item number |
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| 1. | (Albrizzi, Girolamo.) INTRODUZIONE 'ALL ARTE NAUTICA PER USO DE PILOTE E CAPITANI DI NAVE. Venice. 1715. b/w folding plates, volvelles. 4to. (1) (14) 293 pp. plus plates. First edition of a rare Italian work covering all phases of navigational science as it was known at the time. Copiously illustrated with frontispiece, allegorical frontispiece, engraved table, 4 plates of flags, double-page folding plate of a Venetian galleon, and 24 plates of navigational aids and diagrams, some double-page and including 5 volvelles. The most recent copy of this work to appear at auction was stained, with plates remounted and repaired. It sold for about $1900 in 1996. Otherwise the last appearance of this edition is in a Maggs catalog in 1928. OCLC shows no insitutional holdings. This copy is immaculate. Bound in clean and sound contemporary vellum, it is nearly as fresh and bright as the day it was printed, with the 5 delicate volvelles in working order. A remarkable survival. $3000 See Illustration |
| 2. | American Bureau of Shipping. 1910 RECORD OF AMERICAN AND FOREIGN SHIPPING. NY. 1910. b/w plates. 1134 pp. The "American Lloyds." Conveys more information and is more inclusive than the American merchant vessel lists. Bound in full morocco. Spine chipped. Contents VG and binding tight. $250 |
| 3. | Amundsen, Roald. DIE EROBERUNG DES SUDPOLS. Munich. 1912. Color frontis. b/w plates, ills. color fldg. map. 2 vols. xvi, 499-980 pp. First German edition of Amundsen's account of his epic race to the South Pole against Scott. See Spence 15. A beautiful copy, decorated covers intact, with only minor rubbing, text and binding tight. Both these volumes contain crisp, tidy pencil annotations in German by a Croatian scholar named Resekar (?) who owned this set and signed each title page in 1912. 2 vols, VG. $400 |
| 4. | Anon. A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF MARY MITCHELL, LATE OF NANTUCKET, DECEASED. New-Bedford. 1812. 12mo. 74 pp. Born in Rhode Island in 1731, she became a Quaker in 1762 and traveled throughout New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania spreading word of the Truth. She married in 1781 and moved to Nantucket in 1787, where she was a model of piety. Crosby p. 179. Bound in original calf with new spine label. VG $75 |
| 5. | Anon. HANDBOOK OF NANTUCKET. Nantucket. 1874. b/w map, b/w cuts. 12mo. 91 pp. Promising "a brief historical sketch of the island, with notes of interest to summer visitors." In fact, a very scarce business directory of Nantucket, with ads for local firms (some illustrated) occupying every other page. First issue. Crosby p. 175. This copy is untrimmed and unopened. Original wrappers bound in blue boards. $175 See Illustration |
| 6. | Anon. HISTORY OF THE ADVENTUROUS VOYAGE AND TERRIBLE SHIPWRECK OF THE U.S. STEAMER "JEANNETTE..." NY. 1882. 95 pp. Pamphlet, probably compiled from contemporary sources such as Danehower's or George Melville's narratives. Written in a racy, popular style, it was obviously intended to capitalize on the publicity surrounding DeLong's death and the fatal Jeannette expedition. Few copies must have survived. It is not in the Arctic Bib. Laid in is an 11 line manuscript in DeLong's hand, entitled "Manning Orders." It prescribes a morning shipboard routine, is dated March 14/72 , and is signed by DeLong. Also included is a two page note from DeLong's wife stating that she will attend ceremonies honoring Greeley. It is dated 1884, two years after her husband's death. Covers of pamphlet are chipped and detached. Title page bears a stamp from an Alaskan library. The lot $400 |
| 7. | Anon. THE ANN MARIA. Fall River, MA. 1869. b/w engraving. 43 pp. This long poem commemorates the loss of a whaleship. According to Starbuck (p. 428) and Lund (p. 389) a 196 ton bark named the "Ann Maria" actually did sail out of Fall River in 1845 and was lost somewhere in the Atlantic tweo years later. Scarce, Some spotting on first two pages, minor rubbing to covers, else a decent copy. $125 |
| 8. | Anon. THE HOUSE SURGEON AND PHYSICIAN; DESIGNED TO ASSIST HEADS OF FAMILIES, TRAVELLERS, AND SEA-FARING PEOPLE... Hartford. 1818. 12mo. xxiv-200 pp. Written by "a physician and a surgeon," this is a purely home-grown product, promising "concise directions for the preparation and use of a numerous collection of the best American remedies." In fact, it is in good part a herbal. The final 50 pages are dedicated to the identification and preparation of 158 American herbal remedies, to which the prescriptive parts of the text refer. Some internal staining. Bound in original calf with spine label. $200 |
| 9. | Anon. THE SHIPWRECK OF THE ALCESTE, AN ENGLISH FRIGATE, IN THE STRAITS OF GASPAR; ALSO THE SHIPWRECK OF THE MEDUSA. Dublin. 1821 b/w wood engraved plates. 16mo. 179 pp. The Alceste was wrecked in 1817, the Medusa in 1816. Both events resulted in very popular accounts being published within the year. This little book is a piracy from the popular narratives of the wrecks. To make it more saleable it contains wood engraved scenes from the orient and a plan of the raft of the Medua. This edition is not listed in Huntress or in Hill, but see Huntress 187C and 188C for the stories of the wrecks. Bound in calf over boards, some chipping to backstrip. $150 |
| 10. | Anon. (Thomas Boyles Murray). THE HOME OF THE MUTINEERS. Phila. (1854) b/w plates. 342 pp. The story of the “Bounty” and mutineers in an edition for the American Sunday School Union. “An important list of vessels which visited Pitcairn from 1808 to 1853 is included as is the island register from 1790 to 1853.” —Hill p. 507 (citing Lon. 1855 ed.) Minor fadin, wear, but a nice copy internally with an interesting newspaper update on Pitcairn doings in 1895 pasted to front blank. $75 |
| 11. | Armstrong, John. NOTICES OF THE WAR OF 1812. NY. 1836, 1840. 2 vols. vi- 263; iv, 244pp. A printed note bound into volume I states, "The present Volume... is confined to the operations on the frontier. The Second Volume will embrace those on the seaboard." Accordingly, vol. 2, published 4 years later, is bound in black cloth rather than brown cloth, and stands 1/2" shorter than its companion. However, they are a set. Armstrong was Secretary of War in 1813-1814, but failure of Canadian operations and the sack of Washington forced him to resign. These are his recollections of the war. As Smith notes, they include his dealings with the U.S. Navy. Smith II 468. Howes A-321. Vol II rebacked, else a VG set. $250 |
| 12. | Bartlett, Wallace A. SOME WEAPONS OF WAR AS IMPROVED BY RECENT AMERICAN INVENTORS. Wash. 1882. b/w line ills. 98 pp. Survey of latest in torpedo technology, including an armored turret firing underwater torpedos, a rocket torpedo, a submarine gun, and a cable-controlled torpedo. Other chapters consider armor and armored ships, heavy ordnance, small arms and machine guns. A scarce work, not in Anderson or Smith. This copy INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR. Some spotting on front cover, else VG $150 |
| 13. | Bellin, N. DESCRIPTION GEOGRAPHIQUE DES DEBOUQUEMENS QUI SONT AU NORD DE L'ISLE DE SAINT DOMINGUE. Paris. 1768. b/w charts. Sm. 4to, 152 pp. Sailing directions and physical description (in French) accompany 34 engraved charts, many folding and double-paged, and an engraved second title page. Charts proceed northward through the Turks Islands, along the coast of Cuba to Florida. Double-paged charts of St. Augustine and Bermuda are included. Bellin was a prolific and respected French hydrographer, most noted for his "Petit Atlas Maritime". This is the first appearance of the present work. It is quite scarce. See Cundall 367, Polak 591. This copy contains a few comments and annotations in English in an early hand. Occasional minor spotting otherwise in Very Good condition, charts clean. Early blind-tooled calf, rebacked to match, with spine label. $2750 See Illustration |
| 14. | Berry, Rev. Chester. LOSS OF THE SULTANA AND REMINISCENCES OF SURVIVORS. Lansing, MI. 1892. b/w frontis., wood engraved ills. 426 pp. Primary source on the infamous Sultana disaster, in which more than 1000 Union soldiers returning from Confederate prisons were killed when their criminally overcrowded steamer went down. SIGNED BY A RELATIVE OF ONE OF THE SURVIVORS. First edition of a scarce book that looks like it went down with the Sultana. Covers wrinkled and stained, endpapers waterstained. Text clean. $100 |
| 15. | Blachford, Robert, and John Hamilton Moore. CHART BOOK. NORTH AND BALTIC SEAS, AND SURROUNDING WATERS. Lon. Various dates. b/w folding charts. Folio. 6 charts. No title page or accompanying text, but the 6 charts are numbered and obviously issued as a group. 1 - North Sea, Lon. 1809. 2 - The Sleeve, Christian Ford - Gottenburg, Lon. 1810. 3 - Cattegut, Lon. 1808. 4 - Sound and Grounds, Southern Coast of Sweden, Lon. 1803. 5 - Baltic, Lon. 1803. 6 - Gulf of Finland, Lon. 1804. These are marvellous folding charts, some opening to as large as 45" x 50", prepared by British chartmaker Blachford and his father in law John Hamilton Moore, author of the popular English navigational book which inspired Bowditch's effort. There is much coastal detail, insets, recognition views, and 2 or 3 town views printed as insets. Another oddity occurs in chart 5. A cancel sheet has been pasted in the upper left hand corner of the chart, showing a "new survey" of the Earthholmes off the coast of Denmark. Probably the old version contained fatal errors. An early, and most interesting collection. Some light offsetting, a few tears on folds, generally in very good condition. Bound in old marbled boards, detached but present. $2500 |
| 16. | Boehm, Lise CHINA COAST TALES. Shanghai. 1897 - 1906. 2 vols. Various paginations. 10 long stories by Boehm, the wife of sinologist H.A. Giles, bound together with their original individually dated title pages present. Giles and Boehm lived in China and she knew the country and its people. "The aim of these tales" she says, "is to illustrate life at the various Treaty Ports which have been opened, oyster-like, by the bayonet during the past fifty years... while the vehicle of these tales is fiction, their essence if fact." A scarce and striking group of stories, published and bound in Shanghai. Bindings show light wear. Signature "H.A. Giles" on first title page. $400 |
| 17. | Bougainville, Lewis de. A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. PERFORMED BY ORDER OF HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY, IN THE YEARS 1766, 1767, 1768 AND 1769. Lon. 1772. b/w plate, folding maps. 4to, xxviii, 476 pp. First edition in English. Translated from the French by John Reinhold Forster (himself a veteran of Cook’s second voyage). Bougainville commanded the first official French circumnavigation of the globe. The work contains an extended description of Tahiti, and includes a vocabulary of 300 Tahitian words. "Bougainville created a great deal of interest among the French in the Pacific... The largest island in the Solomons and two straits in the Pacific bear his name and the tropical flowering vine Bougainvillea was named after him."— Hill p. 32. O'Reilly & Reitmann 285. Bound in 19th century mottled calf over marbled boards, light wear to outer hinges. A nice copy, maps and plates fresh. $3500 |
| 18. | Bougard, (R). LE PETIT FLAMBEAU DE LA MER... Havre de Grace. 1731. woodcut ills. Small 4to. (6) 413, (23) pp. "The Little Sea Torch" is a quaintly illustrated pilot for European and Mediterranean waters, including the Barbary coast, with the final pages covering the Azores, Madeira, Canaries, Cape Verdes and East Indian islands and ports including Table Bay, Mozambique, Bombay and the Indian Coast and Madagascar and surrounding islands. The book contains dozens of wood engraved harbor charts and over 100 recognition views, as well as a useful index. Text in French. Polak lists 7 editions of this work between 1691 and 1800, but the present 1731 edition is not among those listed. See Polak, 1044. There are no institutional holdings of this edition listed on OCLC. Quite scarce in the trade as well. The last recorded sale of this edition was in the Horblit sale in 1974. Even tanning, occasional spotting. Bound in original vellum. Hinges weak but holding. $1250 See Illustration |
| 19. | Brady, William N. THE KEDGE-ANCHOR; OR, YOUNG SAILOR'S ASSISTANT. NY 1864 b/w plates. 393 pp. Civil War edition of the text that defined standard practice in its day, "...appertaining to the practical evolutions of modern seamanship, rigging, knotting, splicing, blocks, purchases, running rigging...tables of rigging, spars, sails, canvas, cordage, chain and hemp cables, hawsers..." See McDonald 286. Bound in later half morocco over marbled boards. Outer hinges rubbed, minor spotting, staining, but still a nice copy. $175 |
| 20. | (Brigham, C. Pliny.) THE GLORY OF THE AMERICAN YACHT. NY. 1899. b/w plates. Unpaginated. About 50 pp. Essentially an extended advertisement for Brigham’s Greenport Basin and Construction Company, with photos of yachts under construction there, list of yachts launched in 1899, and company history, mixed in with a general history of yachting and concluded with 16 pages of illustrated advertisements yachting related firms, from Herreshoff to Hawes' Yachting Caps. See Morris & Howland, p. 21. Quite scarce. Not in Toy. Worldcat shows only one institution holding this item. VG in original pictorial cover. $200 |
| 22. | Browne, J. Ross. ETCHINGS OF A WHALING CRUISE, WITH NOTE OF A SOJOURN ON THE ISLAND OF ZANZIBAR. TO WHICH IS APPENDED A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERY, ITS PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION. NY. 1846. b/w plates. xiii, 580, 8 pp. First edition of a key work on American whaling which, "gives a general picture of life on a whaling ship in the 1840s and... contains much information relevant to whaling in the Pacific Ocean."— Forster 11. It was also an important source and inspiration for Herman Melville, who reviewed this book for "Literary World" in 1847. Jenkins p. 84. Howes B-877. Library stamp on title page. Somewhat shaken in binding. Scattered foxing and wear, but a decent copy of a classic work that is becoming very difficult to find. In original decorated cloth binding. $500 |
| 23. | Burrage, Henry S. ROSIER'S RELATION OF WAYMOUTH'S VOYAGE TO THE COAST OF MAINE, 1605. Portland, ME. 1887. b/w plates. folding charts. xi, 176 pp. Publication III in the Gorges Society series of monographs on early voyages, this one relating to a very rare narration of Waymouth's voyage. This is copy #99 in a limited edition of 200 copies. It is extra-illustrated by two albumen prints, circa 1890, of Monhegan Island. Each of these measures approximately 6 1/2" x 8 1/2". Also inserted are an albumen print of the editor, and plates of Myles Standish and Monhegan in 1603, and the prospectus for this work. Bound in half gilt morocco over marbled boards. Fine condition. $400 |
| 24. | Burroughs, Richard. A TREATISE ON TRIGONOMETRY & NAVIGATION... Burlington, VT. 1807. b/w engraved plates. xii-81 pp. An early and unusual American treatise on navigation. Mr. Burroughs promises to resolve the problems attendant to that science "without aid of books or instruments, merely by dint of memory." The many editions of Bowditch make it clear he didn't succeed, but he did manage to write a succinct account of the basics of navigation, illustratred by 8 engraved plates. Karpinsi p. 170. A nice copy, bound in original calf. Outer hinge cracked, name blacked out on title page in old ink. $350 |
| 25. | Chapelle, Howard Irving. THE BALTIMORE CLIPPER ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT. Salem. 1930. b/w plates. 4to. 192 pp. With lines, plans, and illustrations of specific vessels, tracing development of this type. Publication #22 of the Marine Research Society. VG, chipped dj. $150 |