Ending Mar 7, 2024 12:02 EST
Maps, Travel & Sporting Books Including The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection
123
Group of seven intelligence reports on Africa
Estate / Collection: The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection
Group of seven intelligence reports on African subjects, 1893-1918
Comprises FOSTER, HUBERT JOHN. Handbook of British East Africa, including Zanzibar, Uganda, and the territory of the Imperial British East Africa Company. Prepared in the Intelligence Division, War Office. 1893. London: Harrison & Sons for His Majesty's Stationery Office [HMSO], 1893; together with WOODWARD, EDWARD MABBOTT. Précis of Information concerning the Uganda Protectorate. Compiled in the Intelligence Division, War Office. London: [HMSO], 1902; KNOX, ALEXANDER. Notes on the Geology of the Continent of Africa: with an introduction and bibliography. Compiled in the Department of the General Staff, War Office. London: [HMSO], 1905; [MEINERTZHAGEN, R., Colonel.] Field notes on British West Africa. General Staff, India. August 1914. Simla: Printed at the Government Monotype Press, 1914. [One of 330 copies from internal evidence]; [MEINERTZHAGEN, R., Colonel.] Field notes on British and German East Africa. General Staff, India. August 1914. [Nairobi: Command H.Q., December 1915] (with corrections through January 1916 loosely inserted); Intelligence notes on British and German East Africa. Prepared by the Intelligence Department): Nairobi: Command H.Q., March 1916. Stated second edition; and ROUTH, C.M. An Ordnance Officer in East Africa 1914-1916 North & South Persia 1918. N.p: s.n., 1918? Six volumes, various bindings, all but the sixth work housed in handsome clamshell cases with black leather spines.Various formats; a number of the works with extensive maps. Condition varies, but all are sound. The first work has an old institutional ex libris (John Rylands). All but the 1916 work have the book label of Humphrey Winterton in the slipcases.
At least two of these works were prepared by the enigmatic, brutal and unscrupulous British ornithologist and intelligence officer Richard Meinertzhagen, of whom T. E. Lawrence wrote "He was logical, an idealist of the deepest, and so possessed by his convictions that he was willing to harness evil to the chariot of good. He was a strategist, a geographer, and a silent laughing masterful man; who took as blithe a pleasure in deceiving his enemy (or his friend) by some unscrupulous jest, as in spattering the brains of a cornered mob of Germans one by one with his African knob-kerri. His instincts were abetted by an immensely powerful body and a savage brain..." He was reputedly one of Ian Fleming's models for the character of James Bond.
Sold for $2,048
Estimated at $500 - $800
Includes Buyer's Premium
Estate / Collection: The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection
Group of seven intelligence reports on African subjects, 1893-1918
Comprises FOSTER, HUBERT JOHN. Handbook of British East Africa, including Zanzibar, Uganda, and the territory of the Imperial British East Africa Company. Prepared in the Intelligence Division, War Office. 1893. London: Harrison & Sons for His Majesty's Stationery Office [HMSO], 1893; together with WOODWARD, EDWARD MABBOTT. Précis of Information concerning the Uganda Protectorate. Compiled in the Intelligence Division, War Office. London: [HMSO], 1902; KNOX, ALEXANDER. Notes on the Geology of the Continent of Africa: with an introduction and bibliography. Compiled in the Department of the General Staff, War Office. London: [HMSO], 1905; [MEINERTZHAGEN, R., Colonel.] Field notes on British West Africa. General Staff, India. August 1914. Simla: Printed at the Government Monotype Press, 1914. [One of 330 copies from internal evidence]; [MEINERTZHAGEN, R., Colonel.] Field notes on British and German East Africa. General Staff, India. August 1914. [Nairobi: Command H.Q., December 1915] (with corrections through January 1916 loosely inserted); Intelligence notes on British and German East Africa. Prepared by the Intelligence Department): Nairobi: Command H.Q., March 1916. Stated second edition; and ROUTH, C.M. An Ordnance Officer in East Africa 1914-1916 North & South Persia 1918. N.p: s.n., 1918? Six volumes, various bindings, all but the sixth work housed in handsome clamshell cases with black leather spines.Various formats; a number of the works with extensive maps. Condition varies, but all are sound. The first work has an old institutional ex libris (John Rylands). All but the 1916 work have the book label of Humphrey Winterton in the slipcases.
At least two of these works were prepared by the enigmatic, brutal and unscrupulous British ornithologist and intelligence officer Richard Meinertzhagen, of whom T. E. Lawrence wrote "He was logical, an idealist of the deepest, and so possessed by his convictions that he was willing to harness evil to the chariot of good. He was a strategist, a geographer, and a silent laughing masterful man; who took as blithe a pleasure in deceiving his enemy (or his friend) by some unscrupulous jest, as in spattering the brains of a cornered mob of Germans one by one with his African knob-kerri. His instincts were abetted by an immensely powerful body and a savage brain..." He was reputedly one of Ian Fleming's models for the character of James Bond.
Auction: Maps, Travel & Sporting Books Including The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection, ending Mar 7, 2024
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Timed Auction of Maps, Travel & Sporting Books Including the Esmond Bradley Martin Collection
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Bidding Will Open on February 22 and Close on Thursday, March 7, 2024 beginning at 10am
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Consignments Are Currently Being Accepted for Future Auctions
NEW YORK, NY -- Doyle will hold a timed online auction of Maps, Travel & Sporting Books closing on Thursday, March 7, 2024 beginning at 10am. Explore the world through a fascinating range of offerings featuring maps, Americana, travel, sporting books, literary sets and the Esmond Bradley Martin Collection of Africana.
Esmond Bradley Martin
Esmond Bradley Martin (1941-2018) was educated as a geographer and philosopher. He and his wife Chryssee had an enduring fascination with Africa, and settled in Nairobi, Kenya, in the mid-1970s. He wrote extensively, oftentimes in conjunction with his wife, publishing works including Zanzibar. Tradition and Revolution, Hamish Hamilton, 1978; Cargoes of the east. The ports, trade, and culture of the Arabian Seas and western Indian Ocean, Elm Tree Press, 1978; and many other works on African history and conservation. In the late 1970s, he began extensive research into the illegal trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn, which included substantial stints incognito posing as a buyer of illicit wildlife products. For a while, he served as special envoy for rhino conservation for the United Nations.
For about thirty years, beginning in the mid-1960s, Esmond Bradley Martin assiduously collected books and manuscripts on Africa and its history, acquiring a phenomenal collection of letters by many of the major English explorers of the nineteenth century, as well as numerous rarities from earlier centuries. He was buying at a time when troves of such material surfaced frequently at English auctions. Doyle was privileged to offer the first selection from his collection in the November 7, 2023 auction. We are pleased to present this second offering of property from The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection.
VIEWINGS BY APPOINTMENT
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TIMED ONLINE AUCTION
Bidding in the timed online auction will open on Thursday, February 22 and close on Thursday, March 7 beginning at 10am. Lots will close sequentially, one lot per minute, with a soft close. Should any bids be placed in the final minute, bidding will remain open on that lot for three (3) additional minutes.
PAYMENT
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We Invite You to Auction!
Consignments are currently being accepted for future auctions. We invite you to contact us for a complimentary auction evaluation. Our Specialists are always available to discuss the sale of a single item or an entire collection.
For information, please contact Peter Costanzo at 212-427-4141, ext 248, or Edward Ripley-Duggan at ext. 234, or email Books@Doyle.com
