Travels and Explorations From
Allsworth Rare Books
Travel, Exploration and Natural History from Allsworth Rare Books.
By Michael Stillman
This month we review our first catalogue from Allsworth Rare Books of London. The title of this catalogue is “Catalogue Two, Travel, Exploration & Natural History.” While there is no limit to places explored, many of the works in this catalogue recount journeys to Africa. Most were penned by missionaries in the 19th century. While the American continent had more pure explorers, traders, and trappers, it seemed to take a deeper calling to draw Europeans into the deepest jungles and deserts of Africa. Naturally, their missionary goals and European assumptions cloud their views, but still they provided a glimpse into a world that might otherwise be forgotten. Colonization and modernization have permanently changed the face of Africa.
One of the more interesting titles is by Pascoe Grenfell Hill, Fifty Days on Board a Slave Vessel in the Mozambique Channel, in April and May, 1843. This 1844 first edition recounts the boarding of a slave ship on which the slaves had recently overpowered their captors. Hill, a minister, found some were still removing their chains. He describes the appalling conditions under which they lived, and many, died. This book was reprinted in 1996 by the Black Classic Press as it is a timely reminder of just how horrific slavery and the slave trade was, but the original first edition carries the connection of being printed while the practice was still going on. Item 74. Priced at £950 (British pounds).
Quickly moving from the sublime to the ridiculous, there is To Lake Tanganyika in a Bath Chair by Annie Boyle Hore. A bath chair was a wheeled chair, generally three-wheeled, that ladies as well as those with handicaps used in the 19th century. I don’t know how Annie Hore managed the 830-mile journey in such a device as there certainly wouldn’t have been much in the way of paved roads or sidewalks available in 1886, but someone will soon have the opportunity to learn how. Allsworth describes her trip as a “remarkably eccentric journey.” Item 77. £1,500.
Nestled into this collection of generally more obscure titles is one everyone knows, On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection… by Charles Darwin. There isn’t much I can tell you about this book you don’t already know, other than to say the copy offered is an 1859 first edition and is in very good condition. Item 48. £22,000.
|
Travels and Explorations From
Allsworth Rare Books
The Sultan of Zanzibar circa 1900. Item 152. £300.
Well, here’s another well-known book. From explorer Henry Morton Stanley, it’s How I Found Livingston. This is the 1872 first edition. A few old-timers may remember Spencer Tracy playing Henry Stanley in the movie “Stanley and Livingston.” The book allows you the opportunity to see Henry Stanley played by Henry Stanley. Item 128. £500. For those who collect Stanley, there is also Hermann von Wassmann’s Afrika; Schilderungen und Rathachlage… I know this sounds like a German publication and what would this have to do with Stanley? It seems that this book provided important information for those living in the German Protectorates, and this was Stanley’s personal copy, given to him and inscribed by the author. The inscription says it was given to “Bula Matari,” which was Stanley’s Swahili name. Item 149. £250.
Those interested in big game hunting in Africa may wish to add William Cornwallis’ Narrative of an Expedition into Southern Africa, during the years 1836, and 1837… to their collection. Allsworth describes this as “the first printed account of an African hunting safari.” This is the first issue of the first edition of a book that later was published under the title “The Wild Sports of Southern Africa.” Item 73. £2,500.
Henry Abraham Stern is not a typical name for a Christian missionary, but there is always room for a surprise. Stern was a convert who spent his life trying to convert far-flung Jewish communities to his beliefs. Much of that time would be spent with the Falashas of Ethiopia. His work evidently was not always appreciated, as one King Theodore imprisoned him for four years, but he was admired back at his mission’s headquarters in London. Around 1900, they published this biography by Edwin Dawson as part of their “Splendid Lives Series” entitled Henry A. Stern. Missionary Traveller and Abyssinian Captive. Item 49. £150.
An obscure title regarding the opening of the Suez Canal is Egypt: The Opening of the Great Canal by Alexander Russel. Russel was a Scottish newspaperman, rising from a reporter to editor of the “Scotsman” of Edinburgh. Evidently it was this connection to the press that got him an invitation from the Viceroy to witness the opening of the canal. This 1869 book is his report. Item 110. £150.
Sir John Ross faced a very different set of challenges than did the African explorers. For instance, keeping warm. Ross spent four winters in the Arctic from 1829-1833, three trapped in ice, searching for a Northwest Passage. Ross is credited with finding the magnetic north pole and adding much scientific knowledge, even if he didn’t find the passageway. Ross recounts this, his second of three expeditions, in Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of the North-West Passage… Item 109. £750
|
Travels and Explorations From
Allsworth Rare Books
Emily Charley's collection of seaweed
Lady Dorothea Hosie wrote about China in Brave New China. Lady Dorothea traveled through much of the country, and while she is not one of the more noted experts on the land, the timing of her journey makes this interesting. The year was 1938, which places her observations just ahead of the major and permanent changes which occur over the next decade, first with the occupation from Japan, and then the takeover by the Communists. Her “new” China would soon become old China. Item 78. £100.
Benjamin Douglas Howard wrote extensively about the Ainu people of Sakhalin Island in the 1890s. For those not familiar, Sakhalin is located just off the east coast of Russia, north of Japan. Consistent with the assumptions Europeans tended to make at the time, he titled his book Life with Trans-Siberian Savages. Howard had been granted permission to observe the Russian exile system in place on the island by a Russian prince. However, he became more interested in the natives after seeing an Ainu woman at a hospital. Allsworth says that he was taken aback by her appearance, “notably her tattooed moustache and hairy body.” Item 3. £775.
We’ll conclude with an item that’s somewhat hard to pigeonhole. A “manuscript?” It is two 19th century albums of pressed seaweed. One includes 70 specimens collected by Emily Charley, primarily off the British coast. An exception is one collected from the Potomac in 1861. It leads one to wonder what she was doing hanging around the Potomac in 1861. Bigger things were going on than collecting seaweed at that time. The second album contains 30 specimens and its “author” is unknown. Allworth explains that in that era, seaweed was collected in much the same way as pressed flowers. Item 114. £1,000.
Alsworth Rare Books may be found on the internet at www.allsworthbooks.com or reached by telephone at 44 (0) 20 7377 0552.
|