Pinnacle Books - Specialist Antiquarian Bookshop

Pinnacle Books ~ Travel

Books 1 to 16 of 16

£ 40

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Angus, Max.

THE WORLD OF OLEGAS TRUCHANAS.

OBM.

1975

Second edition.

Truchanas was a leading wilderness conservationist and photographer who drowned while canoeing in the Gordon River Gorge in January 1972, during the unsuccessful campaign to save Lake Pedder from inundation.

Large size. 144pp with 44 colour plates, 13 other illus and 2 maps. No inscriptions or other blemishes. Fine in fine complete and unclipped dustwrapper.

£ 375

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Burton, Captain Sir Richard, F.

FIRST FOOTSTEPS IN EAST AFRICA or, An Exploration of Harar.

Tylston & Edwards.

1894

Memorial Edition.

In two volumes. London. 1894. Volume I: 209pp and illustrated with a map, two chromolithograph colour plates and three small drawings in the text. Volume II: 276pp and illustrated with a map and two chromolithograph colour plates and four small drawings in the text. In original pictorial black cloth gilt. First edition thus. Volume I lacks (as usual) a blank front free endpaper and the third colour plate 'The Fal' which though present in the plate list was never included in this edition. No inscriptions. Text block tight and square, hinges strong and the text block is clean and bright. Very minor clean tape repair on plate of Harar opposite title page. Small previous owner stamp mark on top of title and half title page. A near fine set.

This is Volume 6 and Volume 7 of the seven volume memorial edition which was edited by Lady Isabel Burton in honour of her husband’s work. These volumes record Burton's first expedition into Somalia, where the intention was to explore the forbidden Moslem city of Harar. At the time, no European had ever ventured into the city. Additionally, Burton was trying to collect information about the headwaters of the Nile. This was the first expedition in which Burton was joined by John Speke. Later the two men became fierce exploration rivals and critics of each others work. Despite the expedition achieving its main objective of entering Harar, Lieut. Stroyan died and Burton received his famous spear wound to his face during an attack by tribesman while camped on the beach at Berberah (Penzer, p.60-63).

£ 365

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Chapman, Abel.

SAVAGE SUDAN: Its Wild Tribes, Big Game and Bird Life.

Gurney and Jackson.

1921

First edition.

In orginal dark green cloth, with gilt warthog to upper board and gilt buffalo to rear. Gilt spine lettering. Top page ends in gilt.

Text block tight and square. The cloth is clean, bright and fresh as are the 452 pages with 248 illustrations, mostly from rough sketches by the author. A fine copy.

£ 125

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Cordova, A. de [Admiral).

A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY TO THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN: With an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants; and of the Natural Productions of Patagonia.

Richard Phillips & Co.

1820

First edition.

London. 104pp with folded map as frontispiece. The map shows the Straits of, Magellan and Tierra del Fuego. The paper and map are slightly darkened in places.

The text has been translated from the Spanish. Rebound in quarter leather brown cloth binding with gilt spine lettering.

£ 28

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Dalrymple, William.

FROM THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium.

Harper Collins.

1997

Reprint.

The author's third travel book records how in 587AD two monks set-off on an extraordinary journey across the Byzantine World from the Bosphorus to Egypt. On the way John Moschos and his pupil Sophronius, the Sophist, stayed in caves, hermitages & monasteries collecting the wisdom of the stylites and the desert fathers before their fragile world was shattered under the great eruption of Islam. Over 1000 years later, using Moschos's writings as his guide, Dalrymple retraces their footsteps finding history, black comedy, civil war, politics & adventure.

483pp plus 33 b/w photo illus. Map of Middle East on endpapers. Near fine in fine unclipped dustwrapper. The only blemishes are small previous owner signature and date on opening endpaper and across the opening endpaper and title page a neat diagonal cut has removed the lower 5cm by 5cm of both pages.

£ 35

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Dalrymple, William.

FROM THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium.

Harper Collins.

1997

Reprint.

483pp plus 33 b/w photo illus. Map of Middle East on endpapers. Fine in fine unclipped dustwrapper.

£ 35

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Dominique, Pierre.

SECRETS OF SIBERIA.

Hutchinson.

1934

First edition.

Clean, bright attractive volume.

288pp with 12 plates. No inscriptions. Near fine condition. Lightest of spotting to page ends.

£ 500

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Doughty, Charles M.

TRAVELS IN ARABIA DESETA.

Jonathan Cape.

1936

First issue of the 1936 ‘New and Definitive Edition’ with the introduction by T. E. Lawrence.

One of the classics of exploration and travel: Doughty’s ‘Travels’ had little immediate influence upon its publication in 1888 however it slowly became a text which was valued for its language as well as its content. T.E. Lawrence rediscovered the book and contributed an admiring Introduction of his own. The book is a vast recounting of Doughty's treks through the Arabian deserts, and his discoveries. These books remain as an unrivalled encyclopaedia of knowledge about nineteenth-century Arabia. Scarce.

Two volumes. 672pp and 696pp including portrait frontispiece in first volume, profusely illustrated througout with maps, plans and plates, some folding, and large folding maps in the inside rear covers of both volumes. In publishers’ original brown polished buckram with gilt spine lettering. No inscriptions or other blemishes. Text block, tight and square. Fine contents / cloth. The dustwrappers (d/w) have chips and creases to d/w extremities (most notably at the foot of the spine of Volume 1) and a few scattered surface marks.

£ 45

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Fountain, Paul.

THE RIVER AMAZON: FROM ITS SOURCES TO THE SEA.

Constable.

1914

First edition.

In original green cloth with bright gilt titles. Fine contents / cloth. A clean, bright attractive copy of this quite scarce travel book.

321pp with large folding map and advert leaf and 16 plates.

£ 495

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Jack, Robert Logan.

NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA: Three Centuries of Exploration, Discovery and Adventure in and around the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. With a study of the narratives of all explorers by sea and land in the light of modern charting.

Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co.

1921

First edition.

Jack, a Scot, became Queensland Government Geologist from 1877 to 1899. During this time he made numerous important mineralogical surveys, He mapped and appraised coal prospects near Cooktown, Townsville and the Flinders River, and reported on twelve goldfields including Mount Morgan, Charters Towers and the Palmer, as well as four northern tinfields and other silver mines. In this his final published work Jack provides detailed accounts of many explorations in northern Queensland and as such the books also covers Captain Bligh, James Cook, HMS Beagle, swamps & creeks, disease, insects, crocodile, aborigines, poison plants, rivers, the mangroves, cannibalism, beginning of Cooktown, geological surveys, gold mining, desert, lakes & lagoons, Polynesian labour, railways, aboriginal women & white men, reefs, kidnapping, light houses, alleged murders by aborigines, food, conflicts with aborigines and much more.

London. Two volumes. In original green cloth bindings with half title to both volumes, frontispiece plate to volume 1, numerous portrait illustrations,17 folding maps to rear pockets [complete]. Endpapers lightly browned with some occasional light spotting [mostly marginal] to top page ends. Previous owners’ neat dated signature on half title page. The majority of pages are clean and bright. Text block tight and square. Hinges secure with boards firmly attached. A near fine rare set of volumes on Australia and its early exploration.

£ 20

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Marnham, Patrick.

SO FAR FROM GOD: A Journey to Central America.

Jonathan Cape.

1985

First edition.

Winner of the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.

253pp with endpaper maps. No inscriptions or other blemishes. Fine in fine unclipped dustwrapper.

£ 365

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Philby, H.St.J.B.

A PILGRIM IN ARABIA.

Golden Cockerel Press.

1943

First edition.

Henry Saint John Bridger Philby was a distinguished explorer who made the first East-West crossing of Arabia.

Complete in attractive quarter calf with cream linen covered boards, bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe and printed by Christopher Sandford and Owen Rutter at the Golden Cockerel Press. Raised bands to spine with clear gilt lettering, top edge gilt. 192pp with frontispiece portrait of the author. Very light spotting to linen boards in places and two slight marks on rear board. Limited edition. This copy is numbered 244 of 350. Bookplate. Very clean and bright internally.

£ 18

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Raban, Jonathan.

PASSAGE TO JUNEAU: A Sea and It’s Meanings.

Picador

1999

First edition

On April Fools Day '96 Raban set out alone in his boat to sail from Seattle to the Alaskan Panhandle hoping to decode the varied meanings of the sea - in Indian art and mythology, in the journals of George Vancouver and his officers, in poetry and painting, in the physics of waves and turbulence.

435pp with fold out map. Fine in fine dustwrapper.

£ 60

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Richards, Fred.

A PERSIAN JOURNEY.

Cape.

1931

First edition.

A sketcher's impressions of the Middle East including the Persian cities of Isfahan, Julfa, Shiraz, Kerman and Tabriz.

239pp with 48 plates. In original brick red cloth with gilt lettering. Bookplate. Very good+ cloth with a little scattered foxing to opening pages. The vg-dustwrapper (d/w) has general wear and spine discolouring, plus small area of loss to top spine / front top edge corner.

£ 15

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