James Cummins Bookseller is proud to present a catalogue of nautical inventory that spans many collecting interests, from whaling novels and pirate tales to scientific inquiry and personal narratives of lives at sea. Highlights include the first American edition of Moby-Dick; an uncommon 1793 juvenile adaptation of The Most Surprising Adventures and Wonderful Life of Robinson Crusoe, in miniature; and a first edition of Captain Joshua Slocum's Voyage of the Liberdade, a first-hand account of the wreck of his ship and dangerous voyage home.
Price: $600
New York: Sea Cliff Editions, 1985. de Kooning, Elaine. First Edition, Number 29 of 120 copies, signed by both author and artist. Read More Item Details for Where the Blue Begins Add to Wish List
Item #310921
Price: $1,750
London: sold by A. Manson, P. Denham, W. Robertson, and F. Nicholson, n.d. [ca. 1766-69?]. First edition. This Journal of the circumnavigation of the Dolphin in 1764-6 starts out as a seafaring account of travel from Plymouth to Madeira to Brazil, and the claiming of the Falkland Islands for the..... Read More Item Details for A Journal of a Voyage round the world, in His Majesty’s ship the Dolphin, commanded by the Honourable Commodore Byron. … Together with an accurate account of the seven islands lately discovered in the South Seas. By a Midshipman on board the said ship Add to Wish List
Item #317183
Price: $200
New York: Oxford University Press, 1952. Second edition, New edition, with corrections, second printing. Read More Item Details for Under the Sea-Wind. A Naturalist's Picture of Ocean Life Add to Wish List
Item #55335
Price: $2,000
New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1897. First edition of The Nigger of the “Narcissus”, preceding the London edition. With "Island" for "Islands" on the title-page and the headline and page number not printed on p. 58. Published on November 30, 1897 in an edition of 1,000 copies. The London..... Read More Item Details for The Children of the Sea. A Tale of the Forecastle Add to Wish List
Item #303591
Price: $900
New York: Doubleday McClure, 1900. First American edition, second state. First American edition of Conrad's great novel. At the time of publication, Doubleday & McClure were in the process of breaking up (into Doubleday Page, and McClure Philips), and there was some uncertainty as to which firm would inherit the..... Read More Item Details for Lord Jim Add to Wish List
Item #303677
Price: $2,000
London: [Printed for Joseph Conrad by] Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, 1919. First edition; one of 25 numbered copies, of which this 4. This was the twelfth of twenty very limited issue Conrad productions by Thomas J. Wise. This originally appeared in an issue of Outlook [June 4, 1898], later..... Read More Item Details for Tales of the Sea Add to Wish List
Item #346860
Price: $4,250
Dublin: Price, Whitestone, Chamberlain, et al, 1781. First Dublin edition. First Dublin edition. The first Dublin edition of the first full account in English of Cook's third and final voyage. Rickman was a second lieutenant aboard the Discovery. "It provides an important supplement to the official account of the Third..... Read More Item Details for Journal of Captain Cook's Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, on Discovery; Performed in the Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779 Add to Wish List
Item #310852
Price: $950
Philadelphia: Cary, Lea, & Carey, 1828-1827. First American edition, preceded by the Paris and London editions. Cooper’s popular nautical tale of the adventures of Captain James Wilder and his pursuit of the pirate Red Rover. Notable characters include sailors Dick Fid, and Scipio Africa, a free black man. The Red..... Read More Item Details for The Red Rover. A Tale Add to Wish List
Item #319953
Price: $2,000
London: Published by James Robins and Co. Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; and Joseph Robins, Jun. and Co. Ormond Quay, Dublin, 1826. First edition. A famous and popular early production of Cruikshank's, illustrating the nautical accounts of Matthew Henry Barker (1790-1846). The artist illustrated other of Barker's sea tales; in 1820..... Read More Item Details for Greenwich Hospital, A series of Naval Sketches, Descriptive of the Life of a Man-of-War's Man. By an Old Sailor Add to Wish List
Item #58260
Price: $1,850
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1840. First edition, presumed second printing with “i” on copyright page undotted and headline on broken running head on p. 9. Read More Item Details for Two Years Before the Mast. A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea Add to Wish List
Item #333246
Price: $3,750
Newburyport: Printed at Osborne’s Office, Market-Square, 1793. Margreta Dodge her book. An uncommon early American juvenile adaptation of the classic novel of shipwreck and self-reliance in adversity. ESTC reports only three locations. With a nice contemporary ownership signature at the back, “Margreta Dodge her book”. Read More Item Details for The Most Surprising Adventures and Wonderful Life of Robinson Crusoe Add to Wish List
Item #322846
Price: $950
Cape Cod: ca. 1937. Candid photograph of O'Neill on the beach. This photograph was likely taken at Cape Cod in the spring of 1937 by New England photographer Alton H. "Blackie" Blackington, who took several other photographs of O'Neill with his wife Agnes Boulton, and daughter Oona on May 7th..... Read More Item Details for Eugene O'Neill photograph and autograph Add to Wish List
Item #345766
Price: $450
London: Chatto and Windus 214, Piccadilly, [1886]. Greenaway, Kate. First edition. Read More Item Details for The Queen of Pirate Isle Add to Wish List
Item #254605
Price: $750
London: Henry Colburn, 1844. Second edition. Admiral Dillon's Copy. The best account of the Opium War of 1839-1842 with a "complete" account of the colony of Hong Kong. The Nemesis was the first British ocean-going iron warship. Launched in 1839 for the East India Company, the British used her to..... Read More Item Details for Narrative of the Voyages and Services of The Nemesis from 1840 to 1843; and of the combined naval and military operations in China: comprising a complete account of the colony of Hong-Kong, and remarks on the character and habits of the Chinese. From notes of Commander W.H. Hall, R.N. with personal observations, by W.D. Bernard Add to Wish List
Item #318083
Price: $2,250
London: Eveleigh Nash Company Limited, 1917. First edition. Scarce. Collection of crime stories, narrated by the scrupulous smuggler and ladies' man, Captain Gault. Scarce. Read More Item Details for Captain Gault. Being the Exceedingly Private Log of a Sea-Captain Add to Wish List
Item #242438
Price: $350
Philadelphia: 1224 Chesnut St, [1869]. First edition, variant issue in red cloth [also seen in green and blue cloth]. Rare [OCLC locates only three holdings, one of which is incomplete: Indiana University (two copies in variant color bindings); Virginia (incomplete)]. Read More Item Details for THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER'S DAUGHTER. A True Story [published anonymously] Add to Wish List
Item #325045
Price: $250
London: Whittaker & Co. N.Y. Macmillan, 1892. First Edition. Read More Item Details for The Atlantic Ferry, its Ships, Men, and Working Add to Wish List
Item #231437
Price: $12,500
Saint-Paul, A.-M: Les Cahiers du Contadour, [n.d., 1939]. First edition in French, one of a very few copies printed. 'Je m'appelle Ishmaèl" — véritable édition originale de Moby Dick en français. The first notice of Moby Dick in French dates from the first volume of the Revue des Deux Mondes..... Read More Item Details for Moby Dick. Traduit de l’Américain par Lucien Jacques, Joan Smith et Jean Giono Add to Wish List
Item #305175
Price: $10,000
Incredible Memento Of Peary's North Pole Expedition. This elaborately bound volume of guest autographs was commissioned for the yacht Sheelah, owned by millionaire industrialist Charles Ross (1848-1913). Originally from Scotland, Ross emigrated to North America in 1868 and built a fortune as a railway engineer, settling finally in Montreal. In..... Read More Item Details for Guest book of yacht Sheelah, signed by Robert E. Peary, 21 September 1909, upon his return from the North Pole Add to Wish List
Item #315967
Price: $4,000
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1921. First edition. No. 44 of 50 copies only on Japan vellum stock the first printing from new plates, signed by Merle Johnson on the limitation page. Read More Item Details for Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates. Compiled by Merle Johnson Add to Wish List
Item #266028
Price: $7,500
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1921. First edition, no. 21 of 50 copies only on Japan vellum stock, signed by Merle Johnson on the limitation page. With 7 Merle Johnson Watercolors of Piratical Scenes. The deluxe edition on Japan vellum of this collection of pirate tales and illustrations by Howard..... Read More Item Details for Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates. Compiled by Merle Johnson Add to Wish List
Item #300214
Price: $1,750
Boston: 1842. First edition. WITH A REPORT ON THE STATE OF THE US NAVY. Rockwell's time with the navy came by accident rather than by design: "passage to the Mediterranean ... had been granted him by the Secretary of the Navy, and as there was no Chaplain on board, he..... Read More Item Details for Sketches of Foreign Travel and Life at Sea; including a cruise on board a man-of-war, as also a visit to Spain, Portugal.... and a treatise on the navy of the United States Add to Wish List
Item #300155
Price: $850
n.p: n.d., ca. 1940s. Striking Original Watercolor by Gordon Ross. A striking image of an underwater scene, showing the wrecks of various vessels, from Norse longboat to galleon, to liner, to Nazi U-boat, surrounding a uniformed nautical officer, presumably Lord Nelson. Gordon Ross (1873-1946) was a prolific artist, working mostly..... Read More Item Details for ORIGINAL pencil, crayon and watercolor drawing, captioned “Davy Jones Locker” Add to Wish List
Item #41807
Price: $1,250
Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co, 1823. First edition. William Scoresby jr (1789-1857) was the son of the famed Arctic explorer, William Scoresby (1760-1829) and learned to sail while accompanying his father on several of his voyages. That training was put to good use once he starting annual whaling..... Read More Item Details for Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-Fishery; including Researches and Discoveries on the eastern Coast of West Greenland, made in the summer of 1822, in the ship Baffin of Liverpool Add to Wish List
Item #58701
Price: $500
Howard J. Shannon was a naturalist, author, and illustrator in the late 19th and early 20th century. He is well known for his book entitled Book of the Seashore (1935). This specific piece is paint on board of two blue crabs fighting under the water surrounded by other crustaceans and..... Read More Item Details for Crabs fighting Add to Wish List
Item #266995