumes, octavo, folding map; copy in later quarter calf. Includes accounts of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria. More
London: W. Faden, 1822.
"Fine pasture country, uninhabited and considered as neutral ground"
Engraved chart, hand coloured; 605 x 890 mm. Detailed topographic map of the Albany district (present day South Africa) presenting a wilderness mapped but largely untamed. This map was published by William Faden (1749-1836), one of the... More
Paris: Ch. Noblet, n.d., but, 1842.
Rare visual record of the last voyage of the Artémise.
Oblong folio, with 25 engraved plates; a very good copy in original crimson cloth, lettered and decorated in black and gilt. A scarce series of views of places visited by Laplace's Artémise voyage, bearing... More
London: John Murray, 1857.
Unequalled contribution to African geography
Large octavo, engraved portrait and 23 plates (including folding frontispiece view), two folding maps by Arrowsmith (one in pocket at rear), numerous wood engraved illustrations through the text; original brown cloth. The most famous account of African exploration, recording three years... More
London: Hutchinson & Co. 1892.
Inland explorer, and governor of New Zealand
Two volumes, octavo, each with engraved portrait frontispiece; an appealing set in original cloth. Standard biography of Grey, explorer and pre-eminent colonial administrator of South Australia, Cape Colony, and New Zealand. This set is a presentation copy from... More
New Zealand: H. Brett of Lake Takapuna, 1892.
Inscribed by Sir George Grey
Octavo, black & white illustrations including portrait frontispiece; original blue cloth; inscribed by George Grey to Sir Davenport on separate slip of paper tipped-in. Inscribed by Sir George Grey 'To Sir R. Davenport, K.C.M.G. with the best... More
Paris: Buisson, 1787.
First French edition
Three volumes, octavo, with a folding chart and 15 engraved folding plates; contemporary French quarter calf, flat spines with double labels. An attractive copy of the first octavo edition in French, published simultaneously with a quarto edition. Sparrman, professor of zoology at Uppsala University... More
Paris: 1790.
Revised French version.
Octavo, two works together; quarter polished calf, rubbed, spine gilt in compartments with morocco label. The second, considerably changed, Letellier version of Tench's account. Letellier had also published a version in 1789: it is not clear whether his edition or that published by Knapen the... More
London: Richard Bentley, 1849.
Hunting wild boar in Hawaii
Two volumes, octavo, frontispieces, vignettes; original blind decorated blue cloth. A lively and talkative account of the Pacific and western coast of America in the 1840s. The Collingwood stopped at the Hawaiian Islands, Mexico and California, as well as other South... More