PELSAERT, François
Octavo, with ten illustrations, some folding; handbound in half green calf and marbled boards. One of a limited edition of 750 copies, issued as number two in the Australian Maritime Series, published by Hordern House for the Australian National Maritime Museum. The "unlucky voyage" of the Batavia is the most desirable of all books relating to Western Australia, a celebrated rarity of Australian book collecting, and the most important of all Dutch Australiana. First published in 1647, there were essentially six editions, with three variants, published in the seventeenth century (Tiele, 235-243; Landwehr, VOC, 406-411). This is the first facsimile ever issued of the first edition of 1647. The illustrations include graphic reproductions of the wreck, the mutiny and slaughter on the islands, the trial and torture of the leaders and their execution on the mainland; these are the earliest printed representations of the Australian mainland. Pelsaert's voyage along the West Australian coast to seek help at Batavia was the first extensive discovery of the Australian continent, exceeded only by the later voyages of Abel Tasman. Being the first published account of any voyage of Australian discovery, it is of the greatest importance. The story of the wreck itself, in Drake-Brockman's words, "provides the greatest dramatic tragedy in Australian history beside which the mutiny on the Bounty is an anaemic tale". .
BARROW, Sir John
Quarto, with two folding maps and 18 coloured aquatint plates after W. Alexander and S. Daniell (of 19, with Plate I, the "View of Funchal in Madeira", present in photo-facsimile only); otherwise a fine copy in contemporary sprinkled calf, flat spine banded in gilt with gilt emblem at head of spine. First edition: this handsome colour-plate voyage book is the first illustrated English work on South Vietnam, particularly the region of Da Nang and Hue: Barrow gives the first accurate description of the region and its inhabitants by an Englishman. Dampier had touched in Vietnam on his circumnavigation more than one hundred years prior to this, but his visit was largely confined to the areas around the Gulf of Tonkin. Although missing one of its coloured plates (which is supplied in good facsimile), this is how the book sat on the shelves of the Northern Lighthouses Board, the Edinburgh-based body founded in 1786 to oversee the construction of lighthouses in the northern United Kingdom. Its most famous engineer was Robert Stevenson, whose three sons followed him into the profession; together the family dynasty oversaw the building of almost all the "Northern lights" as they were known. The institution still today administers lighthouses (208 of them) and other marine navigational aids for Scotland and the Isle of Man. Their very good antiquarian library of travel and exploration books was dispersed in modern times. 'The voyage visited Madeira, the Canary Islands, and Rio de Janeiro; a description of that city and of Brazil in general is given. Touching at Tristan da Cunha, the ship rounded the Cape and eventually reached Cochin China via the city of Batavia on Java. The volume is also of Cook interest as it describes finding Captain Cook's Resolution transformed into a smuggling whaler under the French flag [p. 64].' (Abbey). 'This book is the account of Barrow's voyage on the way to China and is dedicated to his travelling companion, Sir George Staunton. The detailed information on Cochin China is taken from a manuscript memoir drawn up by Captain Barissy, a French naval officer, who had the means and opportunity of collecting accurate information. The supplementary article covers an overland expedition from Cape Town to the interior of South Africa into the then little-known territory of Bechuanaland. It is taken from a manuscript journal, originally written in Dutch by Pieter Jan Truter. Barrow continued in the service of Lord Macartney, after he became governor of Cape Colony, from 1796 to 1798.' (Hill). 'The aquatinting is of excellent quality, [plate] number 10 in particular being technically interesting, since it appears to be printed in as many as three colours, with one colour added by hand, while no. 11 is printed in green, with other colours added by hand.' (Abbey). . Provenance: Northern Lighthouses Board (with their lighthouse motif in gilt on spine).
LAURAGUAIS duc de BRANCAS, Louis Leon Felicité, comte de
Small quarto, xx, 82 pp. and memoir with separate pagination of [ii], 17 pp.; simple wrapper binding. Original edition. "In the Speech on Trade", the author insists on the importance of Industry (production of raw materials) and makes arguments against Quesnay and related economists. In the second part (entitled "Etats de Situation de la Compagnie des Indes, réunis pour la commodité des Actionnaires") he describes the situation with the Compagnie des Indes suggesting that the Company ought to be dissolved and its debts liquidated in order to establish a "Caisse d'Escompte". Count Lauraguais (1733-1824) published works on economics, science and politics. He was an associate member of the Academy of Sciences and under the Restoration, lieutenant general of the king's armies and peer of France. He tried to pull a fast one on Joseph Banks: having asked him how things had gone on Cook's first voyage, he quickly put Banks's generous narrative reply up into a commercial printing -- to Banks's fury. Confronted,he was forced to destroy the whole edition. The single surviving proof copy, the only appearance of Banks's story of Cook's Endeavour voyage, is one of the treasures of the Mitchell Library in Sydney. . Good copy (repair in the inner margin of the first sheets far from the text).
DELAPORTE, L.
Large octavo, with 175 illustrations, including 14 double-page plates and a map; a fine copy in quarter green grained morocco, spine faded to uniform brown, marbled endpapers. The first major study of Khmer architecture, and a very handsome book. Delaporte, as a young officer and a talented artist, was a member of the 1866-68 Mekong Expedition and was responsible for the magnificent illustrations in the official account of that epic journey. He subsequently returned to Cambodia and prepared this important study of the country's architecture. A great evangelist for the art of Cambodia, he wrote here about his 1866 visit to Angkor Wat that "Khmer art, issuing from the mixture of India and China, purified, ennobled by artists whom one might call the Athenians of the Far East, has remained the most beautiful expression of human genius in this vast part of Asia" ("L'art khmer, issu du mélange de l'Inde et de la Chine, épuré, ennobli par des artistes qu'on pourrait appeler les Athéniens de l'Extrême-Orient, est resté en effet comme la plus belle expression du génie humain dans cette vaste partie de l'Asie."). On a second expedition Delaporte brought back some seventy pieces of Khmer sculpture which would form the nucleus of exhibitions at the 1878 Paris Exposition and later at the Palais du Trocadéro, where he became chief curator of the Musée Indochinois, the collection later moving to the Musée Guimet. . Provenance: Eugene Seligmann (with bookplate, and bound for him, with instruction to binder on slip attached to title page). Small nick to spine, joints very lightly rubbed, otherwise excellent.
LEMIRE, Charles
Octavo, with eight steel-engraved plates and two folding maps coloured in outline; a fine copy in original quarter crimson morocco, spine ornately panelled and lettered in gilt, crimson pebblegrain sides, all edges gilt. For many years Lemire's study remained one of the fundamental references dealing with the French colonies in Indochina. This third edition is much expanded and updated to include an account of the French advance into northern Vietnam. Lemire (1839-1912), French explorer and colonial administrator, a friend of Jules Verne, spent much of his working life in the Far East and SE Asia, with a decade spent exploring New Caledonia as head of the telegraphic mission, but returned to France in 1881 to become Inspector General of Posts and Telegraphs. In 1886, he travelled to Indochina as a collaborator of Paul Bert, then Resident General of Indochina, and served there as a colonial administrator until 1894. .
GARNIER, Francis
Quarto, profusely illustrated with more than 200 wood engravings, two large folding colour maps; a very good copy in original quarter red morocco, spine lettered and ornately decorated in gilt, all edges gilt. A handsome copy of the second revised edition of Garnier's famous account of the Mekong River expedition, by the publisher of the rare larger format first edition. This version is extensively illustrated with wood engravings based on the original drawings by Delaporte and has an introduction by Leon Garnier. The most important exploration in Indochina in the nineteenth century, the Mekong Expedition followed years of lobbying, mainly on the part of Francis Garnier, who held passionate beliefs about France's "civilising mission" as well as the riches which would flow from the Mekong, in terms of trade with China. He had been a vocal, though pseudonymous, pamphleteer on the subject and became a most energetic second-in-command of the expedition. The French representative in Cambodia, Doudart de Legrée, was chosen to lead the expedition. The extraordinary expedition covered more than five thousand miles in Cambodia, Laos and Yunnan and carried out the momentous exploration of the Mekong River. . Both folding maps with sealed tears.
WHITE, John
Octavo, with a large folding map of the Dong Nai river, and four engraved plates; later half calf binding. The scarce first edition (a second edition appeared from the same press in 1826) of the "first detailed account of an American's visit to Vietnam" (Robert Hopkins Miller, The United States and Vietnam 1787-1941). Neither edition is much seen: we can trace only two copies of this first edition at auction since 1963. "An early American voyage to the East Indies. Sailing from Salem, Massachusetts, in January 1819, the Franklin and the Marmion began a voyage to the Far East that would last for twenty months. During this time the naval expedition visited Siam, China, the Philippines, and Saigon. This was the first American voyage to ascend the Dong Nai River, and the crew spent a considerable amount of time in Saigon. Although much of John White's narrative is devoted to Cochin China, its inhabitants and their language, it also contains an abundance of observations on Vietnam and the Vietnamese. Cochin China, originally a part of the ancient Khmer (Cambodian) empire, had been gradually infiltrated and overtaken by the Annamese (Vietnamese) in the 17th and 18th centuries, and today it is part of southern Vietnam. White also discusses Batavia and the Philippines. The "Map of the River of Don-Nai from Cape St. James to the City of Saigon" is after the original produced by M. Dayot in 1791, here updated with information gleaned from the expedition" (Hill catalogue). The splendid large frontispiece map shows details recorded from the important navigation of the Dong Nai river. . Provenance: Ezra Leonard; inscribed by him "to his friend Samuel Kimball" (both Connecticut family names); with William Reese Company, New Haven, Connecticut in 2009; private collection (Sydney). A few spots or sporadic dampstains due to paper type, but in generally good condition for an American book of this period; a couple of tears to the map without loss, and a few small perforations at one fold.
CARNE, Louis de
Octavo, with a folding frontispiece map and six full-page steel-engraved plates on tinted paper; original russet cloth, lettered in gilt and decorated in black. First English edition, translated from the French edition of the same year. Louis de Carné was nominated as a member of the Mekong River Expedition to represent the interests of the French Foreign Ministry. His relations with other members of the expedition, particularly Garnier, were poor, and following the completion of the expedition he vigorously criticised Garnier for not giving sufficient credit to the deceased Doudart de Lagrée. This is a significant alternative account of the Mekong expedition of 1866-68 in which the French searched unsuccessfully for a navigable waterway from Saigon to China. Carné, like so many other explorers of the region, died of tropical disease. The book was compiled from his letters, papers and journals by his father; it also details the establishment of the French protectorate over Cambodia, the ruins of Angkor, Luang-Praban, parts of western China, the Blue river, Shanghai and the return to Saigon. . Recased with new endpapers; in good condition.
RAFFLES, Thomas Stamford
Two volumes, royal quarto, large folding map hand-coloured in outline, 66 plates including ten coloured aquatints by William Daniell, nine half-page views in the text as well as several tables; an excellent set in contemporary sprinkled calf, double labels, banded in gilt. First edition, the rare large paper issue of this classic work, the first English language history of Java. The coloured costume plates are aquatints by William Daniell. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826), the English colonial administrator and founder of modern Singapore, was one of the central figures of British influence in Asia, and made an early study of the history and culture of the Malay peninsula. He was part of the force that subdued the Dutch-French forces in Java in 1811, and the same year was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the region. He made sweeping reforms which proved short-lived, but also used his time to work on this great history of the region, long considered definitive. Howgego has noted that for 'almost five years Raffles governed the island with considerable success, improving its commerce by the abolition of earlier trading practices and embargoes, and regarding it as the possible "centre of an Eastern insular Empire".' Raffles returned to England in 1816 where he prepared this work for publication. This large paper or "royal quarto" edition was published in an edition of just 250 copies, and is well-known for the high quality of the images, printed on fine paper. The text of the large-paper edition has the watermark "W. Balston & Co., 1815", as here. There was also a regular quarto edition on ordinary paper of 650 copies. The last example of this royal quarto" edition that we can identify as having been sold at auction made £9375 in 2015 (Sotheby, 30 September 2015, lot 1053). The book covers a wide range of subjects including anthropology, natural history, and language. The plates are of great beauty and interest, notably the ten fine coloured aquatints by William Daniell which depict Javanese scenes in great detail. Other plates illustrate cultural, religious and daily life in Java, the majority in the medium of soft-ground etching with aquatint: these images are after drawings by Captain Godfrey P. Baker and the Dutch surveyor and engineer H.C. Cornelis, who with J.W.B. Wardenaar supplied Raffles with other drawings of Javanese antiquities. . Provenance: Charles Benjamin Caldwell (1809-1896) of New Grange, Co. Meath, Ireland (armorial bookplates); J.C. Slagle of Piedmont, California (booktickets). Some light scattered foxing as common; one of the Daniell plates (at p.86) with reduced margins mounted on strong paper; spines neatly rebacked and the original spines carefully laid down.
McLEOD, John, surgeon
Octavo, frontispiece and coloured aquatint plates; in contemporary speckled calf. Second and best edition, with numerous additions and alterations, of this famous account of the voyage of the Alceste which brought Lord Amherst to China to serve as ambassador, and specifically to negotiate the China trade -- at the time a matter of dispute between China and Great Britain. McLeod, who was surgeon on the ship, describes the voyage out, the various calls in the East Indies, surveying off Korea, the visit to Okinawa, another to Manila, and the shipwreck off the coast of Sumatra and subsequent rescue from Malay pirates. This was one of the most popular travel books of its time, portraying the Far East to a much wider audience than had been reached by earlier accounts. .
POLO, Marco. YULE, Colonel Henry, editor
Two volumes, octavo, chromolithograph title-pages, plates and folding maps; original cloth. Second revised edition: Yule's 'monumental edition provides a treasure-trove of supplementary information'. 'Yule's famous edition of 'Marco Polo' appeared in 1871. The book is a storehouse of curious and profound research, and placed the editor by common consent in the first rank of geographers. A remarkable feature in Yule's work is the skill with which he unravels the most confused narratives of uncritical and credulous medieval writers, and the satisfaction he feels in rehabilitating, when possible, their character for accuracy' (DNB). . Provenance: Coutts Trotter (1831-1906, Scots author, inscribed "from his Mother, 1876"). Slightly shelf worn but an excellent copy.
[BOUGAINVILLE, Hyacinthe Y.P.P. de] TOUANNE, Vicomte de la
Large folio, half-title, title-page, and 44 pp text (with seven vignettes in the text) followed by the series of 35 lithograph plates; a fine copy in quarter calf and marbled boards, spine panelled in gilt in romantique style between raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers. This fine series of views with accompanying text was the first published account of the important voyage of Hyacinthe de Bougainville in the Thétis (1824-26), separately issued some nine years before the official account of this voyage. Edmond de la Touanne, a friend and protégé of Bougainville (and referred to in Bougainville's journal as "faithful companion of my travels"), sailed on the expedition as lieutenant de vaisseau. Because of the haste with which the expedition was manned, no official artist was sent; as Bougainville remarks, no pictorial record of the expedition would have survived but for de la Touanne's sketches. This rare and beautiful voyage album has considerable Australian textual content, as well as the three famous views of the Nepean River that resulted from their inland travels: a view of the Nepean where it is joined by Glenbrook Creek, with kangaroos on the river bank and a group of First Nations people in the middle distance; a view of the Norton Waterhole on the Nepean River with members of the expedition being rowed across the river in two boats watched by a group of Aboriginal people; and a view of the Nepean Gorge below Macarthur's house Camden Park, with a group of First Nations people around a fire on the shore. There is also a fine engraved vignette of the expedition's ships under sail south of Tasmania, in the heavy seas which forced them to abandon their visit to Hobart and continue directly to Port Jackson. --- Hyacinthe de Bougainville, son of the great eighteenth-century navigator, sailed as an eighteen-year-old ensign on the Baudin voyage. After distinguished service in the Napoleonic Wars, he was given command of the Thétis, only the second French frigate to be commissioned for a circumnavigation, the first having been his father's ship the Boudeuse. The expedition's most important visit was to Sydney where they stayed three months. Having been given secret orders to report on the defence capabilities of British settlements, the French officers travelled as widely as possible within the colony. Their investigations of Botany Bay, Camden, the Warragamba River and the Blue Mountains are well recorded in Bougainville's diaries (translated by Marc Serge Rivière as The Governor's Noble Guest, Miegunyah Press, 1999). This is an essential companion to Bougainville's official account which when finally published would include a further seven Australian views after De la Touanne's drawings. . Provenance: Rubén J. Dussaut, with bookplate. Corners of the binding neatly repaired; a very clean copy with large untrimmed sheets.
HUNTER, John
Quarto, with 17 engraved plates and charts; with the list of subscribers; a very large copy, edges uncut, in original paper boards, remnants of original paper label to spine, worn; quarter morocco box. An exceptional copy, unsophisticated in original publisher's boards binding, completely uncut and very large (page size 312 x 250 mm). This impressive copy was acquired by its first owner (Brydges, see provenance) in March of the year of publication, 1793; his name does not appear in the list of subscribers, but it is worth noting that the subscription amounted to 595 copies, of which a full two-thirds went to booksellers. The second governor's important Journal describing the first years of settlement at Sydney was published by Stockdale, who had earlier prepared Phillip's journal for publication. In many ways it is a continuation to Phillip's book and is certainly its equal in importance as the extended official account of the new colony. Second captain of the Sirius under Phillip for the voyage to Botany Bay, Hunter was an experienced sea captain and the most dedicated navigator of the First Fleeters. Actively engaged in surveying and exploration in New South Wales, he left for England in late 1791 after the loss of the Sirius at Norfolk Island while under his command. He spent the next few years preparing his journals for publication before going to sea again, and finally returning to the colony as its second governor in 1795. Hunter's particular skills in surveying and charting make his book in effect the first pilot for Australian waters and a significant companion to Cook in particular. The maps here, many of them from original cartography by Hunter, as well as Dawes and Bradley, are very fine. The engraved plates include the well-known "View of the Settlement at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, 20th August 1788" (the first published engraving of Sydney) and P.G. King's "A Family of New South Wales", engraved by William Blake (Essick, William Blake's Commercial Book Illustrations, XXVII). Hunter gives an excellent account of recent exploration, prints Phillip's despatches to the end of 1791, and describes the settlement at Norfolk Island (the first account of Norfolk Island and the first publication of anything by Philip Gidley King). The book was edited for the press by the Scottish antiquarian George Chalmers, and was heavily subscribed by booksellers (including 50 copies to Robinson); its clout can easily be measured by noting that its other subscribers include Joseph Banks, Lord Sydney, Evan Nepean, and Alexander Dalrymple. . Provenance: H.S.J. Brydges (second and third initials uncertain but bold ink inscription on front flyleaf dated from Bath, 20 March 1793); Robert Henry Lee Warner (1823-1895, with armorial bookplate). Lee-Warner inherited Tyberton Court, Hereford, from the Brydges family. Spine very worn and boards rubbed, but in impressive original condition.
K., W. (signed thus)
Watercolour on paper, 235 x 275 mm, mounted. An appealing and early painting of the crimson rosella or "Pennantian Parrot", skilfully drawn and enigmatically signed in pen "WK'', further captioned "This Species is Often Found about Port Jackson N.S. Wales". While the image has obvious similarity to the engraving that appears in Governor Phillip's account of the new settlement (The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay, 1789), certain details differ from that engraving, notably in the depiction of the tree and in the foreground. The text of the Phillip account (p.154) notes that "This beautiful bird is not infrequent about Port Jackson, and seems to correspond greatly with the Pennantian Parrot, described by Mr. Latham in the supplement to his General Synopsis of Birds, p. 61.". Latham, the great English ornithologist and scientific illustrator, was the first to describe more than a hundred new Australian birds, effectively taking control of the territory when the return of the Cook voyages (1769-1780) produced a rich offering of drawings and skins, even live specimens. He worked as well from materials belonging to Banks and others. It was Latham who named the new parrot in honour of his friend Thomas Pennant, Psittacus pennantii. Latham provided the fifty-five etched plates, including nineteen of birds, for the publication of Phillip's Voyage. The Pennantian Parrot was one of eight of these to be signed in its caption as based on a drawing by his daughter Ann Latham. We have not been able to identify the mysterious "WK" whose bold signature appears on this early work. The circle of artists and illustrators working in England on these newly recorded Australian species was interconnected, so it is possible that WK may have been part of the Lathams' artistic milieu. On the verso of the painting there are identifying marks that show that it was at one time part of an early scrap album. Original paintings of Australia's celebrated ornithology from the first fifty years of European settlement are extremely rare. . Provenance: Robert Hutchinson (Sydney collector). In very good original condition.
STRUTT, William
Original drawing, 170 x 100 mm, graphite and sepia on card; signed lower left William Strutt; mounted and framed. William Strutt (1825-1915) was born in Devon, England in 1825. For a period of his younger life he lived in France, returning there in the late 1830s to study painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, spending much time in the Louvre with the works of Raphael, which would remain a lifetime influence. In 1850 he sailed to Melbourne where he became a founder of the Fine Arts Society (later renamed the Victorian Society of Fine Arts) and exhibited at the Melbourne Exhibition in 1854. Strutt excelled as an animal painter. On his return to England in 1862, and influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, he came to "regard the lion as the greatest symbol of nobility and strength" (Marjorie J. Tipping, in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, online resource). So entranced was he with wild animals that he travelled to North Africa to study them in their native habitat. This is a delightful group of drawings which together form a study of a lion at the Jardin des Plantes, the famous zoo in the centre of Paris. Captioned "Jardin des Plantes", it bears several inscriptions including the dates of "Paris May 23rd 1895" and "zoo August 7th/ 95". To the left he writes under the lion's face "cast of whiskers depressed" and to the right "the eyeball nearly melts away. in the light". Strutt's close and intimate study of several aspects of this lion demonstrates his outstanding skills as both a draughtsman and a superb animal artist. Strutt exhibited 23 times at the Royal Academy and was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. . Provenance: Private collection (New South Wales). In very good original condition
RUMKER, Christian Carl Ludwig (Charles Stargard)
Large quarto, 252 x 218 mm, pp 20, [ii], XXV; stab-sewn in the original blue-grey limp paper wrappers, with a presentation inscription on the front wrapper; preserved in a fitted quarter morocco bookform case. Very rare, a pioneering foundation work of Australian science and important in the history of world astronomy: the first Australian star catalogue, this copy inscribed by the author to Alexander Dallas Bache (1806-1867), scientist and educator, the great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin. This elusive book was probably printed in very small numbers for a specialist audience; just two copies are recorded in Australian libraries (NLA and SLNSW). Christian Carl Ludwig Rümker (1788-1862), German astronomer, arrived in England in 1809, working for the East India Company and the merchant navy, before being press-ganged into the Royal Navy in 1813. Over the next few years he began making observations, including publishing the results of work he did at Malta. Recommended with an introduction (by Captain Peter Heywood) to the incoming Governor of New South Wales, Thomas Macdougall Brisbane, himself a keen astronomer, he arrived as part of the official party in 1821, beginning work at Brisbane's Parramatta observatory, near Sydney, where he made several discoveries including "Encke's Comet". A bitter disagreement with Brisbane led him to resign his post, and to retreat to his new property at Picton, "Stargard". In 1826 he returned to Parramatta at the behest of Alexander Macleay, and was appointed government astronomer in December 1827, the first person to hold that title. He returned to London at the end of the decade, but another quarrel, this time with the president of the Royal Astronomical Society, Sir James South, led to Rümker finally being dismissed from British service and returning to Hamburg. Still working as an astronomer, at some point he became reconciled to Brisbane, as is beautifully shown by the present work's dedication to him as "late Governor in Chief of Australia and Founder of the Observatory at Paramatta [sic]". Rümker's later career was prolific, publishing scores of papers and being honoured with many fellowships, and continuing to work on his trail-blazing Parramatta observations. He died at Lisbon in 1862. "When awarding the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society to Rümker, the astronomer royal, Sir George Biddell Airy, said that Rümker's dismissal was 'the greatest misfortune that happened to Southern Astronomy'" (ADB). --- Bache, to whom Rümker presented this copy, would later play a significant role as Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey, which he built into the foremost scientific institution in the country before the Civil War. At the time of the presentation of this work by Rümker, however, he was a professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, eventually becoming president of the college. He was "The most dominant figure in American science prior to and during the Civil War. either related to or friends with many high government officials and military and naval officers; and friend, ally, and colleague of many of the scientific luminaries of the age" (NOAA online). Interestingly, this presentation copy did not travel far from Pennsylvania as it was discovered by the dealers, since retired, Philadelphia Rare Books. They located a total of nine copies held in North American libraries. In Australia, Trove can identify just two copies, at the National Library and the State Library of NSW. Rümker's catalogue of stars visible in the southern hemisphere had both a purely scientific aim and a practical one. The systematic study and cataloguing of the stars visible with the aid of observatory-based telescopy in the southern hemisphere was in its infancy in the 1820s: The Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope, established in 1820, was the first permanent astronomical observatory in the southern hemisphere, which oints to the significance of the Parramatta Observatory being up and working by 1822. On the practical side, Governor Brisbane was a naval officer who knew the importance of the stars in navigation. Rümker's work and his catalogue served both science and the Royal Navy, as he offered "Constants of Aberration and Nutation"; a "Comparison of my Observations with those made by La Caille"; and notes on "Double Stars," "Magnitudes and Colour of the Stars, Nebulas, &c" and other similar pieces. Rümker, Christian Carl Ludwig (1788-1862) by G. F. J. Bergman (Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, (MUP), 1967). Christian Carl Ludwig Rümker (1788-1862), astronomer, was born on 18 May 1788 at Stargard, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany, the son of J. F. Rümker, court-councillor. He showed a talent for mathematics, and his father sent him to the Builders' Academy at Berlin where in 1807 he passed the state examination as a master builder. He was disinclined to follow this trade and, after working for about two years as a teacher of mathematics in Hamburg, went to England in 1809. From 1809 to 1811 he served as a midshipman in the East India Co. and then entered the merchant navy, where he became a helmsman. Seized by a press-gang in July 1813, he accepted a position as teacher of sea cadets with officer's rank and served in H.M.S. Benbow, Montagu and Albion. In 1816 he took part in a punitive expedition against Algiers. During his Mediterranean service he made the acquaintance of Baron Franz-Xaver de Zach, an Austrian astronomer, who induced him to pursue the study of astronomy. His first publications about observations at Malta in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal of 1819 drew the attention of other scientists to his work, with much effect on his career. Discharged from the navy in 1819 he returned to Hamburg, where he was employed as teacher at the school of navigation. Recommended to Sir Thomas Brisbane by Captain Peter Heywood, under whom he had served in the Montagu, Rümker was engaged as the newly appointed governor
RUMKER, Karl
Octavo, [vi], [74], 218 pp; contemporary presentation romantique binding of dark brown morocco, sides ornately gilt, flat spine decorated and lettered in gilt, white silk moiré endpapers, all edges gilt. A beautifully bound presentation copy, inscribed by Rümker in ink to Ernest Augustus, the son of George III, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover (1771-1851), whose picturesque library stamp appears on the verso of the title-page. This rare astronomical work by Rümker reflects his close interest in the nautical aspects of astronomical science. After he left New South Wales in 1829, as well as becoming the director of the Hamburg Observatory he also took over as the superintendent of the Hamburg Nautical School. Earlier in his life he had served in the British merchant navy, which did not preclude him being press-ganged onto a warship in 1813. During some years of naval service in the Mediterranean he made use of his mathematical skills to become a skilled navigator. Unsurprisingly therefore he was particularly interested in longitude, publishing on the subject in journals during his Parramatta time. This work, the first part of which consists of an introduction and explanation, much of which couched in complex mathematics, the second part containing astronomical tables, is about the determination of longitude by lunar observations. . Provenance: Florid presentation inscription from the author to Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover (1771-1851), with stamp of his library on verso of title. "Fifth son of George III, Ernest Augustus served in the English and Hanoverian armies during the war with France. He was created Duke of Cumberland in 1799. He entered the House of Lords as an ardent Tory who opposed Catholic emancipation and the Reform Act. His repressive politics and private influence over the Prince Regent, made the Duke the subject of much popular resentment. In 1810, amid rumours of incest and the murder of his valet, he suffered an assassination attempt. When William IV died in 1837, Cumberland succeeded as Ernest I of Hanover under Salic law which excluded Queen Victoria as a woman" (NPG).
FLINDERS, Matthew
Two volumes quarto, and atlas folio; the text volumes on large paper and the atlas in the preferred elephant folio size with the botanical plates unfolded; nine plates in the text; the atlas with 16 charts (nine folding), two plates (on four double-page sheets) of coastal views, and ten large botanical plates; text in handsome contemporary half crimson morocco bindings with brown moiré cloth sides, atlas in contemporary quarter red morocco and marbled sides, spine lettered in gilt. A superb set, evidently acquired by George Wyndham (later Lord Egremont) in 1836, with the splendid and large atlas volume containing updated maps appropriate to that date. Showing details of coastal exploration carried out by P.P. King and others in the two decades since original publication, this represents the detailed knowledge of the Australian coastline current at about the time that Wyndham acquired the set. Its binding is very similar to other books from Wyndham's library that we have handled in recent years. It is typical of books from his library that the text volumes should be examples of the scarce issue on Large Paper, while the atlas, which shows the latest available information, is in the preferred largest format with the fine botanical plates therefore unfolded. The three-volume official account of Flinders's great circumnavigation of Australia in the Investigator offers a complete record of the expedition with an authoritative introductory history of maritime exploration in Australian waters from the earliest times. The text contains a day by day account of the Investigator voyage and Flinders's later voyages on the Porpoise and the Cumberland. Robert Brown's 'General Remarks, geographical and systematical, on the Botany of Terra Australis', which is illustrated by Ferdinand Bauer's botanical plates in the atlas, is printed in an appendix in the second volume. The text is illustrated by William Westall's nine engraved plates in the text and two double-page plates of coastal views in the atlas. These are in many cases the very earliest views of the places visited and discovered on the voyage. Flinders's charts in the atlas were of such accuracy that they continued to be issued by the Admiralty for decades and form the basis of all modern charts of Australia. The atlas here contains late issues of some of the maps, and thus represents the detailed knowledge of the Australian coastline current around 1836 when Wyndham acquired this fine set. A number of revised issues of the Flinders atlas were to appear in the twenty years after publication. In this copy, the general map of Australia contains revisions to 1829, while chart X has revisions "to 1826 by Phillip P. King", and charts XI and XII have been completely replaced by sheets 1 and 3 of Phillip Parker King's "Chart of part of the N.E. Coast of Australia", published in 1824. Charts VI, XIV and XV are of the Admiralty issue with rhumb-lines added and the Hydrographical Office stamp. The remaining nine charts are of the first issue. The charts continued to be issued by the Admiralty for decades. . Provenance: From the library of George Wyndham at Petworth House, with his signature on the title-page dated 1836 and his bookplate as Lord Egremont. In very attractive condition, the text volumes with much less offsetting from the plates than usual; atlas in fine state.
SKOTTOWE, Lieutenant Thomas
Two volumes, 80 & 112 pp., large octavo format (310 x 195 mm.), with 27 full-page watercolours and 26 pages of manuscript in colour-facsimile; printed on high quality gloss art paper, bound in fine cloth; slipcase. The first and only publication of The Skottowe Manuscript since its creation in 1813. This full colour-facsimile and study of the famous manuscript in the Mitchell Library won the prestigious Galley Club of Sydney Award for Excellence. Celebrated as the best designed, illustrated adult book in the Australian Book Publishers Association Design Awards, The Skottowe Manuscript is a rare and valuable collector's piece. It is also a remarkable natural history of New South Wales. David Attenborough writes in his foreword that the book's beauty lies in its representation of '.a land full of marvels seen with wonder and innocence'. This is the first and only publication of The Skottowe Manuscript since its creation one hundred and seventy-five years ago. In 1813, Thomas Skottowe, an early colonial official, and convict artist Richard Browne compiled a remarkable record of the birds, animals, insects, reptiles, and fish of the New South Wales region, comprising 27 watercolours and 26 pages of hand-written copper-plate text. For each illustration in Volume I, Skottowe records his own excited comments and the native name for the subject, making The Skottowe Manuscript a delight to read as well as admire. To place the work in its historical context, author and historian Tim Bonyhady writes knowledgeably about the content of the manuscript in Volume II. The publication was limited to 550 numbered copies, but this example is one of a small number marked "Out of series" as a publisher's presentation copy. .
FRANKLIN, Sir John
Two volumes, octavo, with four splendid folding maps; in contemporary navy blue half calf, marbled boards, edges and endpapers, spines ornately panelled in gilt with duble brown labels (lettered "Franklin's Journey to the Copper Mine River"). A particularly fine set, in a most attractive contemporary binding, of the second, first octavo, edition: Sir John Franklin's narrative of the 1819-1822 expedition to the polar north under his command. Assured of guides and ongoing supplies by the Hudson's Bay Company, Franklin and his party of twenty men sought an overland route east of the Coppermine River. Using native canoes to traverse a vast landscape, relations among the men deteriorated as food and supplies dwindled. Cold, exposure and starvation took a harrowing toll as cannibalism and murder erupted amongst the voyagers. A total of nine men died. This account was initially published in a lavishly illustrated quarto edition. This second edition in smaller format features four splendidly engraved maps. Franklin, who had served as a midshipman under Matthew Flinders in the Investigator during the circumnavigation of Australia in 1801-04, was later appointed as Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania from 1837 to 1843. His reputation as an Arctic explorer and his search for the North West Passage grew in the following years, and culminated in the loss of the Erebus and Terror on his final expedition in search of the passage in June 1847. .
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