Antiquarian Book News

Help preserve the most detailed list of Britain's place names

The National Library of Scotland is a partner in a new online project titled GB1900. The project calls for British-based volunteers to help make sure local place-names can live on rather than be lost for ever. GB1900 aims to create a complete list of over three million place-names on early Ordnance Survey maps of Britain dating between 1888 and 1913.

These maps show every town, village, farm, hill and wood in Scotland and the rest of Britain, but there are no detailed listings of their place names. When completed, the project will provide the world's largest ever historical gazetteer — a valuable free resource, particularly for local and family historians. Learn more at www.gb1900.org/

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Original Tube Map on Display

Recognised across the world, the London Tube map was originally the brainchild of underground electrical draughtsman, Harry Beck, who produced the imaginative but simple design in 1933. Beck based his map on the circuit diagrams he drew for his day job; stripping the sprawling Tube network down to a neat diagram of coloured, criss-cross lines.

Beck’s map was initially rejected by the publicity department because it was considered too radical but a successful trial print-run showed that it was just what the public wanted. The result was an instantly clear and comprehensible chart that would become an essential guide to London and a template for transport maps the world over. Beck’s design, with certain modifications and additions, survives to the present day.

‘Maps and the 20th century: Drawing the Line’ is at the British Library at King’s Cross from 4 November 2016 until 1 March 2016. Visit www.bl.uk

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AntiquarianAuctions.com

Auction #54 Highlights

Auction Running from 6 to 13 October

AntiquarianAuctions.com is an online auction site dedicated to the sale of rare and out-of print books, maps & prints, documents, letters, ephemera and vintage photography.
All pricing is done in US$. No buyer's premium is charged.

Lot 1
Daniell (Samuel), African Scenery and Animals
Published: London, 1804-1805
First edition, 2 parts in one volume, 2 aquatint title (dedication) pages with sepia wash, 30 fine hand-coloured aquatint plates by Samuel and William Daniell, with accompanying text (text of three plates per page), later half calf with marbled paper sides secured with ties – the edges of the paper are worn, bookplate of the Westdean Library on front paste-down endpaper and the shelf mark of the Octagon Library R9. W1935, the aquatint plates are delicately coloured and in unusually good state.
Abbey (J.R.) Travel in Aquatint and Lithography 1770-1860, Volume I, no. 321, describes this folio as follows, "In Mendelssohn's opinion this is 'the scarcest and most valuable of the large atlas folios of South African illustrations.' Samuel Daniell arrived at the Cape on 9 December 1799. He was appointed by Lieutentant-General Dundas, who became his patron there, and to whom the first volume (part) is dedicated, to act as secretary to a mission to the 'Booshuanas'. The expedition eventually reached Lataku, at that time the limit of European exploration, and was the source for Daniell of the plates."
Estimate: $60,000/70,000

Lot 3 Barrow (John), A Voyage to Cochinchina in the Years 1792 & 1793
Published: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, London, 1806
xviii, (i directions for the placing of the plates), 447 pages, 18 hand coloured aquatint plates after by W. Alexander and Samuel Daniell, engraved by T. Medland, 1 folding hand coloured aquatint plate, 2 double page maps of Rio de Janeiro and Southern Africa, contemporary sprinkled calf sides (worn at the corners) rebacked and with a maroon title label (the leather used is of less good quality and is dry and is fraying at the top and bottom of the spine), without the half title page, plates, maps and contents bright, a very good copy.
Abbey (J.R.) Travel, in Aquatint and Lithography, 1770-1860, number 514 (pages 469/70), 'Barrow probably met Samuel Daniell while at the Cape…. The aquatinting is of excellent quality, number 10 in particular being technically interesting, since it appears to be printed in as many as three colours with one colour added by hand, while number 11 is printed in green, with other colours added by hand.'
Estimate: $2,000/3,000

Lot 28 Mandela (Nelson), Long Walk to Freedom (De-luxe edition)
Published: Little, Brown & Company, London, 1994
Special De Luxe issue of the First Edition. 630 pages, numerous photographic illustrations, maps as endpapers, quarter black leather titled gilt on the spine, green cloth sides, top edge gilt, number 548 of an edition of 1000 copies signed by the author on the limitation page, a fine copy, published without a dust jacket.
Estimate: $750/1,000

Lot 101 Lotter (Tobia) Africae pars meridionalis
Published: Augsburg, 1778
A beautifully coloured map of Southern Africa was produced by Tobias Lotter [1717-1777], probably published in his Atlas geographique. A dedication is displayed on a cartouche above the inset of the Castle. The map was dedicated to William I, Elector of Hesse (1743 –1821) by Issak Augustus Jassoy, a merchant from Hanover. The map is printed on two pages that have been joined.
The map is not geographically an advance; it contains interesting information from the Dutch settlement but has an inaccurate coastline and seems to retain some remnants from the old Ptolemaic geography. It indicates ruins of Portuguese and Dutch Forts beside the Spiritu Santo and Marquis Rivers
Estimate: $550/650

Lot 119
Isaacs (Nathaniel) Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa
Published: Edward Churton, London, 1836
Two volumes, 356 + 402 pages, lithographic frontispiece in each volume, 1 lithographic plate of 'Chaka King of the Zoolos', modern half maroon morocco with matching cloth boards, spine titled gilt and faded, light foxing on the text and the plates, uncut edges, a good copy.
Louis Herman: 'What is known of the life story of Nathaniel Isaacs presents a strange contrast to the background of respectable, bourgeois, Anglo-Jewish families of Kent whence he issued. Natal pioneer and explorer, ivory hunter and trader, temporary subject of Chaka, and courtier at the Great Kraal, this would-be empire builder begins a fresh career at the age of 24 on the west coast of Africa. There as merchant and shipper and proprietor of a tiny island, his activities, not all creditable, are hardly less remarkable; and in the end, he retires and settles down in England two years before his death as "Nathaniel Isaacs of Kentville, Egremont, in the County of Chester, Gentleman."'
Estimate: $1,250/1,500

Lot 179 Churchill (Winston) My African Journey
Published: Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1908
First edition: 226 pages + (18) publisher's list, frontispiece of Mr Churchill and the rhinoceros at Simba, 3 maps, 1 folding, 37 black and white plates, 24 illustrations, text lightly foxed, original pictorial red cloth, a good copy.
Czech (Kenneth) An Annotated Bibliography of Big Game Hunting Books 1785-1999 page 62: This was originally published in a shorter version as several articles in the British periodical, The Strand in early 1908. Churchill crossed British East Africa via the Uganda Railroad reaching Kampala and beginning his safari. At Simbax Station oryx and rhino were hunted. After arrivng at Murchison Falls, he bagged a white rhino. His party continued along the White Nile where hippo, waterbuck reedbuck and roan were collected with Col Wilson of the hunting party bagging an elephant.
Estimate: $200/250

Lot 191
Fitzpatrick (Percy) Through Mashonaland with Pick and Pen
Published: Argus Printing and Publishing Company Limited, Johannesburg, 1892
The first book to be published on the Rand. It was printed by the Argus and Fitzpatrick could not pay the printing bill; consequently copies of the book remained in the Argus warehouse where many were destroyed. See Godfrey Enchanted Door, page 89.
Dictionary of South African Biography, volume 1, page 292, 'Fitzpatrick was invited by Alfred Beit to organise a tour to be made by Lord Randolph Churchill through Bechuanaland and Mashonaland. His letters about this journey, first printed in the Cape Argus and Johannesburg Star, were collected in 1892 in his first book, 'Through Mashonaland with Pick & Pen.'
Estimate: $500/600

Lot 153 Van Riebeeck Society – First Series – Complete Set of 50 Volumes
Published: Van Riebeeck Society, Cape Town, 1918-1969
A complete set of the First Series, 50 volumes in the original light grey cloth as published by the Society. The volumes are mostly historical, biographical or deal with colonial issues, travel, exploration, big game hunting, administration, frontier wars, native tribes, etc.
Estimate: $900/1,000

AntiquarianAuctions.com is an online auction site dedicated to the sale of rare and out-of print books, maps & prints, documents, letters, ephemera and vintage photography.

Dealers and collectors worldwide have been selling and bidding on the site since 2010. Only established booksellers who are members of major national trade associations such as ABA, ABAA, PBFA or SABDA or are of good standing in the trade are permitted to sell on the site.

Auctions are held every five weeks and run on the model of a timed auction for one week. All pricing is done in US$. No buyer's premium is charged.

Next auction: Auction #55: 7–14 November 2016

Contact: Antiquarian Auctions: Paul Mills P.O. Box 186 7848 Constantia, Cape Town South Africa
E-mail: support@antiquarianauctions.com Tel: +27 21 794 0600

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