Results 9 - 16 of 72 results

Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 - James Bruce of Kinnaird

1790 - Printed by J. Ruthven, Edinburgh - First Edition
A superior set of the first edition in five large and finely bound volumes, one of the great annals of travel and explorations in Africa, a cornerstone of any collection of Africana. In addition to the three large folding copper-engraved maps, there are fifty-eight copper-engraved plates (four of which are maps or battle plans) and seven pages of Ethiopic language.

A Scotsman with ability and education, James Bruce, 1730-1794, was appointed the English consul to Algiers, serving for two years before resigning to roam North Africa investigating architectural ruins. Following this preparation, he set off to fulfil his great ambition, to discover the source of the Nile. His travels into Abyssinia, a remarkable solo undertaking, resulted in the present body of work which not only includes the narrative of his travels but also comments on the history and religion of Egypt, an account of Indian trade, a history of Abyssinia and other such material.

The DNB notes that while Bruce would not be confused with "a great scholar or a judicious critic..., few books of equal compass are equally entertaining; and few such monuments exist of the energy and enterprise of a single traveller." The many engraved plates are finely executed, and present primarily the flora and fauna encountered by Bruce on his travels.
 
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Price HK$ 50,000



Sick Heart River - John Buchan

1941 - Hodder Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of Buchan’s last book, published posthumously.

The review in the April 1941 edition of Punch sums it up nicely:-

‘"
If thou hast a woe, tell it not to the weakling, tell it to thy saddle-bow, and ride singing forth." John Buchan took this Proverb of Alfred as text for his book Sick Heart River (Hodder and Stoughton, 8/3) which is as good a sermon to lift the downhearted as has ever been given in the form of a novel. When Sir Edward Leithen, a former British Attorney-General, received his notice of death from a specialist, "his memory sprawled over places he had seen" and he decided to go to Quebec to make his soul and to "die standing". One journey led to another in quest of a famous French-Canadian who, in a mood of mental sickness, had suddenly left his wife and important office in New York; and was "wanted" by American people because of his genius over international affairs. The tale that follows of two white men, their half-breed guides and some "Hare Indians", their fight with and against Nature in a lonely place is soul-stirring in more than one way and makes as brave a book as the late Governor-General of Canada ever gave us.’

The fictional Sick Heart River is in the real region of the Nahanni River in Canada's Northwest Territories. It is in some of the most rugged terrain in Canada. The area was only just being mapped when Buchan, as Governor-General Lord Tweedsmuir, passed nearby during his voyage down the Mackenzie River in the summer of 1937. Having heard much about the mysterious South Nahanni, Buchan was fascinated by it and wanted to go there, but did not make it before he died in February, 1940. [Galbraith, 2001]
 
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Price HK$ 3,500



Travels in Nubia - John Lewis Burckhardt

1819 - John Murray, London - First Edition
Illustrated with an engraved portrait and three maps, two of which are folding.

Edited from Burckhardt's journals by Lieutenant Colonel William Martin Leake (1777-1860); he also wrote the biographical memoir which is prefaces the ‘Travels’. John Lewis Burckhardt of Kirshgarten (1784-1817) was a pioneering Swiss explorer who is best remembered for his rediscovery of the ancient city of Petra in modern Jordan.

In 1809 Burckhardt was commissioned by the African Association and their president, Sir Joseph Banks, to discover the source of the River Niger. Posing as a Muslim convert and going by the name of Sheikh Ibrahim he spent two years exploring and studying Arabic and Islamic law in Aleppo, before travelling widely in Arabia and Egypt This volume, first published posthumously in 1819, contains Burckhardt's account of his two visits to Nubia (modern Upper Egypt and Sudan) in 1813 and 1814. Burckhardt was the first western scholar to explore the Sudanese Nile valley, and one of the first western explorers successfully to cross the Nubian Desert. In this valuable volume, he describes in fascinating detail the many ancient ruins along the Nile and the logistics and hardships of his desert crossing. [CUP]

On his return to Cairo, Burckhardt, unable to set off for the Niger, compiled his journals into books which he sent to London for publication. He died in 1817 of dysentery and is buried in a Muslim cemetery under the name of Ibrahim ibn Abdallah.

In an article on Burckhardt published in 1973, Professor William Adams wrote of his first journey to Dongola in the Sudan, ‘I doubt if any ethnographer in history ever returned from a five-week field trip into totally unfamiliar country with a more balanced and comprehensive account’. [DEI].
 
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Price HK$ 9,000



Atlas, Designed to Illustrate the Geography of the Heavens - Elijah H. Burritt

1835 - F. J. Huntington and Co., New York - New Edition
A large early 19th century decorative celestial atlas containing stunning hand-coloured engraved plates (1 double page and 7 full page), and a two page black and white plate engraved plate ‘Exhibiting the Relative Magnitudes, Distances and Positions of the Different Bodies which Compose the Solar System’.

Scarce, especially in this condition. First published in 1833, this ‘New edition’ is actually a thoroughly revised edition with newly engraved maps by W. G. Evans.
 
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Price HK$ 12,000



The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Richard F. Burton, Leonard C. Smithers (editor)

1894 - H. S. Nichols &, London - The Library Edition
A magnificent twelve volume set of Burton’s outstanding work of translation. ‘As a monument of his Arabic learning and his encyclopaedic knowledge of Eastern life this was his greatest achievement’ [Encyclopaedia Britannica]. The first editions to be published by Nichols and edited by Leonard Smithers, in bright intricately gilt decorated bindings.

This edition followed on from Lady Burton’s disastrous 1886 abridged six volume edition (without the naughty bits or ‘
Supplemental Nights’) and the original Kamashastra Society of 1885 edition whose facsimile title pages are inserted in their correct places (as Nichols fits the original sixteen volumes into twelve for this set).

‘...But when it was midnight Shahrázád awoke and signalled to her sister Dunyázád who sat up and said, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, recite to us some new story, delightsome and delectable wherewith to while away the waking hours of our latter night." "With joy and goodly gree," answered Shahrázád, "if this pious and auspicious King permit me." "Tell on," quoth the King who chanced to be sleepless and restless and therefore was pleased with the prospect of hearing her story.’ 
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Price HK$ 8,000



The Commentaries of Caesar, Translated into English. To which is prefixed a Discourse Concerning the Roman Art of War - Caius Julius Caesar, William Duncan

1753 - J. &, London - First Edition
The magnificent folio edition of Cæsar's Commentaries, translated and with preliminary matter by William Duncan, with a superb array of 86 copper-engraved plates including six maps, most double-page.

These include the scarce fold-out "Bull" plate (
The Ursus or Buffalo) and The Battle with Elephants. Together with numerous finely engraved battle plans, depictions of the various peoples conquered by Cæsar (Picts, Druids, Gauls, Germans, etc.), maps of the regions occupied, etc.

This is thought by many as the finest edition of Caesar's commentaries in English.
 
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Price HK$ 95,000



The Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers

1903 - Smith, London - First Edition, First Impression
A crisp, clean and rare first edition, finely bound.

Written after Childers, an accomplished yachtsman, returned injured from action in South Africa. Highlighting the encroaching conflict with Germany, the novel was highly influential and is actually credited with the founding of British naval bases at Invergordon and Scapa Flow; newly regarded as strategically important after examination of the scenarios in Childers' text. Winston Churchill later gave the book the credit for persuading public opinion to fund vital measures against the German naval threat.

Contentiously described as the first modern spy thriller, vying for the title with Kipling's '
Kim', published two years earlier. 
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Price HK$ 21,000



Savrola. A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania. - Sir Winston Spencer Churchill

1900 - Longmans, London - First English Edition
A clean, crisp copy in a beautiful recent leather binding.

Written when Churchill was 23 and first appearing in serial form in ‘
Macmillan's Magazine’, Savrola was Churchill's only novel. It embodies his early personal philosophy on life, which was to govern his later military and political career.

‘For those who know of his later exploits, it provides an amazing foreshadowing of events in his own life. Though the plot is sometimes clumsy, there are flashes of poignancy in his prose that are deeply insightful for a man of his age.’
 
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Price HK$ 11,500



 
Results 9 - 16 of 72 results