antiquarian bookseller - Peter Harrington

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller
87. STALKER, Rev. John.
The Natal Carbineers. The
History of the Regiment from its
Foundation, 15th January 1855, to
30th June, 1911.
Pietermaritzburg and Durban, P. Davis & Sons, 1912 [39106]
£500
Large 8vo. Recased in the original royal blue cloth, gilt, spine
stiffened, new endpapers. Photogravure frontispiece portrait
of Kitchener and 49 half-tone plates. Light marginal browning,
as often, but overall a very good copy.
FIRST EDITION. Presentation inscription to the verso of
the frontispiece from “Brig. General W. [E.C.] Tanner, C.B.,
C.M.G., D.S.O. for O.C. 1st Natal Carbineers, 16.XI. 1920.”
Tanner served with the Carbineers in the Boer War, Natal
Rebellion and went on to see action in German South
West and on the Western Front, commanding the 2nd
South African Infantry Regiment and leading the three
South African battalions in the attack on Delville Wood.
An uncommon book, an important history for early
Natal history, with detailed narratives of the Zulu and
Basuto Wars, the Langalibele Rebellion, Boer War and
Zulu Rebellion of 1906; this copy with an excellent South
African military provenance.
Perkins 339.
88. STANLEY, Henry Morton.
Coomassie and Magdala: The Story
of Two British Campaigns in Africa.
With Numerous Illustrations from
Drawings by Melton Prior (Special
Artist in Ashantee of the “Illustrated
London News”) and other Artists
and Two Maps.
New York, Harper & Brothers, 1874 [38983] £250
8vo. Original terracotta cloth. Portrait frontispiece and 16
other plates, illustrations to the text, two folding maps. Some
foxing and browning throughout, folding map with some
splits at the folds, acid-free tape repairs verso, a little shaken,
about good+, the cloth rubbed and scuffed, chipping at head
and tail of the spine.
FIRST US EDITION. Stanley covered the Abyssinian
Expedition for the New York Herald and the sensational
reception of his despatches from the Fall of Magdala,
which beat even the official reports back to London,
was probably key in the decision to select him for the
Livingstone mission.
89. STANLEY, Henry Morton.
In Darkest Africa or, The Quest,
Rescue, and Retreat of Emin,
Governor of Equatoria.
London, Sampson, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1890 [31469]
£4750
2 volumes, 4to. Original half dark brown morocco, vellum
boards with the title, flag of Emin Pasha and Stanley’s
signature to the upper boards gilt, titles to spines gilt, top
edges gilt, others uncut. With titles printed in red & black,
portrait frontispiece of Stanley, illustrated by various artists, 45
plates (including 6 etched plates signed in pencil by the artist
G. Montbard), 4 maps (3 folding), 1 folding printed table, and
103 illustrations in the text (3 full-page). Vellum sides rather
darkened, uncut edges a little dusty, a very good copy.
FIRST EDITION, Edition de Luxe. One of 250 numbered
copies signed by Stanley. In February of 1887 Stanley
led a party from the mouth of the Congo to rescue Emin
Pasha (the German naturalist, Eduard Schnitzer) who
had been appointed Governor of Equatoria by General
Gordon, and had been abandoned in command of the
Egyptian Army when the Mahdi overran the Sudan.
Leaving a rearguard at Yambuya he crossed 540 miles of
absolutely unknown country, much of it dense tropical
forest. “For five months the party were hidden under
this ‘solemn and foodless forest’, scarcely ever seeing the
open sky, or a patch of clearing [until reaching the Albert
Nyanza on 13 December]…where Stanley expected to
find Emin and the steamers he was known to have at his
disposal. The Pasha, however, was not there nor were his
vessels. The governor, as it turned out, was by no means
anxious to be rescued in the sense intended by his English
friends. Relief, in his view, did not include being relieved
of his governorship or coming away as a fugitive … for
nearly three months the relief column awaited him in vain
[before Stanley left to join his decimated rearguard, collect
its remnants on the shores of Lake Albert in January 1889
and march to the coast]…and in the course of the journey
discovered the great snow-capped range of Ruwenzori,
the Mountains of the Moon, besides a new lake which
he named the Albert Edward Nyanza, and a large southwestern
extension of Lake Victoria. On the morning of 4
December 1889 the expedition reached the ocean [but
Emin Pasha had transferred himself to the German service
and Stanley returned home without him]. Thus, the
expedition had failed to achieve its primary object. It had,
however, accomplished great things” (DNB). Translations
of In Darkest Africa appeared quickly in French, German,
Italian, Spanish, and Dutch, while sales of the English
trade editions totalled 150,000 copies.
Opening the Dark Continent
Catalogue 57: Travel Section 2: Africa and the Middle East to Persia
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