antiquarian bookseller - Peter Harrington

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller
279.BAIN, William.
An Essay on the Variation of the
Compass, shewing how far it is
influenced by a Change in the
Direction of the Ship’s Head, with
an Exposition of the Dangers arising
to Navigation from not allowing
for this Change of Variation.
Interspersed with Practical
Observations and Remarks.
Edinburgh, William Blackwood… and London, John Murray, 1817
[40317] £550
8vo (203 × 129 mm). Later half calf on marbled boards.
Folding engraved map frontispiece (chart of compass
variations illustrated by the track of HMSs Sybille & Princess
Caroline on a cruise to East Greenland in 1814). Contemporary
library stamp of the Portico Library Manchester verso of the
map and to the title page, light toning, externally slightly
rubbed, else a very good copy.
FIRST EDITION. Following Flinders, Bain sought to
demonstrate that the local attraction of shipboard iron
was responsible for potentially disastrous compass
variations and suggests a number of simple practical
methods to obviate its effects or correct for them. He
demonstrates his case with reference to the voyages
of Dampier, Cook, La Perouse, Krusenstern, Vancouver
and a cruise off Greenland on which he himself took the
readings. A very good copy of an uncommon item.
280.BETHUNE, John
Drinkwater.
A Narrative of the Battle of St.
Vincent; With Anecdotes of Nelson,
before and after that Battle.
London, Saunders and Otley, 1840 [37906] £350
8vo. Engraved portrait frontispiece of Nelson after Corbould,
8 battle-plans, three vignettes to the text. Armorial bookplate
of Edward Giffard to front pastedown. Frontispiece foxed and
browned, as usual, title page also browned, otherwise very
good in the original bottle green embossed cloth, title gilt
to upper board and spine, a little rubbed at the extremities,
rebacked with the original spine laid down, gilt edges.
Uncommon. First published 1797, this second edition is
the first with additional anecdotes of Nelson. Drinkwater,
probably best remembered for his account of the siege of
Gibraltar (see item 253 above), was a friend of Nelson’s
and much accentuated his friend’s role in the battle, being
the source for a number of the most enduring tales of this
engagement. Drinkwater had witnessed the battle from
the Lively and received the Nelsonian “spin” directly from
the source: “The day after the battle [Nelson] went on
board Lively, which he knew was ordered back to England
with dispatches [and] briefed Colonel Drinkwater” (Knight,
The Pursuit of Victory, p. 228).
281.BILLINGSLEY, Case.
The Longitude at Sea, not to be
found by Firing Guns, nor by the
Most Curious Spring-Clock or
Watches. But the only True Method
for Discovering that Valuable Secret
by the Sun, Moon or Stars, and
an Exact Time-keeper, with such
Necessary Improvements, as have
not yet been describ’d by any other
Person; and (with Respect to the
Term of any Ordinary Voyage) may
properly be call’d Perpetual Motion.
Now Humbly proposed to the
Consideration of the Public.
London, Richard Mount and Company,… and John Morphew, 1714
[40318] £4500
8vo (187 × 121 mm). Near contemporary marbled paper
wraps. The Streeter copy, bookplate inside upper wrap.
Some light soiling and browning, wraps a little rubbed, but
otherwise very good.
FIRST EDITION. In 1713, by an Act of Parliament, a prize
of £20,000 was offered for a “practicable method of
calculating longitude at sea”; the Board of Longitude
was formed the following year to consider all proposals
submitted. The prize attracted immediate attention
from scientists, instrument makers, and quacks. By
the end of 1714, no fewer than fifteen pamphlets on
the longitude problem had been published. Broadly
speaking proposed solutions fell into two camps, those
depending on lunar measurements, and those based
upon the development of a highly accurate clock. Case
Billingsley favoured the use of chronometry: “The timekeeper
I propose is to be regulated by a long-pendulum;
the whole movement shall be perfectly kept free from
damps, and secured from all extraneous air: it may go
above a year without any persons touching it, it shall
move in a proper, tho’ not in a common body, and in such
a part of the ship, and such a position as to be always
perpendicular, tho’ the ship tosses or rowls never so
much; the motion of the sea shall not alter it, so as to
occasion any considerable error; and the pendulum-rod
shall be secured from lengthening by heat, or shortning
by cold. The whole charge of which, for a great ship, and
all that must secure it from injuries by the motion of the
ship, wet, heat, air, &c. will not be great; and (barring
accidents) will last above thirty years.” The practical
Catalogue 57: Travel Section 7: Mapping, Navigation and Naval History
difficulties of making such a clock proved great; in the
end the prize was won by the horologist John Harrison,
but in the final payment of the reward was not paid until
1773. All of the longitude pamphlets published in 1714
are rare, and seldom appear on the market. Four copies
on COPAC, OCLC adds just three copies. Case Billingsley
was a London broker and “projector”, who had previously
served as a purser with the Royal Navy. A number of his
schemes during the period of the South Sea Bubble
ran into difficulties, but he seems to have escaped
imprisonment by fleeing abroad.
Adams & Waters, English Maritime Books printed before 1801,
164.
282.BION, Nicolas.
L’Usage des Globes Céleste et
Terrestre, et des Spheres Suivant
les Différens Systêmes du
Monde. Précédé d’un Traité de
Cosmographie … Sixiéme Edition,
revûe, & corrigée.
Paris: Jacques Guerin et Nyon fils, 1751 [9020] £1200
8vo. Contemporary mottled calf, red morocco label, gilt floral
decoration and raised bands on spine, gilt lower edges and
Bion’s first publication
marbled endpapers. With 49 engraved plates including one
folding celestial and one folding lunar map, folding maps
of the world, the four continents, Northern Europe with
Iceland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Low Countries,
astronomical illustrations, etc. Edges slightly bumped. Some
light foxing to endpapers and the first few leaves, otherwise
crisp clean. A near fine copy.
Last and revised edition of Bion’s (1652–1733) first
publication, edited by his son. This treatise on globes,
spheres, and cosmography was first published in 1699
and turned out to become the author’s most popular
publication, of which a German translation appeared in
1738. “True to the spirit of the age Bion gave much thought
to the idea of reform in the matter of globe construction,
especially to the surface of the sphere” (E. L. Stevenson).
Graesse I, 429; Poggendorff I, 194f; Houzeau/Lancaster 9735; Stevenson,
Terrestrial and Celestial Globes (1921) II, 153; Quérard, La France litteraire I,
340 (erroneously dated 1561).
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