[CAMPBELL, Sir Donald]

World Challenge. Proteus Bluebird Project 1963 [cover title]

[London], Griggs Lander Associates Limited [for Sir Donald Campbell?], February 1963.

Small oblong quarto (183 × 245 mm), 16 pages with numerous two-colour line illustrations plus the colour-pictorial covers.

Colour-pictorial card covers (featuring Roy Nockolds artwork), with colour illustrations on the inside panels; covers lightly rubbed, with a short crease to the front top corner; an excellent copy (internally fine).

Donald Campbell has signed his portrait printed on the first page (done at a book launch in Adelaide at the time).

The 1963 World Land Speed Record attempt at Lake Eyre was abandoned when a 20-year drought broke and the lake was flooded; a successful attempt was made the following year. Most of the illustrations relate to the construction of the Bluebird-Proteus CN7 vehicle used in both attempts.

Offered together with an original gelatin silver photograph (191 × 236 mm) of a group of seven men leaning on or standing near the vehicle on the salt pan at Lake Eyre. The photograph was taken by Leonard George Gallagher, employed at the time by the Weapons Research Establishment in Adelaide; he was at Lake Eyre as part of the Commonwealth Government's contribution to the record attempt. He was not an official photographer, but he produced a unique album for his own benefit, which we sold some years ago. This print has a few creases; a better example of it was present in the album. A copy of 'Bluebird and the Dead Lake. The Story of Donald Campbell's Land Speed Record at Lake Eyre in 1964' by John Pearson (London, Collins, 1965; a very good copy with the dustwrapper) comes with the ephemera. [3 items].

Item #145411

Price (AUD): $1,000.00
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