Search results for: 'the works'
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SUTHERLAND, James. The Adventures of an Elephant Hunter.London : 1912
"One of the classics of African big game hunting" (Czech). First edition, first impression, with an apposite provenance: ownership inscription to front pastedown of Thomas Pinchard Kempson (1855-1941), who is mentioned in Rowland Ward's Records of Big Game (1910) and in the Kenya Gazette for 1912 as being based in Nairobi and one of several individuals... Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 143131
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MATHERS, Edward Peter. Zambesia: England's El Dorado in Africa,London : 1891
First edition. Author's presentation copy inscribed on the front free endpaper; "Frank Taylor Esq. With the author's compliments". Essentially a much needed collation of all known information regarding the area that became Rhodesia and, as such, the work went through several editions. "There is a full account of the Mashonas and Matabeles, and also... Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 125011
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BURTON, John H. (ed.) The Darien Papers: being a Selection of original Letters and official Documents relating to the Establishment of a Colony at Darien by the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies. 1695-1700.Edinburgh : 1849
First edition of this printing of the letters and documents relating to the ill-fated Darien Scheme, Scotland's aborted attempt to found a colony, leading to bankruptcy and necessitating the Act of Union with England. The Bannatyne Club was founded by Walter to Scott to print rare works of Scottish interest, printing 116 volumes between its founding... Learn More£1,100.00Stock Code: 125768
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PARK, Mungo. Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa:London : 1799 & 1815
First edition of the first work, second and best edition of the posthumous Journal of a Mission (same year as the first). "Until the publication of Park's book in 1799 hardly anything was known of the interior of Africa, apart from the north-east region and coastal areas... Having sent out four expeditions to the Niger, all of which had failed, the... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 132557
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HARRIS, William Cornwallis. Narrative of an Expedition into Southern Africa, during the Years 1836, and 1837,Bombay : 1838
First issue of the first Bombay edition, which predates the first London by a year, "scarce" (Czech). Harris was commissioned in the Bombay Engineers in 1823, promoted captain in 1834 and major in 1836. Invalided to South Africa for two years, on the voyage out he joined up with Richard Williamson, a Bombay civil servant, deciding to undertake a big... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 98148
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LIVINGSTONE, David. A portion of the original manuscript of Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa,London : 1857
A remarkable fragment, the only portion of the original manuscript of Missionary Travels known to remain in private hands. We understand that all other manuscript material is held in the John Murray Archive at the National Library of Scotland. Together with an autograph letter signed from Livingstone's sister, sending the manuscript fragment, and a... Learn More£65,000.00Stock Code: 139047
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HORSBURGH, James. The India Directory, or, Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, Australia, and the Interjacent Ports of Africa and South America.London : 1841-43
Scarce fifth edition of this important and justly famous publication, much enlarged in successive editions from the first of 1809-11, which was to become the standard manual for the eastern navigation; this copy with an excellent nautical pedigree, having passed through the hands of a trio of American sea captains.
Provenance: mounted on a preliminary... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 139134
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HORSBURGH, James. The India Directory, or, Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, Australia, and the Interjacent Ports of Africa and South America.London : 1841-43
An exceptionally well-preserved copy, presented here in an American naval officer's portable book box - as such remarkably uncommon - with the additional appeal of a series of original holograph coastal profiles. This is the fifth edition of this important publication, much enlarged in successive editions from the first of 1809-11, which was to become... Learn More£30,000.00Stock Code: 126537
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THOMPSON, George. Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa.London : 1827
Second edition; same year as the first. One of the most valuable works on South Africa published in the early nineteenth century, the present work was written by George Thompson, a British merchant living in Cape Town for many years as the representative of a British company. Between 1823 and 1824, he set out to explore the north-eastern parts of the... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 94259
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POSTLETHWAYT, Malachy. In Honour to the Administration. The Importance of the African Expedition considered: with Copies of the Memorials,London : 1758
First edition of a work promoting the Africa trade by Malachy Postlethwayt (1707-1767), writer and government publicist under Robert Walpole's administration, from 1743-46 a member of the Royal Africa Company, and compiler of the Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. "The trade of Africa, as well to the French as the English, is the great foundation... Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 121137
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PARK, Mungo. Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa:London : 1816 & 1815
A new edition of the first work, and second edition of the second work. This lively narrative "had an immediate success. It has become a classic of travel literature, and its scientific observations on the botany and meteorology of the region, and on the social and domestic life of the indigenous peoples, have remained of lasting value" (PMM).
"Written... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 121842
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BROWNE, William George. Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the Year 1792 to 1798.London : 1806
Second edition, enlarged, first published in 1799. "This important work contains the earliest information in English about Darfur (Sudan). Browne, inspired by Bruce's travels, went to Egypt in 1792 hoping to explore the oases in the eastern Sahara and to journey to the source of the White Nile. He reached El Fashur in Darfur and was the first Englishman... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 97302
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SHAW, Bernard. The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God.London : 1932
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy, lengthily inscribed by the author on the half-title to the female missionary who inspired the book, nine days after its publication, "Dear Miss Shaw, on the eve of a voyage round the world on which I am taking your latest proofsheets to read I send you this story, for which you are really responsible,... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 103294
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BAINES, Thomas. The Gold Regions of South Eastern Africa.London : 1877
First edition. Baines (1820-1875) was one of the pioneers of European exploration in the lands forming modern Zimbabwe, where he led an expedition in the 1860s to secure concessions for a gold-mining company from King Lobengula. Although the company in question failed to take advantage of the terms Baines extracted, this posthumously-edited account... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 119268
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PATTERSON, J. H., Lieut.-Col. The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and other East African adventures.London : 1907 & 1909
First editions, first impressions, of these handsomely produced and celebrated African big game narratives. Czech calls Man-Eaters "one of the most famous of all African hunting titles, which describes the slaughter of railroad workers building the Uganda Railway by a pair of man-eating lions"; its extraordinary story has inspired no less than three... Learn More£850.00Stock Code: 144319
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IVORY COAST. Remarkable photographic archive of American life and mercantile enterprise in French West Africa during the 1930s.Ivory Coast : 1932-6
A unique and vivid archive of extraordinary breadth, comprising nearly 1,200 images that provide a striking panorama of colonial life in the Ivory Coast during the 1930s, as seen through the eyes of Brents Rowlett Gruber, wife of Lewis H. Gruber, an American entrepreneur from Louisville, Kentucky, who was involved in the logging industry and ran a Chevrolet... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 119443
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PARSONS, Abraham. Travels in Asia and Africa; including a Journey from Scanderoon to Aleppo, and over the desert to Bagdad and Bussora;London : 1808
First edition. Little is known of Parson's origins, he was probably born in Bristol, the son of a merchant captain. "In early life he visited many countries in command of merchant vessels, an occupation that suited a man 'naturally fond of novelty, and remarkably inquisitive'" (ODNB). He unsuccessfully tried to establish himself as a merchant in Bristol,... Learn More£1,850.00Stock Code: 99192
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THOMSON, Joseph. To the Central African Lakes and Back:London : 1881
First edition of this classic account of one of the most successful British expeditions to Africa in the 19th century. Thomson, months after graduating from Edinburgh University, was in 1878 appointed geologist and naturalist to a Royal Geographical Society expedition under the command of Alexander Johnston, with the aim of opening up a route from Dar... Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 119308
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PARK, Mungo. Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa:London : 1799 & 1815
Second and first editions respectively of the earliest accounts of the interior of Africa, hitherto little-known in the West. The Travels of 1799 "has become a classic of travel literature, and its scientific observations on the botany and meteorology of the region, and on the social and domestic life of the indigenous peoples, have remained of lasting... Learn More£3,250.00Stock Code: 142675
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HEPBURN, Katharine. The Making of The African Queen.New York : 1987
Uncorrected proof copy of Hepburn's first book. Though unmarked as such, this copy is from the library of Hepburn's agent, Freya Manston, who, together with Hepburn, prevented the publication of the book in this form, as they were unhappy with the quality of the typography and the lack of illustrations. It was published later the same year in a more... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 111433
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JOHNSON, Samuel (trans.); LOBO, Jerónimo. A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Jerome Lobo, a Portuguese Jesuit.London [but Birmingham] : 1735
First edition, first issue (title printed in red and black), of Samuel Johnson's first published work, his unaccredited translation of Joachim Le Grand's 1728 French edition of Jerónimo Lobo's previously unpublished account of his missionary travels in Ethiopia.
In 1733 Johnson was staying in Birmingham with his lifelong friend Edmund Hector,... Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 144657
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MANDELA, Nelson. A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles.Oxford : 1996
First edition, number 66 of 100 copies signed on the title page by Nelson Mandela, in his capacity as Founder and Chairperson of the Nelson Mandela's Children's Fund. The book is the culmination of over three decades' work towards a thoroughly historical dictionary of South African English, published by the Oxford University Press. Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 105442
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SWAYNE, Harald George Carlos, Major. Seventeen Trips through Somaliland and a Visit to Abyssinia.London : 1903
Third edition, the first published in 1895. Described by Czech as "an important work of sport and exploration". This edition enhanced by the addition of 14-page preface discussing the religious and nationalist insurrections of Sayid Mohamed Abdullah Hassan, referred to by the British at the time as the 'Mad Mullah', but considered by the Ottoman Porte... Learn More£325.00Stock Code: 140625
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SPARRMAN, Anders. Voyage au Cap de Bonne-Esperance, et autour du Monde avec le Capitaine Cook, et principalement dans les pays des Hottentots et des Caffres.Paris : 1787
First edition in French of Sparrman's account of his travels in South Africa and with Captain Cook.
Sparrman (1748-1820) was a Swedish naturalist and student of Carl Linnaeus. Sparrman sailed to the Cape of Good Hope in 1772 and it was here that he met Captain Cook, who was undertaking his second voyage and who hired Sparrman as an assistant... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 147082
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BENTLEY, Nicolas. African playing concert piano.c. 1961
A conductor watches in slight bemusement as an African in full tribal costume enthusiastically plays piano before a rapt concert audience. The cartoons and illustrations of Nicolas Bentley (1907-1978) were part of the warp and weft of English popular culture in the 1950s and 60s. Never savage, though often waspishly accurate and exuding an urbane air... Learn More£325.00Stock Code: 67103
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HAMILTON, Angus. Somaliland.London : 1911
First edition of this important eye-witness account of the British campaigns in Somaliland. Hamilton (1874-1913), the son of an officer who served with the 2nd West India Regiment, and of the line of the Hamilton baronets of Silvertonhill, Lanarkshire, was a special correspondent, attached to the 6th King's African Rifles. He had visited Korea in 1903-4... Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 140253
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POWELL-COTTON, Percy Horace Gordon. In Unknown Africa.London : 1904
First edition, scarce variant binding, other copies noted in blue cloth with the front cover lettered and decorated in black rather than gilt. Following a successful hunting trip in Abyssinia, Powell-Cotton (1866-1940) travelled to British East Africa in 1902 in order to find a specimen of a five-horned giraffe recently discovered by Sir Harry Johnston.... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 119332
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POTOCKI, Count Joseph. Sport in Somaliland, Being an Account of a Hunting Trip to that Region.London : 1900
First edition in English, first published in Polish in 1897, the present edition limited to 200 copies signed by Ward, this copy designated "Presentation Copy No. 4" on the initial blank verso: "One of the rarest of all African big game hunting books" (Czech). Józef Mikolaj Potocki (1862-1922) inherited extensive estates in his native Poland, which... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 126123
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POWELL-COTTON, Percy Horace Gordon. In Unknown Africa.London : 1904
First edition, inscribed by the author to his daughter on the half-title "A.P.C. from P.P.C. 20.7.28", and additionally signed by the author on the dedication page.
Antoinette Percy Cotton (1913-1997) and her sister Diana joined her father on trips to Africa in the 1930s, later conducting further visits on their own, collecting a variety of... Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 148129
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[BURTON, Richard F.] Wanderings in West Africa from Liverpool to Fernando Po. By a F.R.G.S.London : 1863
First edition. "Newly married and needing employment, Burton approached the Foreign Office for a consular position, hoping for the post at Damascus. Instead, he was offered the consulship at Fernando Po, a small, unhealthy island in the Bight of Biafra on the west African coast. When he accepted the position on 27 March 1861 he requested to retain his... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 74797
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MACDONALD, Duff. Africana;London : 1882
First edition of this important account of Malawi, from the celebrated travel collection of Franklin Brooke-Hitching, with his pencilled initials to the half-titles. Macdonald (1850-1929) arrived in the Shire Highlands in July 1878 as the first ordained minister of the newly-established Church of Scotland mission at Blantyre. During his tenure the mission... Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 119304
