March2015list

HORDERN HOUSE March 2015

acqs@hordern.com

ARAGO, Jacques.

Letter signed by Arago after he had gone blind, offering his correspondent the four-volume “Souvenirs” account of the Freycinet voyage.

Single page letter, 225 x 160 mm., very good. September [1841].

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Arago’s failing eyesight: “Ma plume est ma seule fortune…”

A beautiful letter dictated by Arago and signed by him in pencil.

In the letter he tells his correspondent that he has been blind for some four years, but that although in this sad state, plunged into profound darkness, he had written a four-volume account of his voyages, the publication of which has been crowned with success. He now takes, Arago continues, the liberty of sending a set to his correspondent, begging him to accept, and saying that being able to admit him to the list of subscribers would be a great honour.

Arago signs off with a cryptic note, hoping that his correspondent will receive from “du pauvre Bélisaire” the assurances of his greatest respect: Bélisaire was a novel by Marmontel published in 1767 and famous in France as an example of the ingratitude of those in power towards their faithful servants: was Arago implying that he too had been cast aside by the French authorities? Whatever the case, the gift was not accepted but only, as a note in a second hand at the top of the letter confirms, because a set of the books was already in the recipient’s library.

Arago letters are quite uncommon, especially where they relate directly to his voyage accounts and experiences. Although the year this letter is not openly stated, Arago is recorded as having gone blind in 1837, hence a likely date of later 1841 here.

$2450

ARAGO, Jacques.

Signed watercolour, “Voyage de l’Uranie; Insectes pl. no. 15”.

Watercolour on sheet of laid paper, 245 x 195 mm., paper watermarked “Edmeads & Pine 1798”; modern mount. Circa 1820.

Butterflies collected on the Uranie voyage A sheet of butterfly watercolours by Jacques Arago, depicting specimens from “Ile de France” and “Nouvelle Hollande”.

Jacques Arago (1790-1855) joined the Freycinet expedition in 1817 and was not only the most accomplished of the artists who made the voyage, but was one of the most intriguing of all the early voyagers. He published a well-regarded account of the voyage (1822), and wrote any number of different versions over the ensuing decades.

The sheet is prepared in the usual way by Arago, including the simple line border and the reference to what seems to be a plate number in the top margin. A plate depicting

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butterflies was included in the official “Zoologie” section of the official account of the Freycinet voyage (no. 83), but none of the insects on the present sheet are included on that plate. In fact, many of Arago’s watercolours of this genre, despite seeming to refer directly to a published plate, have no corresponding printed version. It is not easy to account for this, but it would seem that the numbering system is uniquely Arago’s own. Certainly the naturalists Quoy and Gaimard dwelt on the beauty and variety of the insects they gathered on the voyage (Zoologie, II, pp. 542-3).

The central point remains obvious, however: that is, that the insects depicted here, despite clearly figuring specimens collected on the Uranie voyage, were not published in the voyage account. The watercolours therefore take on even more significance.

$8750

[BAUDIN VOYAGE] ETTINGER (publisher).

Almanac de Gotha pour l’année 1811.

Small octavo, engraved frontispiece and title, 12 engraved plates and folding table, edges gilt, new endpapers; original papered ‘papier gravé’ boards, spine renewed. Gotha, chez C. G. Ettinger, 1811.

“De la Terre de Diémen et de ses habitants…”

A charming almanac from Gotha, in central Germany. The Almanac de Gotha began publication in 1763 and was very well-known throughout Europe.

Issues of the almanac are now quite scarce, and this particular one contains a significant essay “De la Terre de Diémen et de ses habitants” (pp. 1-21), closely based on the first part of the official account of the Baudin voyage published by François Péron in 1807. The essay is also accompanied by four important plates, depicting “Aborigines of Van Diemen’s Land, a burial ground and a canoe. A description of Van Diemen’s Land, and its inhabitants is found, extending from page 121, based upon Péron’s description” (Ferguson).

Ferguson, 510.

$2250

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BROUSSONET, Pierre M.A. Elenchus plantarum horti botanici monspeliensis. Anno 1804.

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Octavo, the margins of a few leaves waterstained, but generally very good; stitch-sewn without wrappers (and probably issued as such). Monspelii (Montpellier), Auguste Ricard, 1805.

growing Australian plants on the Mediterranean coast of France An important work relating to the gardens at Montpellier on the south coast of France: Montpellier, with its milder southern climate, proved to be the ideal climate for growing Australian plants, and the garden became a centrepiece for exotics from warmer climes. For many European gardens the first decades of the nineteenth century were a period of rapid growth and redevelopment, and Montpellier was no exception, with their new orangery completed in 1804.

Broussonet (1761-1807) was a French botanist and zoologist born in Montpellier but trained in Paris. He was forced into exile after the Revolution, but ultimately allowed to return to his place of birth to work at the Botanic Gardens.

As the title suggests, this Elenchus Plantarum Horti Botanici Monspeliensis is a simple list of plants, cataloguing the state of the garden in the year 1804.

At this relatively early date, the garden had an interesting number of Australian plants: Banksia gibbosa, Banksia serrata, Banksia rubra, Daviesia denudata, Dodonaea viscosa, Eucalyptus saligna, Goodenia ovata, Leptospermum squarrosum, and Melaleuca hypericifolia.

Some copies of this work are known with an added appendix of 18 pp.

Pritzel, 1204; Jackson, p. 420; Stafleu & Cowan, 821.

$1350

BULLER, Charles.

Systematic Colonization. Speech of Charles Buller, Esq., M.P., in the House of Commons, on Thursday, April 6, 1843…

Small octavo, 61 pp., 3 pp. advertisements at rear (last leaf with old paper repair), a little preliminary foxing; very good in recent gilt decorated polished calf. London, John Murray, 1843.

An important work on colonisation Most uncommon speech by English parliamentarian Charles Buller promoting the colonisation strategy propounded

by Edward Gibbon Wakefield. A 16-page contemporary printed synopsis of this important speech was published the same year, but this full edition is both rarer and of course more detailed. Ferguson records the synopsis only (3581).

Charles Buller (1806-1848) was elected to the House of Commons in 1830, during which time he took a special interest in the growing science of colonization developed

by Wakefield. An associate of Sir William Molesworth, Buller became most interested in the transition from transportation to a free settler society in Australia. He served as a director of the South Australian Association in 1834, and as a representative of the Australian Patriotic Association from 1837 to 1840, although he disagreed with their support of continued transportation. In this vein, Buller prepared a draft constitution for New South Wales in 1838 that incorporated popular government and so diminished the reach of the State inherited from the convict past. In due course Buller’s recommendations informed the attitude of parliament to the administration of New South Wales and assisted the development of a free settler society.

By most accounts a witty and spritely fellow, Buller was famous as a speechwriter and orator. He took lessons from famous stage actors to refine his technique ‘which slowed his delivery and added cadence to his monotone… his deadpan, often self-deprecating wit became legendary’ (DNB). Buller gained some fame, and a little notoriety, on account of his irrepressible wit, yet he did play a serious role in the development of the British Empire, especially in Australia during an era of significant social change.

$1800

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BUSBY, James.

Manual of Plain Directions…

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Small octavo, 96 [iv] pp., upper margin of title-page expertly repaired, moderate preliminary browning, contemporary manuscript note laid down on rear endpaper; very good in early papered boards, manuscript to front “Busby on Vine 1830”, backstrip faithfully renewed. Sydney, R. Mansfield for the Executors of R. Howe, 1830.

Presentation copy: Busby’s rare second book First edition, presentation copy: one of the rarer books by Busby, considered the founder of the Australian wine industry. The front endpaper is inscribed “Revd. Mr. Cartwright with the author’s best regards, 26 June 1830” and this copy has, tipped in, a curious and quite significant early manuscript note on the wine-making method of Thomas Hobbes Scott at the Male Orphan School, established by Macquarie in 1819 at Liverpool, and the same place where Busby himself first taught viticulture.

James Busby (1801-1871) was probably the most important single figure in the early history of the Australian wine industry, and his property Kirkton on the Hunter River, which was taken over by Lindemans in 1914, is the oldest continually producing vineyard.

In this Manual Busby attempted to convince “the more numerous portion of the community constituting the class of smaller settlers… that they, and each member of their families may with little trouble and scarcely any expense, enjoy their daily bottle of wine, the produce of their own farms…”. It has proved to be an uncommon little work, probably because its practical nature made it much studied and used. Certainly Busby is keen to promote the ease and simplicity of life with a vineyard, and this book has the added attraction of many small asides relating to his successes, such as his evident pride that he recently opened one of his bottles at a dinner at the Male Orphan School, where it was pronounced to taste rather like a decent Burgundy.

This copy has a wonderful colonial association, being presented by Busby to the Reverend Robert Cartwright (1771–1856), a philanthropic pastor based at Liverpool who was on friendly terms with Macquarie. Cartwright had been one of those encouraged to emigrate by Samuel Marsden, arriving in Sydney in 1810 and becoming an energetic and popular figure in the Hawkesbury before his transfer to Liverpool in 1819. It was Cartwright who accompanied Macquarie to Lake Bathurst in 1820, and who preached a famous sermon there. Cartwright is remembered for a long and useful career in the remoter corners of NSW from Canberra to Albury. He had a lifelong concern for the Aborigines, and although many of his plans were overlooked, he

“enunciated some important principles of Aboriginal welfare policy” (ADB).

Busby is known to have been assiduous in making sure that copies of his book got into the hands of influential figures in New South Wales, particularly those who lived outside the city, and although Cartwright is not recorded as trying his hand as a vigneron, no doubt Busby hoped that it might yet be perused by interested settlers in the local vicar’s library. This hope must explain the curious early manuscript note pasted in at the rear, which gives brief details of “Mr. Archdeacon Scott’s instructions for the Vineyard & making wine at the M.O.S. here”, followed by a brief but significant account of the process of making some 152 gallons of what must have been a rather robust local wine. This is significant because “Scott” refers to Thomas Hobbes Scott, who had worked as a wine-merchant in Bordeaux before travelling to New South Wales as the secretary to Thomas Bigge. Scott had been appointed Archdeacon of NSW (then part of the Calcutta diocese) in 1824. Indefatigable in his work, Scott took particular pains with his schools, and the initials “M.O.S.” of course refer to the Male Orphan School.

This connection with the M.O.S. is critical, as it was here that Busby himself had his first appointment in 1824, and where for three years he took charge of the school farm and taught viticulture, before he lost the position when the school came under the control of the trustees of the Church and School Corporation in 1827 (ADB).

What this means is that this marvellous copy was at the epicentre of the fledgling Australian wine industry centred around the work of Busby, and itself provides a clue to the connection between Cartwright and Scott, and concrete evidence of Busby’s book being used as a practical guide to winemaking in the colony.

Ferguson, 1330.

$19,500

CHOUVET, Abbé J.-A.-M. Un tour du monde: voyage à la Nouvelle-Zélande et retour en France par l’île Sainte-Hélène.

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Two volumes, duodecimo; a fine set in the publisher’s wrappers, each volume now preserved in a folding cloth sleeve within a custom built slipcase for the pair. Avignon, F. Seguin, 1855.

A French Catholic admires Hobart, Sydney and New Zealand An excellent set, entirely uncut in the original yellow titling wrappers, of Father Chouvet’s travels through Australia and New Zealand. A vivid first-hand account of New Zealand during a period of rapid growth, the work is notable for Chouvet’s sensitive evocation of Maori life and language. While most of the work relates to New Zealand, two detailed chapters describe his experiences in Hobart Town and Sydney.

Chouvet visited Hobart from late December 1842 through early January 1843, and lavishes praise on the British for their organisation and entrepreneurial zeal. He maintains the colony boasts many of the attractions of the grand cities of Europe and that Hobart is one of the most beautiful harbours in Oceania. He writes at length on the social condition of Catholics, with notes on church building, seminaries, cathedrals, schools and other details. A curious and sensitive observer, Un tour du monde is rich in social detail, including the plight of the Tasmanian Aborigines (‘Les aborigènes de la Tasmanie se sont tous retirés dans les forêts de la point… On les déporte par bandes sur les isles du détroit de Bass’).

Sydney is likewise admired as like a grand European city, with fine buildings, wide streets, observatory, handsome cathedral and numerous learned societies. Indeed, Chouvet’s enthusiasm for the British colonial project is seemingly boundless.

New Zealand National Bibliography, 1083; not in Ferguson.

$6850

CHRISTIAN, John.

Original manuscript catalogue of Books in Mr Christian’s Library…

Tall folio; 405 x 160 mm., 20 pp. (eight of which are blank), manuscript in ink; sewn in old wrappers entitled “Catalogue Books Aug 1780 Many added since”. Cumberland, (Workington Hall?), 1780.

The Christian family’s reading A remarkable insight on the Bounty mutineer’s family and intellectual background: the original manuscript catalogue of the library of his cousin John Christian (later Christian Curwen, 1756-1828). John Christian’s library, which included about 550 volumes, can be seen to have been dominated by works in the category of ‘History, Lives, Novels etc’, with as yet few books on agriculture, in which Christian/Curwen, later founder of the Agricultural Society, was later to take such an interest.

The library inventory is enlightening for the perspective it provides of the family background of the famous Bounty mutineer. The Christian family were descended from the prominent Christians of Milntown in the Isle of Man, but had been settled in Cumberland for three generations by the time John Christian was born. The family were well-read and educated: Fletcher Christian’s uncle Ewan Christian was a barrister, and his elder brother Edward a prominent jurist and Downing professor of laws at Cambridge.

The catalogue is accompanied by a single leaf titled on the verso “Mr John Christian’s Account from February to August 1772…”, receipted at the foot by Humphry Christian, and an original photographic reproduction of the Christian family memorial plaque erected at Milntown in 1922, setting out the family lineage from 1380 to 1904. The account relates to John Christian’s education and other costs, at the age of sixteen. They include some routine expenses (clothing, pocket money, hay for his horse), others less so (“Mourning Cloaths for Princess Dowager of Wales”) - but of most interest are his purchases of books: four are named (including Smart’s Horace), at least one of which appears in the 1780 catalogue.

$2750

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[COOK] SCHUTZ, Fridrich Wilhelm von.

Des Capitains James Cook Beschreibung seiner Reise um die Welt.

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Three volumes, duodecimo, each with folding frontispiece; almost pristine in the original printed blue wrappers, manuscript shelf-marks to spines, advertisements for Campe’s “Merkwürdiger Reisebeschreibungen”, in a simple modern slipcase. Wien & Krems, B. Ph. Bauer, 1820.

In striking original condition Very rare, particularly in such fine condition: a children’s version of Cook’s third voyage. The attractive plates depict respectively canoes off the coast of Tahiti, the interior of a house in Unalaska, and “Summer and Winter” dwellings of Kamchatka.

Based on the work of Joachim Campe (1746-1818), a prolific writer for children who produced a vast array of works mainly concerned with disseminating information about voyages of discovery, the present work takes the form of a “dialogue between a father and children named Ferdinand, Antoinette, Jacobine, and Wilhelm” (Forbes). The work was prepared by Von Schutz, a Romantic writer and playwright, translator of Casanova into German, and general man of letters.

The wrappers are not only charming but also quite interesting for the detailed advertisements for Campe’s “collection of remarkable voyages”, which at the time of printing included some twelve volumes including, as no. 12, de Lesseps’ account of La Pérouse, as well as Byron, Carteret, Wallis, and Cook’s first two voyages.

The only set recorded by both Beddie and Forbes is in the Mitchell Library.

Beddie, 91; Forbes, ‘Hawaiian National Bibliography’, 510.

$2450

CROUCH, George John.

G. J. Crouch’s Advertising Medium and Miscellaneous Gleaner.

Fifteen parts bound in one, several issues with original printed wrappers (some on coloured paper) bound in, occasional illustrations, a little browned, untrimmed; in an early binding of marbled boards with a paper label to the front, spine with old restoration retaining parts of the paper label. Sydney, Francis Mason & Co., 1858-1859.

Buying beads for the island trade

A great rarity: a run of the first 15 issues of an attractive advertising magazine issued for the “Victoria Bazaar” in George Street. From the envoi in the first issue: “Dear Reader, it is my intention to issue this small paper gratuitously every fortnight. I have more objects than one in so doing, but my principal one is to make public the multiplicity of goods which are scattered throughout my establishment; and also those which I am continually receiving from England and other parts.”

George John Crouch ran the Victoria Bazaar and Stores, 542 George Street, Sydney.

His emporium sold everything under the sun, listing all manner of items such as bird cages, “beads for the island trade”, work boxes, “fancy fly catchers”, photographic cameras, “hats and caps for the diggers”, and not infrequent imports of books from London (the updates to the latter are an interesting snapshot of the influx of printed material into the colony). More than advertisements pure and simple, Crouch has leavened the mix with all manner of observations and bon mots, and also included a series of strongly pro-temperance announcements on drinking deaths in Australia, usually black-bordered for effect and headed “Dark Side of Australia”. There is even very occasional original poetry, such as “A Visit to Bondi during a Storm” by Senex (no. 8, p. 83).

The journal apparently ran to a total of 48 fortnightly parts, but Crouch was insolvent by 1861. Runs of the journal are very rare: the State Library of New South Wales certainly has many of the issues, while the Petherick collection at the National Library of Australia appears to have an incomplete series.

$4500

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DALRYMPLE, Alexander.

Chart of the Track and Discoveries of The East India Company’s Cruizers Panther and Endeavour…

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Engraved map, 585 x 705 mm., old central fold, on Whatman paper, a few very minor marginal repairs, one longer tear also repaired, old manuscript “3/6” to upper right; very good. London, Published according to Act of Parliament by A. Dalrymple, 20 November 1792.

The East India Company in the Arafura Sea, north of Australia Very rare. An important regional map published by Alexander Dalrymple, reporting the tracks and discoveries of two East India Company vessels in the waters north of Australia along the remote and then largely un-mapped coast of New Guinea, including detailed work on the different straits and inlets of the far western coast.

The maps would have formed part of the detailed study then being undertaken to open up the trade routes between New South Wales and the Indies.

Dalrymple (1737-1808) was the great hydrographer of the era, and had made his career in the East India Company. Although bitterly disappointed in being passed over for the command of the Endeavour in favour of Cook, he continued to work incessantly on the mapping of the Pacific and Asia, self-publishing the very latest work as it came to hand, and pushing for mapping to be more systematically organised. The present map is no exception. Published just four years after the founding of NSW, it shows the waters around the Australian mainland being investigated with real purpose

by East India traders. It tracks the voyages of John McCluer of the Panther, which sailed in tandem with the evocatively named Endeavour (Captain Proctor). McCluer had already published work with Dalrymple relating to the Indian coast, and in early 1791 was given the task of sailing south from Bombay to break the news to the king of Palau of the death of the king’s son Prince Lee Boo of small pox in London. McCluer continued to make his New Guinea survey in June 1791, spending several months on the dangerous coast, before finishing up in December and returning to Palau via the north coast of New Holland and Timor. Remarkably, at Palau McCluer surrendered

his command to one of his junior officers and went ashore, remaining with the islanders for over a year (on McCluer see Charles Rathbone Low, The History of the Indian Navy (1613-1863), pp. 187 ff).

All of Dalrymple’s maps are very scarce, particularly when, as here, they predate his appointment to the Admiralty in 1795. A copy of this map is held by the National Library. No copy is listed, for example, in the seven-volume collection of maps purchased by Sir William Dixson and now in the SLNSW.

$8750

DOUGLAS, Phillip.

Manuscript letter describing Sydney Town, from an Irish sailor to his family in Belfast.

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Original manuscript letter, four pages measuring 225 x 185 mm., addressed and folded to letter size with remnants of seal; postmarked Belfast 2 December 1843; rubbed and splitting at folds, partially laid on tissue, fair. Sydney, July 17, 1843.

“I see thasands of Convicts every day in chains…”

An uncommon example of a letter written from Sydney by an Irish sailor, and giving a striking lower deck account of his visit to this “very Butifull Country”.

Phillip Douglas shipped aboard the Troubadour from Liverpool in February 1843, arriving at Sydney Town on 12 June. From Sydney the ship is known to have reached Madras, leaving with a cargo of horses in mid-August (interestingly, in this letter Douglas speculates upon possible alternate routes for the return voyage, including Java and Canton).

Douglas gives a good report on the voyage of some four months duration, including his thoughts on the difficulties they endured passing the Cape. He was none too pleased with the diet on board the Troubadour, lamenting having been “lade up for 5 weeks on the passage with sore legs getting nothing but Salt Beef to eat”. However, it is Douglas’s report on the everyday life in the Colony that is most interesting, the more so as it was a rather difficult period in New South Wales: despite this, Douglas was in awe of the cheap and plentidful food: “This is a very Butifull Country but it is in a very miserable state now. Everything is very cheap. Potatoes, Beff and mutton is only one Penny and three half pence per pound…”. He also reports seeing “thasands of Convicts every day in chains”.

The letter was written to one James McNeill of Belfast, but is addressed chiefly to Douglas’s mother.

$1500

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[FIJI MISSION] HAZLEWOOD, Reverend David.

Original manuscript letter from a Pacific Missionary to his brother in Suffolk.

Wove paper sheet measuring 340 x 430 mm., folded to form four manuscript pages, in a neat cursive hand; some browning and old repairs, good condition overall, folded to letter size and postmarked at Auckland and Bury St Edmunds. Auckland, dated 14 October, 1850.

“Scores of them who once feasted on human flesh have received the word of life…”

Original manuscript letter from Wesleyan missionary David Hazlewood to his brother William, describing his life and work in New Zealand and Fiji.

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The Reverend David Hazlewood arrived in Sydney in 1842, departing for Fiji two years later. He served the Fiji Mission until 1853, at which time he returned to New South Wales in poor health. An able linguist and Hebrew scholar, Hazlewood authored a grammar and dictionary of the Fijian language while translating Old Testament scriptures for publication on the islands.

The letter was written in New Zealand where Hazlewood stayed for some time following the unexpected death of his wife. He states that the custom built mission vessel John Wesley has just departed for Fiji carrying the Reverend Joseph Waterhouse. Still grieving the loss of his wife, Hazlewood intends to stay in New Zealand a few months longer with his three children and then return to the Fiji Mission. He broaches the possibility of finding a suitable new wife for this remote life although remains cautious on the subject.

Hazlewood describes Wesleyan mission work in Fiji, and also discusses the conversion of the Maori in New Zealand. He insists the latter have been well treated in New Zealand: “The Governor, Sir George Grey makes himself very familiar, and we are visit[ed] by captains of men of war, who have been exceedingly kind to us. We sometimes dine with the sons of Lords, & Dukes, and have them dine at our houses.”

One suspects that Hazlewood’s brother William led a markedly different life. The letter sanctimoniously describes the tears of his Fijian converts in an effort to sway his own brother’s beliefs “How many tears of joy have streamed down their black faces while I have been pointing them to the hand of God who taketh away the sin of the world. Allow me, my dear brother, to point you also that the Lamb of God died for thee. Let not the black savages in Feejee rise up against you! Scores of them who once feasted on human flesh have received the word of life into their hearts…”.

$1150

FOUBERT, Louis (publisher).

Set of printed toy theatre drops depicting whaling scenes.

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Six engraved and hand-coloured panels, approximately 170 x 195 mm., very good indeed. Amsterdam, Louis Foubert, circa 1740.

Very rare depiction of whaling A rare and handsomely produced toy theatre set, the six panels make an impressive three-dimensional view of a dramatic whaling scene. In the centre a group of Dutch ships clusters around some whales as they breach, while, to the left of the scene, two enormous brown bears slumber on, as the dreadful martyrdom runs its course.

This is obviously a very fragile piece, and a remarkable survival, giving an insight into the popular imagining of whaling. From the early seventeenth-century the hunting of bowhead whales in the waters off Greenland had been fiercely pursued by several European nations, not least among them the Dutch, who founded their Noordsche Compagnie in 1614. A century later, Dutch whaling was a massive operation, sending scores of vessels into the region.

The small printed caption states that it shows “De Groen Lantse Vissery� (the Greenland fishery), and that is was printed in Amsterdam by Louis Foubert, Boekverkoper in de Gaaper Steeg. Not a great deal is known about Foubert, although he is known to have been active in Amsterdam from the 1730s, particularly printing illustrated books, including works on the latest fashionable dances.

Not in Ingalls, Whaling Prints in the Francis B. Lothrop Collection.

$3850

[FREYCINET] [MARCHAIS, Pierre Antoine (artist) & Pierre Marie NYON (engraver)].

Small suite of work relating to the title-page vignette from the atlas accompanying the Freycinet official account.

Group of two small drawings and two printer’s proofs, described more fully in the note; very good. [Paris], circa 1825.

Designing the vignette for Freycinet’s atlas An intriguing group, including an original sketch and two working pulls relating to the vignette ultimately printed on the title-page of the Freycinet hydrographic atlas.

The beautifully developed scene shows a woman next to a broken anchor and shaded by a willow, next to a marble plinth with a quotation from Esmenard’s poem La Navigation, originally composed for the loss of La Pérouse, and much admired by his contemporaries.

In the background of the scene a vessel heels over to starboard, its rigging wrecked, and clearly sinking. The scene is no doubt meant to bring to mind the loss of Freycinet’s ship the Uranie in the Falklands, but also makes an obvious link with La Pérouse himself, the fate of whom, at the time of publication, was still unknown in France.

The four items are: 1. Fragment of tracing paper showing the anchor design, 50 x 115 mm., tipped onto paper (illustrated above).

2. Pencil and ink sketch of the main components of the design, 205 x 215 mm., on Whatman paper dated 1821 (illustrated opposite top).

3. Proof before letters (in the technical sense, but also before adding the inscription to the plinth as well as other graphic detail) on laid paper, 200 x 235 mm. (illustrated opposite bottom).

4. Finished proof printed on india paper and laid on slightly larger laid sheet, 230 x 260 mm. (not illustrated).

Several years ago Hordern House sold a small working archive relating to the typographic design of the title-page of the Baudin voyage atlas, and the present group makes a fascinating counterpoint, underscoring the care and oversight that went into producing these official accounts of the grands voyages. Indeed it seems quite likely, given Freycinet’s central role in the production of both the Baudin and Freycinet voyage atlases, that this small suite sheets back to him personally.

$12,500

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[GILL, S.T. & George HAMILTON] MAY, E.C. Set of Ten Lithographs.

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Oblong octavo, ten tinted lithographic plates, slight marginal foxing but very good; preserved in a modern blue quarter morocco box. Adelaide, E.S. Wigg & son, c., 1889.

Goldfields and outback views by Gill and Hamilton Exceptionally rare: this complete suite of ten lithographs by S.T. Gill and George Hamilton includes five scenes of the goldfields and the outback by S. T. Gill and five studies of the Australian Bushman by George Hamilton. It represents the only recorded works signed by E.C. May. The entry for May in J. Kerr, Dictionary of Australian Artists, records that he “signed nine lithographs celebrating life in the bush and on the goldfields”. Apart from the fact that we now know that he signed each of this set of ten prints, nothing else is known of his work. The Mitchell Library has nine of the ten in their collection.

George Hamilton settled in South Australia in 1839 where he exhibited in Adelaide’s first two art exhibitions. Five of his drawings were engraved for Eyre’s Journals of Discovery into Central Australia and, along with S.T. Gill, his drawings were used to illustrate the published journals of Grey. He owned his own lithographic press and made prints from his drawings which made him, according to Robert Holden, probably the first print-maker in South Australia. In 1848 Hamilton was appointed second clerk in the Colonial Treasury, and subsequently served as Commissioner of Police from 1867 to 1882. He published three books illustrated by his own sketches.

Like his colleague Hamilton, S.T. Gill operated his own lithographic press and produced high-quality prints in Melbourne. He was a very popular artist and was “one of the most significant interpreters of Australian life in the colonial era” (Wantrup).

He became particularly famous for his depictions of the goldfields, which he visited regularly, and his rendering of rural scenes - bushranging, kangaroo stalking, the bush mailman, cattle droving, etc. - often with a poignant comparison between the life of the Aborigines and that of the settlers.

$9850

[GRANT, James, after].

“Bemerkungen über Neu-Süd-Wallis” [in] Allgemeine Geographischen Ephemeriden for April 1812.

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Single issue of this magazine, octavo, pp. 377-511, engraved map; fine in original blue printed wrappers. Weimar, Verlage des Landes-industrie-Comptoirs, April 1812.

Remarks on NSW: an unusually fresh copy, with the Bass Strait map

With an important and relatively early map of the south coast and Bass Strait.

A complete issue of this small German-language journal, quite uncommon in such good and completely original condition, with the printed wrappers. This issue is of particular note because it prints a substantial account of NSW (pp. 377-407), together with the intriguing accompanying map of Bass Strait. The basic text would seem to derive ultimately from James Grant’s Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery (1803), although the only comment made here is that it is based on a French translation by Malte-Brun in 1804, who took his work from “einem Engl. See-Officier” (from an English naval officer).

The Allgemeine Geographischen Ephemeriden was associated with important German writers such as Bertuch and Zach.

$1650

JAN, Giorgio.

Cenni sul Museo Civico di Milano‌ Large octavo, large folding plan, 61 pp., some spotting but a very good copy, in neat modern green paper boards. Milano, Giacomo Pirola, 1857..

The first guide to the natural history collections of Milan Complete with the large folding plan, which gives a detailed overview of a collection of international significance, and one which included one of the most important early collections of Australian snakes and reptiles.

A rare publication describing in detail the natural history collections of Milan, and particularly the collection of Reptiles and Amphibians.

The Milan Natural History Museum was founded in 1838 by naturalists Giuseppe de Cristoforis and Giorgio Jan, who donated their private collections in order to make a new collection on the newest scientific principles. The Museum opened in 1844 with Jan, an important herpetologist, botanist and naturalist, as the first Director.

An interesting and very modern feature of the museum, described at page 11, was the design of the labels of the specimens. The frame of every label of every species was coloured with a different colour according to the Continent to which each species belongs (Asia was yellow, for example, while Oceania was blue).

Sadly the collection endured almost comprehensive losses during the Second World War when it was bombed in 1943, which does make such printed guides even more significant as a reflection on what has been lost.

This guide, the first such published, includes a detailed description of the museum (pp.

1-25); an introduction to the scientific designation of reptiles and amphibians (pp.

27-33); and a detailed list of the specimens held in Milan (pp. 35-61). Of the actual specimens, the Museum had approximately 400 mammals, 1900 birds, a genuinely impressive 950 reptiles (which would have made it one of the preeminent collections in the world), and 900 fish. Included in this number are a great quantity of Australian and Pacific species: of reptiles, 39 from Australia, 1 from Tasmania, and 3 from New Zealand, together with 10 Australian amphibians. The museum also hosted any number of more familiar Australian birds and animals such as the Thylacine, platypus, echidna and many birds.

$1925

18

[JORGEN JORGENSON] ROSS, James.

(Ross’s) Hobart Town Almanack, and Van Diemen’s Land Annual for 1835.

19

Small octavo, frontispiece, x,(xiv - almanac), short leaf advertisement, 13-324 pp. (last blank), engraved plate of platypus bones; very good in later worn maroon cloth with polished calf spine. Hobart, James Ross, 1835.

With the “Index Plantarum” of Tasmanian plants A rare Tasmanian almanac of great significance to the early history of the colony. The volume contains Jorgen Jorgenson’s important ‘Shred of Autobiography’, what appears to be the first comprehensive index of Tasmanian flora

by James Backhouse, and two engravings

by Thomas Bock, including a scientific depiction of the platypus.

Copenhagen-born Jorgenson is most notorious for deposing the Danish governor of Iceland in 1809 and appointing himself head of government with the title ‘The Protector.’ Described by Marcus Clarke as ‘a human comet,’ Jorgenson and his career as a sailor, privateer, spy, revolutionary and explorer have formed the subject of several books, most of which rely on the swashbuckling self-portrait he paints here.

Equally important in this volume is the 54-page ‘Index Plantarum, or an attempt towards a popular description of some of the most common and remarkable indigenous plants of Van Diemen’s Land’ compiled by James Backhouse and Ronald Campbell Gunn. Backhouse, a noted naturalist from a prominent English Quaker family, travelled widely in the colonies from 1832 to 1838. Gunn, later a member of the Legislative Council, published widely and notably hosted Dumont d’Urville during his visit to Hobart. Most of the specimens collected by the two were sent to Kew. The two plates by Bock, show ‘The Teeth and Underjaw of the Platypus’ and a ‘Fish Caught in the Derwent.’ Both represent uncommon examples of early locally printed illustrations of Tasmanian wildlife. A noted engraver in London, Bock was transported to the penal colony in 1824 after being found guilty of drugging women. He was pardoned in 1832 and successfully established himself as a portrait artist. Several of his works are exhibited in the Tasmanian Museum and Gallery.

Ferguson, 2021.

$1850

[KING, PHILLIP PARKER] STEPHENS & STOKES. New South Wales Calendar and General Post Office Directory, 1833.

Octavo, folding map, engraved title-page with view of the GPO, two folding tables, two folding plates (one hand-coloured), map of Mount Victoria, two views of the Mount Victoria pass by John Carmichael, and 11 engraved advertisements for Sydney merchants; a good copy in old quarter cloth on plain boards preserving an earlier black leather label. Sydney, Stephens & Stokes, December 1832.

With an extensive series of local engravings

Rare Sydney almanac and directory in very good original state, with its complete suite of engraved plates and maps by three of the most important early Sydney printers and engravers, John Carmichael, William Wilson and William Moffitt.

This was the second year of publication for the Calendar, and it features an impressive roll-call of contributors. A fascinating inclusion is Phillip Parker King’s ‘Sailing Directions for the Navigation of the Inner Route, through Torres Strait; with a Description of the north eastern coast of New South Wales, from Breaksea Spit to Cape York’ (pp.

19-52). Reprinted from its original appearance as an appendix to his voyage account of 1827, King’s detailed reports are included here specifically ‘in the hope of their being of use, and of rendering the passage of the inner route to Torres Strait more available to the commercial world’, at a time when the treacherous waters of the Great Barrier Reef were playing host to increased shipping traffic.

These almanacs are a rare opportunity to study the skill of the local engravers and printers, while also providing a detailed picture of life in the colony, whether it is the comprehensive ‘Itinerary of Roads throughout New South Wales’ (pp. 53-149), lists of the civil and military establishment, information regarding shipping, business and public institutions, or the ‘General Post Office Directory’ itself. Of great charm are the eleven engraved advertisements for local merchants.

Ferguson, 1689.

$8500

20

L’HERITIER DE BRUTELLE, Charles Louis.

Catalogue des Livres de la Bibliothèque de feu C.L. L’Héritier de Brutelle…

21

Octavo, 359 pp., some early manuscript annotations, three stamps on title-page for collection of Louis-Sebastian de Cayrol; a most attractive copy in early polished calf, marbled boards with vellum tips, gilt spine. Paris, G. Debure, 1802.

The scientific library of one of the great French botanists First edition: the botanical library of the great French botanist l’Héritier du Brutelle. Each of the individual lots for the main scientific section have been individually priced in manuscript, and it is certainly interesting to see how the works were valued.

L’Héritier (1746-1800) was actually trained in the law, but botany was his passion. It was l’Héritier who actually first named Eucalyptus obliqua, based on research he made into the plants collected

by Cook on the third voyage. His career during the Revolution and the subsequent Terror was turbulent, and he died in 1800, assassinated while walking home by an unknown assailant.

As the present detailed auction catalogue amply attests, his natural history library (lots 142-2389) was remarkable, and would have been one of the best of its kind among his contemporaries.

The catalogue is divided into sections (such as “Traités sur le Jardinage”), and is of course wellrepresented by all of the famous botanical authors of his day, usually in the grandest editions, including authors such as Linnaeus, Hill, James Lee, Cavanilles, and an early work by Ventenat. There are besides more general works which would have been of interest, including copies of the hand-coloured editions of Phillip and White, and the French translation of Tench. Unsurprisingly, his works relating to Cook’s voyages were impressive, with a full set of the official English edition, a copy of Parkinson and, almost incredibly, of Shaw’s famous cloth book.

The catalogue, prepared by the Parisian bookseller Debure includes both a helpful index and a biographical note on l’Héritier written by the Baron Cuvier.

Stafleu & Cowan, III, p. 1.

$9750

LLOYD, E. A Squatter. A Visit to the Antipodes.

Octavo, lithograph frontispiece, vignettes on title and final page, some light foxing, old owner’s inscription; very good in the original blindstamped publisher’s red cloth, upper cover with gilt embossed kangaroo, a little faded. London, Smith, Elder, & Co., 1846.

22

With the interesting frontispiece First edition. Lloyd gives a short history of South Australia and attempts to analyse the economic crisis which existed at the time of his visit, and to assess future prospects for settlers. He was in Adelaide during Sturt’s departure for Central Australia in 1844 and gives a colourful description of that event. The frontispiece is a marvellous depiction of “Poodna Williamy” or “William the Light-footed”, a South Australian Aborigine, after a sketch by Lloyd himself.

Ferguson, 4334; Walsh and Hooton, 144.

$1250

22

23

MACDONALD, J.D. “Vah-ta-ah, the Feejeean Princess”.

Oval portrait Baxter print in the original timber frame, 145 x 125 mm., modern labels pasted to back; very good. [England], no date but 1857.

From Vah-ta-ah to Lydia: cannibals rejoice A most attractive Baxter print of a “Feejean Princess”. This image was included as the frontispiece to a book on Fiji by the Reverend Joseph Waterhouse, but prints made by the famous Baxter process were often sold separately as well, and this example, in its original frame, was probably always destined for display.

Part of the printed caption to the back reads: “This primitive native was a cruel and vicious cannibal but later was baptised and re-christened ‘Lydia’. The print was made after an original by J.D. MacDonald, assistant surgeon of H.M.S. Herald, a ship which made an important survey voyage in the Pacific in the 1850s under the command of Henry Mangles Denham.

$885

23

MASKELYNE, Nevil & William WALES. Tables Requisite to be used with the Nautical Ephemeris…

24

Second edition, corrected and improved, early owner’s name on title-page, occasional marginalia and a series of added manuscript tables; a very attractive copy in contemporary half calf over marbled boards, bumped. London, William Richardson, 1781.

The William Wales edition of this important navigation book The important second edition of this companion volume to the nautical almanacs published by Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne, in the edition revised by Cook veteran William Wales. This copy has the early owner’s name of James Greenwood in 1795: a man of that name was associated with Jesus College Cambridge, and later published a work on naval navigation, but the exact connection (if any) is not clear.

The work was designed to be used in tandem with Maskelyne’s famous Nautical Almanac, which had begun publication in 1767, in time to be carried on all three of Cook’s voyages. When the first volume of the Nautical Almanac appeared it was accompanied by a separately paginated set of tables, which was meant to be re-used with each successive annual almanac. In the preface here Maskelyne notes that although that part was published in a massive edition, the original Tables was now exhausted, and therefore he has taken the opportunity to issue this revised and improved second edition, based on new work done by Wales, who had been the astronomer on board Cook’s second voyage, but was then Master of the Royal Mathematical School at Christ’s Hospital.

The production of such works in the era of letterpress printing was no sinecure, and the Board of Longitude is known to have kept a close eye on the process. Although thousands were likely printed, these works are now most uncommon.

Testament to the significance of the publication, it was this edition that is known to have been consulted by Captain John Hunter in the Sirius. Hunter twice makes explicit reference to this 1781 edition in his Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island during the early stages of the voyage when discussing the longitude of St. Sebastian and Rio de Janeiro, twice commenting on comparisons he made with “the new requisite tables”.

$2850

[MENAGERIE BROADSIDE].

Mit hoher Obrigkeitlicher Bewilligung, Thoma Gulley aus London…

Printed broadside with two woodcut illustrations, 410 x 215 mm., worn at edges and with an old marginal repair at lower left; very good. [Probably Berlin], circa 1820.

For eight days only: Oceanic and American snakes in Germany Very rare menagerie broadside: most unusually, the main focus of this collection is on snakes and reptiles, marking it out when most people were touring mammals and birds. The menagerie is described as showing on the market at “Reimerschen Hause”: this is not explicit, but it would seem that the reference is to Georg Andreas Reimer, the famous Berlin publisher, whose house was a renowned salon, and who did publish many didactic books with a scientific slant.

Not a great deal is recorded about Thomas Gulley (here mis-spelt “Thoma”), but as the present broadside and a handful of others in international collections attest, he clearly had an important touring menagerie with a strong emphasis on snakes and reptiles. In the present broadside he promises quite a show, offering wouldbe spectators the opportunity to see a travelling show which includes ten living snakes of the “rarest beauty”.

Among the rare snakes are a pair of Harlequin snakes from Ceylon, described as the first seen in Europe; a “Schildkröte oder die gehörnte Schlange aus Neu-Seeland” (described as being 10 foot long and having a horn coming from the nose, and we can be reasonably sure not in fact a New Zealand native!); a rattlesnake from Russian-America (that is, Alaska); a sea-snake from America; as well as a Boa and an Anaconda, quite apart from a Nile Crocodile.

Apart from this astonishing list, Gulley also advertises a number of monkeys and apes, a large group of birds including cockatoos and “Loris”, and a young woman from Friesland some 7 foot 6 inches tall.

The broadside concludes with a note confirming that all of the specimens are alive, and that the exhibition will only be in town for eight days.

$875

25

[OCEANIA].

Series of 12 hand-coloured lithographs depicting fishing 26 around the world.

Oblong quarto, 12 hand-coloured lithographs, each with accompanying page of text; no title as issued, bound in early (original?) embossed crimson boards. Paris, r. Bonaparte, 70, près la pl. St. Sulpice, no date but circa 1850 or 1860.

A French mystery: fishing from Normandy to Hawaii An intriguing and rare collection of finely produced hand-coloured lithographic plates depicting dramatic fishing scenes from around the world. Three scenes are set in Oceania (the Caroline Islands, New Guinea, and Hawaii), and their style is in the great tradition of imagining the Pacific.

Despite its beauty, this mysterious work has almost no identifying features, and the only sign of any authorship is the fact that several of the plates are signed “Mès”.

Beyond this, just one plate, for Mozambiques, has any details on how they were published: “Paris, r. Bonaparte, 70, près la pl. St. Sulpice”. The address is smack in the middle of the 6th Arrondissement on the Left Bank, but more details on the exact publication details have not been forthcoming.

The twelve plates depict fishing in: Ireland, Normandy, Manila, Delhi, Japan, Mozambique, Newfoundland, “Esquimaux”, Canada, the Caroline Islands, New Guinea, and Hawaii. Each has an accompanying sheet of descriptive text.

$7400

PRÊTRE, Jean Gabriel.

“Echelet picumne & Echelet grimpeur, mâle”.

Watercolour of two birds, 480 x 350 mm., on wove paper, signed (on the lower branch) “J.G. Prêtre. 1824”, pencil annotations, some inoffensive spots and marks to the verso; very good. Presumably Paris, circa 1824.

Two Australian treecreepers painted in Paris Beautifully finished original watercolour of a Brown Treecreeper (Climacteris picumnus) and a White–throated Treecreeper (Cormobates leucophaea) by the prolific zoological artist Jean Gabriel Prêtre.

Prêtre (1768-1849) was a French artist who studied under the great Gerard van Spaendonck. He moved to Paris to work on the collections of Josephine at Malmaison, and also became associated with the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle. In the early decades of the nineteenth century Prêtre moved in the first scientific circles in Paris, working with key figures such as Audebert, Cuvier, Desmarest and de Blainville.

Prêtre also worked on the natural history atlas published as part of the official account of the Freycinet voyage.

This study of two Australian treecreepers was later turned into plate 281 of Temminck’s Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées d’oiseaux… (Paris, 1820–1839). Temminck’s lavishly illustrated work was issued in 102 parts between 1820–1839 as a kind of continuation to Buffon’s Histoire naturelle des oiseaux (1770–1786). In total the published work contained some 600 engraved plates, figuring around 800 birds (many two to a plate, as here). The two central artists in the publication were Nicolas Huet and Prêtre, and the finished publication is considered “the most monumental work of the post–Napoleonic period” (Balis). Nonetheless, it is noticeable that compared to this original watercolour the published sketch has lost some of the fineness of detail, making this an exceptionally important survival.

It is very likely that the birds depicted by Prêtre were in fact collected by the scientists of the Freycinet voyage, but there is nothing in Temminck’s book which explicitly confirms this hypothesis.

$12,500

27

PRINSEP, Mrs Augustus and Captain Thomas PRINSEP. Illustrations to Prinsep’s Journal of a Voyage…

28

Complete set in fine original condition, comprising: Text, duodecimo, folding map, very good in the original cloth with paper label to front, the label rather worn; and Views, two parts quarto, the fine India paper issue of the ten views, the eleventh plate the engraved plan of Hobart, folding plate a little creased at the folds, but generally very good indeed in the original illustrated titling-wrappers. London, Smith & Elder, 1833.

Including the marvellous panorama of Hobart One of the scarcer Australian view-books and a famous Tasmanian rarity. This is a most attractive set, with the text in the original green cloth, and the accompanying plates in the finer India paper issue and retaining the original titling wrappers.

“Mr and Mrs Augustus Prinsep were members of a large English merchant family living in Calcutta. After an extended visit to Van Diemen’s Land between 1829 and 1830 Augustus Prinsep died unexpectedly. Mrs Prinsep published a short account of their travels under the title The Journal of a Voyage from Calcutta to Van Diemen’s Land in London in 1833 as a memorial of their last trip together. In a note at the end of that slim duodecimo volume she advised that a set of illustrations to the voyage would be published if there was any public interest. Clearly there was, since that same year a set of ten fine lithographs was issued in two parts, quarto, to accompany the text. The illustrations are after her own sketches and others made by Captain Thomas Prinsep, her brother-in-law. Seven of the plates are of Van Diemen’s Land and three are of Penang and Angir” (Australian Rare Books).

Ferguson, 1695 (Text) and 1696 (Views); Wantrup, 231b.

A detail of one of the Hobart views is on the back cover of this catalogue.

$12,500

[ROGGEVEEN] [BEHRENS, Carl Friedrich] Histoire de L’Expédition de Trois Vaisseaux…

29

Two volumes, small octavo; joints a bit worn but still quite firm, overall a fine set in contemporary mottled calf. The Hague, Aux depens de la Compagnie, 1739.

From the library of John Montagu Rare account of the Roggeveen voyage, one of the most important of the Dutch voyages, ranking with those of Le Maire, Schouten and Tasman. It set out to rediscover the part of Terra Australis which Quiros had led the exploring world to believe existed, but in fact added substantially to the Dutch record of Polynesian discoveries, with Easter Island and Samoa described here for the first time. There were altogether three contemporary narrative versions of the voyage, in Dutch, French and German: all are rare. This first French – and generally preferred – edition of Behrens’s account was based on the 1737 German version, and very likely translated by Behrens himself, who travelled under Roggeveen as commander of marines.

Roggeveen crossed the Pacific from the east at the head of a three-vessel expedition with largely commercial objects. He specifically sought the fabled continent of Terra Australis, which the English privateer Captain Edward Davis claimed to have sighted in 1680. It did not materialise, but on April 5th 1722 Roggeveen landed at the previously uncharted island which he christened Easter Island. They were the first recorded European visitors to the island and the detailed description of the inhabitants, their extraordinary idols and their way of life is of great value. Roggeveen’s visit to the island was well-known to Captain Cook, who made a long stay there during his second voyage. The expedition later went on to discover some of the outer islands of the Samoan group.

This attractive copy originally belonged to John Montagu, Duke of Montagu (c.16881749), Governor of St. Lucia and St. Vincent. Each volume of this set has Montagu’s library shelf-ticket to the front endpaper, with his crest gilt stamped upon petite crimson morocco spine labels. On his death his residence, Montagu House, was acquired by the Government to house the newly-established British Museum.

Barbier, II/685-6; Borba de Moraes, 95; James Ford Bell, B149; Kroepelien, 70; Mackaness (‘Art of Bookcollecting’), pp. 41-2; O’Reilly-Reitman, 230; Taylor, 77; Tiele, 933n.

$15,500

ROSS, James.

The Hobart Town Almanack for the year 1829…

24mo, six engraved plates in total, including two engraved titles (for the alamanac and the calendar) both with vignettes, two engraved signals plates (one coloured) and two other engraved views; contemporary red roan, gilt; bookplate of Bernard Gore Brett.

Hobart Town, [1828].

With fine engravings by Thomas Bock The first and rarest of Ross’s Tasmanian almanacs, in a very attractive binding.

Four of the engraved plates, including the two views of the “Fall of the Derwent” and “Macquarie Street, Hobart Town”, are engraved by Thomas Bock after originals by G. Frankland; the other two are noted only as being engraved by Bock. Thomas Bock had arrived in Hobart in January 1824, and despite being a convict, almost immediately began working as an engraver. Now most famous for the work he did for Lady Franklin engraving portraits of some Tasmanian Aborigines, the present almanac is some of his earliest work. The artist George Frankland was in the colony as a surveyor, having arrived in mid-1827, and took part in several journeys of exploration.

The almanac also includes a most interesting “Descriptive Itinerary of Van Diemen’s Land” (pp. 33-77).

Ferguson, 1272.

$7850

30

ROSTAING, Jules.

Le Jardin des Plantes.

31

Oblong folio, 24 colour-printed plates and 41 pp. text; some browning of the paper as common for books of this era, but very good in the original red boards embossed in gilt, bumped and a little worn at edges. Paris, Ducrocq, probably 1873.

With kangaroos and, more remarkably, a platypus A lovely edition of this work, designed as a series of three “promenades” through the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.

Although it is of interest for many of the exotic animals on public show (including kangaroos and a platypus), the real significance of the work is the series of views by Adam that show the wider public touring the zoo and which provide an insight into the conditions at what had become, by this date, an important menagerie.

Jules Rostaing (born 1824) was a well-known writer on all manner of natural history books, and this charming work is his study of the Jardin des Plantes at mid-nineteenth century.

A copy of this work in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France has been given a date of 1873, which would certainly accord with the style of the book and the known period that the publisher Ducrocq was in business.

$3100

[SAMOA] LOGAN, Colonel Robert.

Complete collection of proclamations issued by the New Zealand military administration during the First World War occupation of Western Samoa.

32 Well-preserved run of 71 proclamations, from the Inner Temple library with deaccession markings and typed index of six leaves; one large folding proclamation creased at centrefold with small loss and backed on linen, overall very good in navy buckram with gilt lettering. Apia, government printer, 1914-1920.

Wartime Samoa and the New Zealand occupation Complete run of the first 71 proclamations spanning the entire First World War occupation of German (or Western) Samoa, all printed in English but some with German

and native Samoan translations appended. They address a range of issues including internment camps, police courts and trading with the ‘enemy’ alongside more day-to-day matters.

Overall a peaceful affair, the occupation of German Samoa nonetheless stands as the first military action of New Zealand in the First World War. Although legally a British military administration, the islands were captured by a New Zealand Expeditionary force of almost 1,400 men in late August 1914. Superior naval deployment in the area made recapturing Samoa a tangible possibility, yet the German commander Admiral von Spee decided against this strategy as the vast majority of Pacific islands already fell under British control.

The proclamations were issued by the New Zealand military administrator Colonel Robert Logan. All 71 are printed in English while German translations in identical format of 33 are here present, and a further five in native Samoan are included. Subjects include the Sogi internment camp for German and ‘enemy’ citizens and the establishment of police courts on Upolu, Manono and Apolima. Economic restrictions feature prominently and limit German trading rights in the lucrative copra trade. One curious proclamation concerns spreading false rumours about the war in Europe, with punishments of 1000 Marks or up to two years imprisonment.

Ephemeral by nature, these proclamations do not appear to be held widely. The SLNSW, for example, holds a continuous run of numbers 26 to 40, while the Turnbull has a smaller run (numbers 60 to 66). This collection was originally assembled for the Inner Temple library, presumably as a legal depository.

$5850

SPEECHLY, William.

Treatise on the Culture of the Vine… Together with new hints on the formation of vineyards in England.

33

Quarto, five engraved plates (three folding), closed tear to p. 149; a most attractive copy in nineteenth-century straight grained red half morocco, label to front board, spine gilt, armorial bookplate of Vane Londonderry. York, Printed by G. Peacock for the author, 1790.

“the Vine… one of the first objects of my attention…”

First edition: “a practical, well-written and beautifully printed manual” (Hyams).

William Speechly (1735-1819) was a famous English horticulturalist, who had made his name perfecting the growing of pineapples (an eighteenth-century English craze) in England. At this point in his career Speechly was gardener at Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire, the house of the third Duke of Portland, to whom he dedicated this book. Speechly describes some 50 varieties of grape, and discusses all manner of practical questions relating to vineyards, including a long discussion on hothouses. Although printed in York, it is interesting to note that the London distributors included Nicol (who published Cook’s third voyage), as well as both Stockdale and Debrett who, at the time, were publishing the First Fleet journals.

It has been assumed that the first edition was in fact an undated edition at London, but this seems unlikely as the London edition is an expanded work, and Speechly was based in Nottinghamshire and had connections to Yorkshire (his first gardening position had been at Castle Howard).

From the library of Charles William Vane, third Marquess of Londonderry.

Bibliotheca Vinaria, p. 50; Henrey, 1376; Bibliotheca Gastronomica, p. 132.

$3850

TENCH, Captain Watkin.

A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, in New South Wales…

Quarto, with a folding map; an excellent copy, completely uncut in the original bluegrey boards; the paper on the boards torn and wearing; contemporary simple canvas spine with hand-lettered label; unsophisticated and preserved in a bookform box. London, Nicol and Sewell, 1793.

Tench’s second book detailing the early years: original boards Tench’s second book, completing his account of the settlement at Sydney Cove. This is a most attractive copy of this very readable account, which continues the story to cover the first four years of the colony. Tench left New South Wales with the other marines on 18 December 1791 aboard HMS Gorgon which had accompanied the Third Fleet and his book was published in November or December 1793, more than a year after his return.

Tench’s second publication paints a comprehensive view of daily life in the settlement through years of hardship and severe shortages. An understanding and intelligent observer of human nature, he gives vivid insights into the often strained relationships between convict labourers and the marines set to guard them. His account is praised as the most insightful and detailed description of the social fabric of the penal colony, in contrast to other more formal and official narratives. Tench also describes his significant explorations of the landscape of the Sydney basin and forays into the Blue Mountains, while providing sympathetic descriptions of their contact with the Eora Aboriginal people. The book includes a folding map providing an excellent survey of known lands, it details Botany Bay and Broken Bay along the coast and inland to the Nepean river, with numerous engraved notes on the landscape with a view to future farming and grazing ventures.

Crittenden, ‘A Bibliography of the First Fleet’, 238; Ferguson, 171; not in the catalogue of the Hill collection; Wantrup, 16.

$18,500

34

VAUQUELIN, Louis Nicolas.

ALS on Jardin du Roi letterhead…

35

Single sheet of laid paper with printed letterhead, folded to letter size 25 x 20 cm., written in a neat secretarial hand and signed by Vauquelin on behalf of Jussieu and Desfontaines; old folds, excellent. Paris, 18 December, 1816.

Make sure your scientists have a good temperament A letter sent to Louis de Freycinet appointing a natural historian to the Uranie, signed by Vauquelin and stating the support of the Muséum de histoire naturelle for the expedition.

Vauquelin was a professor at the Muséum de histoire naturelle in Paris, and was closely involved in the planning of the Freycinet voyage. The museum ultimately became the first repository of the bulk of the surviving scientific material and reports gathered by the naturalists and scientists.

Written to Louis de Freycinet in Toulon, where he was making the final arrangements for the voyage, the letter announces that the Museum would like to confirm the appointment of a person to be responsible for the collection of natural history specimens. They have, the letter continues, tremendous interest in the success of the voyage, and so encourage Freycinet to appoint someone known for the sweetness (douceurs) of their character and for their talents, so as to make sure that the appointee is not in any way an inconvenience on board. Although this is in large part merely a formal politeness, the professors would all have remembered the awkwardness of the relations between scientists and officers on board the Baudin voyage, so this letter should also be seen in that light.

Indeed, it is perhaps surprising that no scientist is actually named in this letter. It is certain that this is a reflection of Freycinet’s decision to be personally responsible for all appointments: after all, as John Dunmore noted, Freycinet - like Captain Cook before him - had “learned from his experiences with Baudin that a group of scientists is likely to be a source of trouble, and he preferred to have the scientific work carried out by naval officers, whom he could easily control” (French Explorers in the Pacific, p. 65).

In the event, the natural history collections of the voyage were overseen by Jean René Constant Quoy and Paul Gaimard, who excelled in the role.

$3850

[WESTERN AUSTRALIA] An Act to continue‌ the Government of His Majesty’s Settlements in Western Australia on the Western Coast of New Holland.

Two-page printed foolscap sheet, disbound; very good. London, George Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode, 1835.

Continuing good government in Western Australia in 1835 An early British government Act continuing the legal status quo of the Western Australian settlement.

This Act continues the original Act of 1830 instituting the colony of Western Australia (previously called the Swan River Colony). The Act was renewed on a yearly basis for many years, meaning that such an Act had to be promulgated every year.

Of course, any material relating to the first decade in the west is of some note and significance.

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