Exploration & Travel from Shapero Rare Books

Shapero Rare Books has published a catalogue of Exploration & Travel 2023 Part Two. It is a collection of historic travels emanating mostly from England but also other European locations. They went north, south, and east, though journeys west to the Americas are absent from this collection. It is divided into sections, mostly by the lands visited: Africa; Arabia, Iraq and the Gulf; Greece, Turkey and Crimea; India and South-East Asia; and the Polar Regions. The final section is on Women Travelers. With that, we'll start our journey through this catalogue.

We will begin with John Hanning Speke's What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile, published in 1864. This is a common book but not this copy. It is one of only 12 copies printed for the author. These copies include an eight-page supplement that was suppressed by the publisher. In it, Speke writes about how they left Africa, those who helped them and how the Sultan of Zanzibar “saved our honour” by paying someone off. He continues about writing in support of paying their porters as his expedition partner, Richard Burton, refused to do. Speke and Burton had a contentious relationship, undoubtedly fed by their egos. Speke claimed to have found the source of the Nile, while Burton denied that he found the actual source (Speke was right). He points that out in the supplement. This copy was presented by Speke's brother, Ben, to John Pine Coffin, who was married to Speke's sister, Matilda. While 12 of these copies were printed, only five are now known. Item 15. Priced at £18,000 (British pounds or approximately $22,668 in U.S. dollars).

Speaking of Speke's rival, Sir Richard Burton was England's most notable explorer of the 19^th century. He conducted numerous expeditions to Africa and Asia, even a visit to America to the Great Salt Lake. He wrote numerous books about his experiences. Here is one: Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah, published in 1855-56. Non-believers were not permitted to visit Muslim's holy sites and risked death by attempting to do so. That did not dissuade Burton. He became the first Christian to enter Mecca as a pilgrim. He disguised himself as an Afghan Pathan, and learned the language, accent, customs, and of course the religion of an Afghan well enough to fool the authorities. Item 26. £12,500 (US $15,747).

The next book is the story of a pirate, or maybe not a pirate. An authentick and faithful history of that arch-pyrate Tulagee Angria. With a curious Narrative of the Siege and taking of the Town and Fortress of Geriah, and the Destruction of his whole Naval Force, by Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive, published in 1756. To the British Tulagee Angria was certainly a pirate. He attacked British shipping along the Indian coast, controlling forts along the west coast as part of the plan. It all finally came to head in an attack on the fortress of Geriah on February 13, 1756. Geriah surrendered, but Angria himself escaped – temporarily. He was later taken prisoner by the British and died several years later still imprisoned. While Angria was thought of as a pirate, he descended from a family that patrolled the seas of their territory and may have been an agent of the government that ruled the area, in effect collecting goods from shipping on its behalf. The Angrias today are seen by many as local heroes for resisting the British. Item 100 £4,750 (US $5,998).

The Crimean Peninsula holds a strategic location in the Black Sea, resulting in the unfortunate result that it has been the source of struggle by major powers over the years. Of course, it's in the news today as Russia seized it from Ukraine, with those nations now at war, the West supporting Ukraine. A war was fought over it in the 1850s, and the parties were very similar. Russia was on one side, the western powers of Britain and France, along with the Ottoman Empire, on the other. Item 72 is Sketches in the Camp before Sebastopol. Published for the Benefit of the Patriotic Fund, by Charles Hardinge, published in 1855. Hardinge did his drawings of the camp at Sebastopol during the Crimean War. He went to Crimea as an artist rather than a soldier as a result of losing a leg as a boy. He is better known for an earlier volume of drawings he did in India, where his father was Governor-General. This book is far less common. The Patriotic Fund was a fund set up by Queen Victoria with Prince Albert as the President to raise funds for the benefit of the widows and children of soldiers killed in the war. £6,500 (US $8,027).

Anna Lady Brassey was an enormously popular travel writer in the late 19^th century. The tales of her journeys captured the public imagination, though few would be able to match her feat. That's not because she was a daring explorer, exploring places like the North Pole or darkest Africa where no one from the West had dared go before. It was because few could match her wealth and free time. She was well-off and privileged, with no trouble flaunting her status and position. Her books recounted the adventures she and her husband experienced while sailing on their yacht, the Sunbeam. They traveled the waters from the coasts of Asia to South America. She died on one of these trips off the coast of Africa. Her husband could not bring her back the long distance to England quickly enough to preserve her body for burial, so he gave her a burial at sea. She sleeps with the fishes. Most of her books were best sellers, but not this one. Evidently, only a very small number were printed. It was privately printed using a lithograph of a manuscript in cursive. Shapero has not been able to find any copies in institutional collections and it does not show up in the auction records. It was mentioned in a catalogue of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland saying it was “apparently one of several copies, for the use of friends.”

The title is Lady Brassey's Visit to Craignahullie. Craignahullie is a “cottage” in Scotland. She sailed there from her home in Scotland (this was not one of her long trips) with several stops along the way. She speaks of a party joining them for dinner on the Sunbeam, dining on a “portion of the fat buck sent to [the Brasseys] from Windsor by Her Most Gracious Majesty.” Lady Brassey was not above name dropping, and whose name was better to drop back then than Queen Victoria's? They also stay in the “palace” of Wemyss Castle owned by the Chairman of the Cunard Line. However, she also meets some ordinary people, like the fisherman who wished only to “have the honour of shaking hands with a lady who has given me and mine, and many others too, more pleasure than anyone else in the world.” Then there's the bed-bound Irish labourer who read one of her books five times. It made “the long winter evenings short and the hours of sickness less bitter.” If nothing else, Lady Brassey came back with some good quotes for the dust jacket of her next book. Unfortunately, she was not a healthy woman, her poor health a recurring theme. She recommended getting away from England's rain-soaked shores and go to a land of sunshine for those of ill-health. That is what she was doing seven years after this 1880 trip when she died. Item 119. £5,000 (US $6,316).

Shapero Rare Books may be reached at +44 (0)20 7493 0876 or rarebooks@shapero.com. Their website is www.shapero.com.

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