Manuscripts & Typescripts
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Cahier de Chansons Appartenant a Monsieur Varcourt, Sapeur-Pompier. 24. rue de Poissy
$2,000.00 Add to cartEmilien Varcourt
Paris: Emilien Varcourt, 1903-1906.
A manuscript notebook composed by a volunteer firefighter, Emilien Varcourt, with a Paris regiment between 1903 and 1906. Over 100 songs, romances, monologues, lullabies, etc, are recorded, both transcribed and original. The text is illustrated throughout with original drawings, many signed, and lightly erotic. A fantastic Parisian manuscript illuminating romance and sexuality at the beginnings of the 20th century. -
Raw Meat Cannibals!
$150.00 Add to cartSharon Cruise (Maboota)
: Sharon Cruise (Maboota), No date.
Duplicated typescript for an unpublished erotic-horror short story based in the Amazon. A man alone in the jungle comes across a tribe of black muscular nude women that torture him and force him to perform sexual acts on them before eating him. -
![[ILLUMINATED] Poems by Carolyn Tebbetts](https://stg-thebookmerchantjenkinsclone-bmjstaging.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/0035102-300x300.jpg)
[ILLUMINATED] Poems by Carolyn Tebbetts
$500.00 Add to cartCarolyn Tebbetts; Elizabeth Mott Chesbrough?
: Elizabeth Mott Chesbrough?, 1910.
Poems by Carolyn Tebbets and one by John Banister Tabb, in manuscript with ornate watercolour borders. An inscription on a front flyleaf notes: “Virginia Tebbetts June 19, 1910. With love of Elizabeth Mott Chesbrough” designating the likely artist as Elizabeth, though this is uncertain. An additional watercolour with a poem in french is laid in. Housed in decorative handmade cloth wrappers with an original drawing of a pelican standing under a tree by the waterside. -
![[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT] From the Bhagavdgita, Fechner, etc.](https://stg-thebookmerchantjenkinsclone-bmjstaging.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/0035101-300x300.jpg)
[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT] From the Bhagavdgita, Fechner, etc.
$1,500.00 Add to cartErnest Yarrow Jones
[England]: Ernest Yarrow Jones, No date.
12 pages of 20th century illuminated manuscript bound in hand painted wrappers by the English artist Ernest Yarrow Jones (1872-1951), as identified by a laid in note recording the booklet as a gift from the artist to Jessie [Gilbert]. The text comprises short extracts from the Bhagavdgita and Gustav Fechner’s On Life After Death illustrated with numerous detailed initials and miniature paintings. -
Seaman’s Log Book of 8 Voyages from England and Scotland to Australia, India, the United States, Canada, and the Mediterranean on Merchant Ships, 1868-1872
$1,650.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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20.5cm x 16cm. [340] pages, original manuscript. Half leather, marbled papered boards, marbled endpapers.
Manuscript logbook recording the daily observations of a merchant seaman, E. Acton, on eight voyages aboard the merchant ships Duke of Edinburgh, S.S. St. David, and S.S. Fern Tower for the White Star Company, Montreal Ocean Steam Ship Company, and others. While at sea the log largely records details about the weather and sailing conditions, as well as latitude and longitude, and distanced travelled, “October 7, 1868. Lat 33.08.S. Long. 154.53.E. Dist 167 miles. Course EbyN. Fresh breeze and clear.” While in port the observations also pertain to the comings and goings of people and goods, including deserters as at Newcastle, N.S.W. “September 3, 1868 Commenced at noon to put out ballast. Captain Aberdeen of the Ship “Glouerra” came on board, with the Police, and took 3 of our crew to gaol viz Curran, Hislop and Lawley, who had deserted from his ship in Melbourne where we had shipped them, the former men got 2 months, and the latter 3 months imprisonment.”. Lengthy descriptions are often given when a pilot is on board arriving and departing harbours. Each voyage is given its own title page, listing the ship, a drawing of the flag sailed under, locations visited, and a crew and passenger manifest (crew names are given, passengers are given as a count of the types of passengers). The voyages taken are: 1st Voyage: Duke of Edinburgh, White Star Company, from Liverpool to Melbourne, Vict., thence to Newcastle, N.S.W., thence to San Francisco, Cal., [thence to Cork], thence to Liverpool (April 22nd, 1868 to June 8, 1869); 2nd Voyage: Duke of Edinburgh, Thames & Mersey Line, from Liverpool to Melbourne, Vict, thence to Geelong, Victoria, thence to London (August 7, 1869 to May 13, 1870); 3rd Voyage: Duke of Edinburgh, T. H. Holderness, Esq., from London to Bombay, thence to Liverpool (August 17, 1870 to August 6, 1871); 4th Voyage: St. David, Montreal Ocean Steam Ship Company, from Glasgow to Quebec and Montreal, and back to Glasgow (August 22, 1871 to September 30, 1871); 5th Voyage: St. David, M.O.S.S. Co., from Glasgow to Quebec and Montreal and back to Glasgow (October 4, 1871 to November 11, 1871); 6th Voyage: St, David, The Anchor Line, from Glasgow to The Mediterranean calling at the following places, Talmouth, Lisbon, Gibraltar, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Marseilles, Valentia, Malaga and Gibraltar, thence to New York and Liverpool (November 17, 1871 to February 11, 1872); 7th Voyage: St. David, M.O.S.S. Co., from Liverpool to Portland, Maine, W.S., and back to Liverpool (February 15, 1872 to May 3rd, 1872); 8th Voyage: S. S. Fern Tower, from Cardiff to St. Nazaire, thence to L’Orient and back to Cardiff (September 24, 1872 to October 8, 1872).
Spineback worn off, the upper board and first gathering nearly detached, the first few sheets inside that gathering loose. The rest of the binding is sound. Some foxing to verso of endpapers and first page, else interior is very clean and bright. The manuscript is clean, neat, and easy to read. Good Condition. -
Das Jahr der Seele
$100.00 Add to cartStefan George; Ernest Briggs
Brisbane: Ernest Briggs, No date.
Autograph transcription of German symbolist poet Stefan George’s 1897 work Das Jahr der Seele [The Year of the Soul] by Australian poet, broadcaster, and critic Ernest Briggs (1905-1967). The complete work has been copied in the original German, though the poem starting ‘Keins wie dein feines ohr’ has only been titled with a blank space left for the poem, and the final 9 poems from ‘Ob schwerer nebel in den waldern hangt’ to end have not been included, presumably only because Briggs ran out of room in the book. Penned during Briggs time at 4BK Brisbane sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s. -
Blow Away the Morning Dew: An Autobiography of a Childhood in the Australian Bush
$550.00 Add to cartErnest Briggs
Brisbane: Ernest Briggs, 1967.
The unpublished childhood autobiography of Australian poet, broadcaster, and critic Ernest Briggs (1905-1967). Prepared in Brisbane in 1967, the same year as the author’s death from a myocardial infarction, the typescript is an original source of life in early 20th century New South Wales and also contains 12 mounted photographs with manuscript captions. Littered with his poems and other flourishes Briggs tells of his childhood in a cottage in the then rural bush setting of Marsden Park, Riverstone, north-west of Sydney. After his mother’s death at the age of 3 Briggs spends the next three years at the Ashfield Infant’s Home, he tells of this time and of his relationship with Matron Rebecca Marston. At age 6 Briggs returns to Marsden Park, a sickly child, he is given a doctors pass on school and spends most of his time at his father’s bootmaking workshop in Riverstone, or in the bush around the cottage, both of which he describes at length. He also recounts some of his father’s childhood stories at Ballarat and Clunes, Victoria. A fifth-generation Australian, included are various Briggs family colonial history and correspondence from the early to mid 1800s. His father, growing weary of Ernest’s stubbornness and requiring reprieve does eventually send him off to school and some of his experiences in the small town school are told, with beatings regular. His creative differences quickly become obvious and he further retreats into the beauty of the countryside. Briggs creative interests also began at home, “Once when a visitor had said, ‘Quite an art-showing you’ve got here, Charlie’ my father walked around the room saying, ‘It comes of mixing with artists in my younger days. Not many, but good…. This is a Burket-Foster..; here are a couple by the noted water-colourist, Miss Allingham, a friend of Jessie’s.., she loved the foreshores of the Harbour, as you can see; this is by Gerrard, I did his framing for a number of years; this is by Uncle Tom Roberts, the first man in Australia to paint extensive oils .. you’ll see a couple of unfinished Roberts in the spare room.” Also recounted are trips into Sydney on public holidays with his father, through his eyes we are given a tour of the city and its landmarks, and also told of the history of Sydney’s early years. Ernest tells of his boyhood encounter on the street with actress Nellie Stewart, and working as a messenger-boy in Sydney of casually meeting Dame Nellie Melba, another formative creative moment. Other holiday trips are described viewing old mills out past Campbelltown, or north to Windsor and Richmond, the Camperdown cemetery, and other regional historic sites. -
Paradise Lost
$250.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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30cm x 21cm. 145 leaves (printed recto only), black and white illustrations. Ringbound.
Unrecorded illustrated typescript autobiography of an English-Australian police officer that served with the Royal Papua & New Guinea Constabulary from 1967 to 1974.
Minor soiling. Very Good Condition. -
A Preliminary Disquisition on the Considerations of the Functional Procedure and Design of Exterior Building Spaces
$10.00 Add to cartRobin Phillips; Eugene Lewis
New York: Columbia University, 1966.
With especial reference to the Frank W. Abrams Plaza, Columbia University. Unpublished bound photocopy of typed manuscript with some editor’s marks. From the author’s collection. -
Pencillers, Metallicians, and the Leather Lung Men of Sydney
$60.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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35cm x 20cm. [iii], 93 leaves (printed recto only), black and white illustrations. Papered boards.
A history of the establishment of professional bookmakers in colonial New South Wales, 1855 – 1900. A University of Sydney, History IV, Bachelor Arts (Honours) Thesis.
Minor shelf wear. Some light foxing. Very Good Condition. -
Charters Towers General Merchant Sales Book (1884-1885)
$3,000.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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49.5cm x 30cm. 1246 pages. Original leather over boards with decorative lace, marbled edges and endpapers.
A large ledger recording sales for just shy of a year (18 July, 1884 – 7 July, 1885) during the gold boom years at a Charters Towers general store (From the entries the ledger is without a doubt from Charters Towers and is most likely the firm of Israel Lemel though there are no identifying marks other than a laid in blank 188* receipt slip printed for I. Lemel, late of Brodziak, Rodgers & Lemel). Weighing in at just under 16kg, nearly every page of the ledger is neatly annotated with tens of thousands of entries by numerous hands recording the customer’s name, itemised purchases, and prices paid, as well as monthly sales totals (averaging a little over five thousand pounds a month). From one-off sales through to the regular shops of local families and businesses, including supplies to many of the mining claims in the region, the sale of a wide variety of items are listed: cheese, tobacco, ribbon, boots, bones, steel, candles, brooms, kerosine, dynamite, fuses, sardines, oatmeal, nails, whiskey, rice, bacon, champagne and glasses, to name but some. Israel Lemel was one of the largest landholders in Charters Towers, also serving as a Justice of the Peace and magistrate of the territory. Business turned in the 1890s and Lemel’s merchant firms were liquidated. Nonetheless his business pursuits continued and in 1913 his appearance representing Charters Towers at the Queensland Dinner in London is noted as “whose diamond ring is as massive and whose smile is as expansive as of yore.” hinting at the character of this gold rush town man of enterprise. This large ledger provides a detailed look at the supplies and spendings of individuals, families, miners, and businesses in a 19th century North Queensland gold rush town.
Though worn and rubbed, with chipping to the spine head and tail and some loss to the decorative leather, the binding remains solid and sturdy. The interior is very clean, a light soil on page 557, otherwise only the occasional minor soil. Very Good Condition.