Robert Falcon Scott

British arctic explorer, 1868-1812

Scott led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13. During the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott's party discovered plant fossils, proving Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents. At a distance of 150 miles from their base camp and 11 miles from the next depot, Scott and his companions died from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.

Source: Wikipedia

Scott, Robert Falcon

English Polar explorer (1868-1912). Autograph Signature, ‘Robt. F Scott’ / ‘Discovery’’. no place, no date [1904]. Oblong-4to. 2 pp.
$ 5,949 / 5.500 € (91799)

Autograph Signature, ‘Robt. F Scott’ / ‘Discovery’’, [1904], inscribed on a large album page removed from a visitors’ book with discreet date (1904) to the left of each entry in another hand, with 6 further signatures on the same page: Admiral Edward Field (1828-1912). Royal Naval officer and Conservative politician; H[ugh] O[akeley] Arnold-Foster (1890-1965). Politician, writer and Secretary of State for War; [Sir Henry Macleod] Leslie Rundle (1828-1912). British Army General; Alice Blanche Balfour (1850-1936).

Scottish entomologist, naturalist & scientific illustrator; Orlando Bridgeman [Earl of Bradford and later Viscount Newport] (1873-1957). Conservative politician and soldier; David Ward (not traced); and 6 further signatures to verso: Howard of Effingham (1866-1927); Colonel George Charles Bingham, 5th Earl of Lucan (1860-1949); Claude Hamilton (1843-1925); Henry de Vere Vane, 9th Baron Barnard (1854-1918); plus 2 further signatures of untraced ‘James Lowther’ and ‘George Barnsley’.

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[Scott, Robert Falcon

English Polar explorer (1868-1912)]. Certificate awarded by W. G. Baxter's Ally Sloper, "the Sloper Award of Merit". London & Leicester. 27.09.1909. 575 x 445 mm. Full-colour printed poster.
$ 703 / 650 € (34060/BN29779)

Joke certificate granted to "Captain Scott R.N. F.O.S. because he is a brave explorer and deserves success", according to which "he shall be entitled to affix to his name in any manner however absurdly indistinct or offensively conspicuous the mystic letters F.O.S." ("Friend of Sloper"). - The perpetually red-nosed Ally Sloper, developed in 1867, is one of the earliest fictional comic strip characters and remained highly popular in Britain until the end of the Edwardian era and WWI caused him to disappear from the cartoon scene. - Slight wrinkling and duststaining. Rolled. Provenance: Lady Scott and her descendants.

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Scott, Robert Falcon

Manuscript record of Scott's bank account with Messrs. Woodhead & Co.
Autograph ist nicht mehr verfügbar

An interesting record of the principal expenses and payments received during Scott's early career. Prior to the departure of his first expedition, lack of funds was probably one of Scott's most persistant worries. During the period covered he not only had to support himself, but also (from the end of 1897) his mother, his father having died on 27 October 1897. - Upper cover with inset paper label, bearing name in ink in manuscript "Lieut: [crossed through, inserted in its stead:] Commander R.F. Scott. R.N.", the lower cover with mounted letterpress label "It is requested that this book may be forwarded to to Messrs. Woodhead & Co., to be made up at the end of every quarter [...]". Insignificant scuffing to extremities.


Scott, Robert Falcon

Autograph letter signed ("RScott").
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A "private note under the exceptional circumstances" of his dismissal of Thomas Feather, boatswain of the Terra Nova, written to Sir Richard Poore: "[...] Mr Feather has only one suit of uniform and for this and other reasons, he is anxious to get home at the earliest opportunity. As I said I am very desirous to meet his wishes in view of the heavy punishment of his dismissal [...] All our arrangements are going on well [...]". - Feather had occupied the same position on the Discovery expedition, and accompanied Scott on the Western Journey; Mount Feather in the Quartermain Mountains is named after him. Scott had then praised him as "a thorough seaman, [who] took that intense pride in his charge which was so well known in the old sailing days"; he reportedly discharged Feather from the Terra Nova as a result of friction between him and Lieutenant Henry Rennick. - Printed heading of British Antarctic Expedition, stamp and two annotations by recipient; edges slightly frayed, and somewhat wrinkled.


Scott, Robert Falcon

Scott's pocket diary for 1910 ("Army & Navy Thin Pocket Diary") with autogr. ownership inscription on title ("Captain Robert F. Scott. RN &c 36-38 Victoria St. Westminster SW"). Also includes a gentleman's leather wallet, stamped on upper cover with initi
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The hitherto virtually unknown prequel to what is arguably, along with that of Samuel Pepys, the most famous diary in the English language. Scott's pocket journal for his last months in England before his setting out on the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition contains brief entries for more than half a year of intense preparation, with addresses and lists of names added on the concluding leaves. It offers a vivid, though elliptical, insight into the frantic pace of getting ready for the expedition, with which almost all the entries are in some way concerned. The earliest, for 4 December 1909, notes "Interview Drs Wilson & Atkinson"; other appointments as the months go by include practical meetings at the Australian and New Zealand High Commissions, the Admiralty and the R.G.S. His departure for Norway is noted on 26 February, where on 1 March he is to "Go to furs people & sledges". Many of the entries reflect Scott's preoccupation with the financing of the expedition, which takes him on tours to Middlesbrough, Manchester, Liverpool and elsewhere, and the necessary round of dinners, lectures and press calls. As the date of the expedition's departure approaches, on 27 April he notes "Medical Exam: for Officers", on 7 May "Ship including experiments" and on 26 May "Huntley & Palmers Directors visit Ship"; on 7 June: "Leave for Cardiff". Amongst the last entries are a series of valedictory audiences: 25 June "Audience Queen Alexandra", 5 July "11.0 Audience H.M. The King", etc. Among the concluding memoranda are a few notes of addresses of expedition members and suppliers, as well as scattered memoranda, including "send Wilson 'Scurvy'" and the poignant "After the expedition a list of firms whose goods were taken and were found to be thoroughly satisfactory will be published". Scott left England for the last time on 16 July, rejoining the Terra Nova in Cape Town. During the expedition to the South Pole, Scott kept a separate diary in which he recorded the hardships of the journey. He and four companions reached the pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that Amundsen's Norwegian team had beaten them by 33 days. The entire party perished on the return journey from the pole. When Scott's records were discovered with the bodies by a search party in November, it cemented the explorer's role as English tragic hero. The famous diary, which helped shape the image of polar exploration, now rests in the British Library under the shelfmark Add. MS 51035. The present 1910 journal, little noted until now, a century after the event which came to be perceived in British collective consciousness as a magnificent failure of near-mythical proportions, provides an unsettling exposition to that legendary tragedy. - Includes a typed leaf "Approximate Programme of 'Terra Nova's' movements" ("Leave London June 1st [...] Leave Lyttelton Novr. 15th"), with four autograph emendations, inserted in pocket inside upper cover. - Provenance: Robert Falcon Scott, and thence by descent to the last owner.