antiquarian bookseller - Peter Harrington

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller
44. GOEBEL, Ingenieur
J[ohannes].
Afrika zu unsern Füßen. Lettow-
Vorbeck entgegen und andere
geheimnisvolle Luftschiffahrten.
Unter Mitarbeit des
Schiffsmeteorologen
Dr. Walter Förster.
R.F. Koelher, Berlin and Leipzig, 1925 [25455] £350
8vo. Original yellow cloth, decorative border to upper board
in red, titles to upper board and spine in red. With the
pictorial dustjacket. Illustrated throughout with photographic
reproductions. Bookplate of the aviation historian Fritz Gustav
Strahlmann to the front pastedown. An excellent copy in
the slightly nicked and tanned dustjacket. Very scarce in this
condition.
Second Edition. Contains the first full account of the
Zeppelin L59’s ill-fated attempts to bring supplies to
Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa where he had been
fighting a guerilla campaign against the British. None
of the three expeditions succeeded for various reasons
including a hoax wireless communication sent whilst the
airship was over Khartoum.
45. GOLDMANN, Charles
Sydney.
With General French and the
Cavalry in South Africa.
London, Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1902 [31158] £1500
8vo (212 × 132 mm). Bound for presentation in red crushed
goatskin by the Guild of Women Binders, spine with five raised
bands, gilt lettered in second compartment, sides with blind
rules and central panel of onlaid navy blue goatskin with
central gilt device, red morocco doublures with central panel of
white vellum (the front panel with hand-painted royal arms),
vellum endpapers, gilt dots at corners, gilt edges. Frontispiece
portrait, numerous folding maps, folding panoramas and
plates, 8 reproductions of freehand sketches showing some
of French’s and the enemy’s positions between the Vaal River
and Barberton bound at end. Upper joint skilfully restored,
lower joint just starting at head, headcap just chipped, spine
slightly darkened in upper compartment, a little foxing to
plates, chiefly marginal.
FIRST EDITION, Presentation Copy to Sir George Stuart
White, VC, much-decorated commander of the British
garrison at Ladysmith, with a long inscription by the
author on the front free endpaper, noting “the invaluable
& splendid services rendered by Sir George to his
country in the defence of Ladysmith”, 34 Queen Anne’s
Gate, Westminster, Dec. 1902. Goldmann acted as war
correspondent during the Boer War for the Argus and
Standard newspapers. He was associated with powerful
mining and financial groups in the Transvaal.
Guild of
Women
Binders
presentation
binding
46. GORDON, Charles
George.
Autograph Postcard signed from
Khartoum remarking on the Battle
of El Teb.
Khartoum, 7 March 1884 [33661] £2500
Union Postale Universelle Egypte Carte Postale prepaid 20
Paras, c. 4½ × 3¼ ins. A little browned, two small pin-holes
to one corner, mild crease running across the bottom of the
signature.
Addressed to W. Faulkner Esq., Suez, Egypt [probably
Willoughby Faulkner, Burton’s host in Suez in 1877],
franked mailed at Khartoum, 8 March, received at Assiout,
27 March. Evidently Gordon has just received news of the
Battle of El Teb, 4 February 1884, where Valentine Baker
Catalogue 57: Travel Section 2: Africa and the Middle East to Persia
Pasha’s force of close to 4,000 had been panicked and cut to
pieces by a much lesser Mahdist army. He comments upon
it in characteristic tone; “About that slaughter of those poor
troops at Tokar than anything else it was cruel to send them
to this shambles. When will we try & put ourselves in their
skins, & fancy what they feel. I am very sorry for this affair.”
Of his own position he takes a fairly sanguine, if typically
fatalistic, view; “Things are a little better up here, and I
hope for the best. I fear more the wrath of the Lord” and
his conclusion is entirely in keeping with what is known
of his frame of mind in these, the final few months of
his life; “ … it is not man’s praise which man should
seek, but our Lord’s. One is fleeting, the other is for ever.”
A highly allusive, if brief, communication sent by Gordon
just days before the Siege of Khartoum closed in.
47. HAMILTON, A. M.
Road through Kurdistan. The
Narrative of an Engineer in Iraq.
With a Foreword by Major-General
Rowan-Robinson.
London, Faber & Faber Limited, 1937 [37116] £275
8vo. Frontispiece and 23 plates, 2 folding maps at the rear.
Mild foxing, fore-edge and endpapers, otherwise very good in
the publisher’s grey cloth with false label in dustjacket, a little
rubbed, spine sunned and slightly chipped head and tail.
FIRST EDITION. Construction of the Rowanduz Road from
Rayat to Arbil “ … traversing on its way the gorges of
Rowanduz and Berserini, two of the most stupendous
obstacles in the world … Mr. Hamilton the solitary
European of the party … [a] motley collection of Persians,
Kurds, Assyrians and Arabs … had to teach the arts of hillblasting
and of road-making as he proceeded” (Preface).
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