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Catalogue
1475
Maggs Bros. Ltd.
Item 29, D’Oyly, p.27
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SLAVERY
1[BENEZET (Anthony).]
Observations on the Inslaving, importing and purchasing
of Negroes; With some Advice thereon, extracted from
the Epistle of the Yearly-Meeting of the People called
Quakers, held at London in the year 1748.
Second edition, first state. 12mo. Modern wrappers, minor damp stain to
lower corner of four leaves. 16pp. Germantown, Printed by Christopher
Sower, 1760.
£1250
One of the earliest and most significant pre-Revolutionary anti-slavery pamphlets
printed in America, the first edition was published the previous year. A Quaker
of French Huguenot descent, Benezet founded the first American anti-slavery
society, the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage,
as well as the Negro School in Philadelphia where there was a significant free
black community.
Benezet published a series of pamphlets explicating the horrors of slavery with
a view to its abolition, most notably A Caution and Warning to Great Britain
and her Colonies (1767). The pamphlets were printed at his own expense and it
was from these that Clarkson first became aware of the slave trade and began
his long campaign against it. Along with Wilberforce, Clarkson achieved his goal
with the passing of the Act for the Abolition of Slavery in 1833. Sabin, 4676;
Evans, 8542; Afro-Americana, 1071; Kress I: 5828; Hogg, 1732.
Item 7, [SLAVERY]
2GALLAUDET (Thomas H.)
A Statement with Regard to the Moorish
Prince Abduhl Rahhahman.
First edition. 8vo. Modern wrappers, some minor foxing, removed from a
nonce volume. 8pp. New York, Fanshaw, 1828.
£950
1
Uncommon. Gaullaudet’s statement clarifies some of the inadvertently embarrassing aspects to the slave trade. Prince Abduhl Rahhahman was the son of
a West African king in what is now Mali. He served as a cavalry officer in his
father’s army and while on a punitive expedition against the Hebos was captured
and sold. He survived the journey to America where he was bought by Colonel
Thomas Foster, a plantation owner from Natchez, Mississippi.
The Prince was recognised by Dr. John Coates Cox, who had met him in
Africa when he was 19, and who offered Foster a thousand dollars for the Prince.
Foster refused the offer as the Prince had become such a valuable slave. A second
attempt was made years later before “some gentlemen in Natchez have interested
themselves in the Prince’s case. A representation was made on the subject to
the Government of the United States, which, after having obtained the most
satisfactory evidence of the truth of the Prince’s history, directed its agent at
Natchez to procure his freedom. On application for this purpose, Col. Foster
manumitted him without any equivalent.”
However, by this stage, the Prince had married and had five sons and eight
grandchildren. This pamphlet was published in a bid to raise funds to purchase
manumission for the rest of his family. Rev. Gallaudet recounts the story of
the Prince before setting out his appeal to donors’ sense of humanity, to their
faith as Christians, and as a further strike against the slave trade. The pamphlet
concludes with the testimonies confirming the Prince’s identity. Terry Alford’s
biography, Prince Among Slaves (New York, 2007), tells us that the Price’s appeal
was unsuccessful and that he and his wife returned to Africa alone. After the
Prince’s death, his wife remained in Liberia and was later joined by two of her
sons. Shoemaker & Cooper, 33317.
3HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The Debate on a Motion for the Abolition of the SlaveTrade, in the House of Commons, on Monday and
Tuesday, April 18 & 19, 1791. Reported in Detail.
First edition. 12mo. Period style quarter calf with vellum tips, trimmed a
little close along the bottom edge affecting the text on a couple of pages. ii,
124pp. London, W. Woodfall, 1791.
£500
A very good copy, including the speeches given by Wilberforce, Pitt and Fox. The
situation is described in some detail by ODNB: “The select committee resumed its
deliberations in February 1791, and Wilberforce, encouraged by a letter from the
dying John Wesley, returned to his assiduous gathering of material. On 18 April,
in a four-hour speech that showed his mastery of the evidence and arguments, he
moved for leave to bring in an Abolition Bill. Subsequent debate was lively and
extended over two evenings, but when the house divided at 3.30 on the morning
of 20 April Wilberforce was defeated by 163 votes to 88. The outbreak both of
revolution in France and, early in 1791, of a slave rebellion in the French colony
of San Domingo (Haiti) had heightened insecurities and led the majority of MPs
to oppose a measure that they perceived as potentially destabilizing.” It was not
until February 1792 that the first bill passed through the Commons, advocating
a gradual decrease.
SLAVERY
4HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Debate on a Motion for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade, in the
House of Commons, on Monday the Second of April, 1792.
First edition. 12mo. A fine copy in period style quarter calf with vellum tips.
(iv),171, [1ad]pp. London, 1792.
£500
Another publication in the ongoing series of debates that led to the abolition
of slavery. As always, Wilberforce takes front and centre stage. This debate is
significant for its motion, passed by a majority of 68 (“ayes” 193, “noes” 125),
to insert the word “gradually” into Wilberforce’s motion to abolish the slave
trade. The advertisement leaf at the end lists further publications regarding the
abolitionist movement as well as a report on the slave rebellion on St. Domingo.
Extremely Rare Account of a Female Slave
5PAN Y AGUA (Juan Carlos Miguel).
Oracion funebre en las exequias de la madree Sor Teresa
Juliana de Santo Domingo, de feliz memoria, celebradas el
dia nueve de enero, en el convento de religiosas dominicas,
vulgo de la penitrencia, de esta ciudad de Salamanca.
First and only edition. Small 4to. Early 20th-century green roan-backed
shagreen by Gabriel Mulas of Salamanca with his ticket on the front
pastedown (binding a little rubbed and scuffed in places), first five leaves
repaired at the lower and fore-margins (the repairs do not touch or obscure
any of the text), stained and browned throughout (the final leaf has a much
darker stain on the recto and verso), some other minor repairs throughout
the text. [8], 24pp. [Salamanca]: impressa por Garcia de Honorato y S.
Miguel, impressor de dicha ciudad, y universidad, [1749].
£6500
The extremely rare first account of the extraordinary life of Teresa Juliana de
Santo Domingo (1676-1748): taken as a slave from the Gold Coast when she
was nine years old, sold into servitude to the marques de Mancera, celebrated
for her great piety and devotion to God and eventually admitted, amidst much
hardship, as the first black nun in a Spanish cloister.
This funeral oration records the life of Teresa Chicaba (later Sister Juliana
de Santo Domino), who was born in the north-eastern portion of today’s Ghana
and was probably a member of the Ewe tribal group. She was taken by Spanish
sailors and sold as a slave to an aristocratic family in Spain, where “she showed
great piety.” According to the official hagiography, written by the same author
as the present funeral oration, Chicaba inherited a substantial “dowry” from her
mistress, the Duchess of Arcos, Marquesa de Mancera. She took the dowry and
tried to enter the order of Saint Mary in Salamanca, but because of her colour,
she was refused. Instead, the Holy Mother allowed her to work as a maid for the
order. Some years later, the Holy Mother relented and allowed Chicaba to take
her final vows, but still restricted her officially to the position of maid. Despite
3
this, Chicaba, now sister Teresa Juliana, devoted her life to the needs of the poor
and sick in the community. The cloister in Salamanca was founded in 1548 and
was extremely strict about admittance. According to Melián, it was only because
the Marques de Mancera paid a very large dowry to a house in dire economic
straits, that Chicaba was admitted in October 1703.
What we know of sister Teresa Juliana comes from Father Juan Carlos Pan
y Agua, who states that what he knew of Chicaba’s early life came from her
own “autobiographical writings,” as well as her “poetry,” - of which sadly no
copies are known to have survived. Chicaba said that she came from the region
of “La Mina Baja del Oro,” or the part of West Africa that extends through
present day Eastern Ghana, Togo, Benin and Western Nigeria. She said she was
captured when she was nine years old, and though she could remember little of
her early childhood, she did remember the names of her mother and sisters, which
SLAVERY
suggest her tribal group as Ewe. She was sold to Juliana Teresa Portocarrero
y Meneses, the Duchess of Arcos and third wife of the Marques de Mancera,
viceroy of Mexico and protector of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. As a member of
this household, the young Chicaba habituated herself to the piousness of her
mistress and developed an intense spiritual life that in time became her key to
freedom. However, according to Pan y Agua’s biography, Chicaba received vicious
beatings and abuse by other members of the household staff, and especially the
housekeeper. In accordance to the behest of her mistress who died in 1703,
Chicaba was free to join the Dominican convent of La Penitencia in Salamanca.
According to Pan y Agua, Sor Teresa Juliana gained recognition as a “healer
with prodigious religious gifts. In spite of her inferior status in the order, her
acts of charity, her mystical experiences, and her fame as a healer and miracle
worker moved her order soon after her death to commission two portraits of
her for purposes of local veneration,” At the same time, they began the process
of her beatification, for which father Pan y Agua first wrote the present Funeral
Oration, and later the full-length hagiography, cited above (Salamanca, 1752;
second edition in 1764; reprinted 1999).
The text of this funeral oration is in three parts and covers the birth,
upbringing, family and so forth in Africa, including her questioning her father
and brother about God, her subsequent vision of the Virgin Mary and child, her
being ‘captured’ by a beautiful young white man and brought to Puerto de S.
Thome where she was baptized, and whence she sailed to Seville and her life, as
a supposed royal princess in the household of the marques de Mancera, where
she is not well treated. Her entry into the religious life is described and her self
mortification both in terms of sleep and food as well as her extreme devotion.
She is constantly described as a rose, or a radiant star, and her final sufferings she died of palsy - are described. Her epitaph is given: ‘Here lies the chaste, the
pure, the innocent and mortified one; in her soul a dove, if in her body black;
black, but beautiful; born a queen, died a slave, but instead of a slave a queen,
and a queen because she ruled over herself, and because she ruled over herself,
still a queen…’
It is remarkable that this pamphlet has survived and provided us with an
important account of Sister Teresa’s life: the paper quality is poor and the leaves
have become quite browned, and torn at the edges, over time. The text is also
poorly printed with the font used on the final page being much smaller than that
used throughout the rest of the work, showing clearly that an error in casting
off had been made meaning the whole oration had to be fitted into 14 leaves.
We have located one other copy of this Oracion, in Madrid (Bib. Nacional)
but neither it (nor the Compendio) is listed in Palau. The fullest account of
Sister Teresa is that by Elvira M. Melián: “Chikaba, la premiera monja negra en
el sistema esclavista español del siglo XVII” in Hispania Sacra XIV 130, JulioDiciembre 2012, pp. 565-581.
Provenance: old ink stamp on the title-page of the Bibliotheca Postulationis
Ord. Praed.
This book was offered for sale as lot 510 in Swann’s Printed and Manuscript
African Americana sale in March 2012 with an estimate of $15,000-$25,000.
Maggs recently purchased the book directly from the consignor.
5
“Shockingly Indecent Actions”
6ROSS (George).
Collection of letters.
Fair copies comprising a broken run on 28 pages, numbered pp147-191.
Academy High Street, St. Johns, Antigua, 1788 - 1789.
£3750
An incredible survival. These letters were used at some point as the lining of an
English oak chest, from which they were later removed by a paper conservator.
The letters are addressed to a wide circle of Ross’s acquaintance: his mother, the
surgeon Charles Gibbon, his assistant, Rev. Dr. Coke, Mr. John Burke. The letters
concern sales of slaves, and their interests, how best to raise his daughter, financial
matters and “domestic infelicities”. They provide a substantial, interesting and
varied account of life in eighteenth century Antigua. Among the highlights is an
incredible letter addressed to his former assistant, accusing him of theft, laziness,
swearing and sexual misconduct. Ross had evidently fired him the night previous
to the letter. An excerpt reads:
“I furthermore accuse you of having Robbed your Aunt, & Mr Bull & myself
from time to time to the value of money more by far than would have brought
you to an ignominious Death had it happened in any part of either England,
Ireland or Scotland.
“Lastly - your shockingly indecent Actions yesterday evening to Ritta - when
you were naked - & that too before my eyes, brought to my recollection the
villainy you perpetrated on the last Lodge Night - when (taking advantage of
my absence) under pretext of waiting in the Hall for a candle after your sister &
the rest of my family had retired - you then - (shocking to relate) made use of my
young Negro Girl, Jane, in a manner too shameful to comment to Paper! This she
herself acknowledges - which is likewise corroborated by your other favourite
(Ritta) in whose presence you spoilt the other! What a shameful Action was this!
They moreover complain that at all opportunities (which chiefly offer early in
the mornings and near bedtime) you are continually feeling their Nudities- and
encouraging little Master George Hunter in the same mal-practices…
“You are sensible, it was your neglect and misconduct not want of Capacity that excluded you from Assisting me in my Business - Alas! Will you be evermore
blind to your true interests? Reflect for a moment what all this self-deception
will end in. The valuable period of your life is swiftly passing away - but in doing
what? why, in eating, drinking, sleeping and play-cursing, swearing keeping low
company, what not in short in a continual round of Folly and dissipation.” A
chilling insight into domestic life on a plantation.
7[SLAVERY].
L’Esclave Nègre, Relation Interessante et Authentique. No.14.
Engraved vignette, after Josiah Wedgewood’s famous medallion designed for
the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, of the classic kneeling slave “Am
I not a Man and a Brother” (in French). 8vo. Original printed self-wrappers,
SLAVERY
some tiny marginal stains not affecting text. 24pp. Guernsey, Dumaresq et
Mauger, 1823.
£950
A fine copy of this rare Guernsey imprint, published in an unnamed series for
the Société des Traités Religieux which comprised at least 22 issues. This short
tale is set on Guernsey and is narrated by a Protestant minister. It concerns a
slave brought before him to be baptised by his owner, a naval officer whose ship
had stopped at the island. The bulk of the narrative is a dialogue between the
minister and the slave. No copies are listed on OCLC.
[see illustration at beginning of section]
8[WEDGWOOD (J.)]
Framed plaquette with a wax figure of a kneeling slave
in chains appealing to Britannia, “Britannia set me free”
lettered above the slave, with ship in background.
Oval, measuring 160 by 155 with frame, interior measures 90 by 90mm.
Painted on ceramic or ivory, gilt mount, in contemporary turned wooden
frame behind a concave glass with painted white designs that frame the
image. Original glue visible under slave, slave cracked in spots, left foot of
slave chipped with minor loss to front of foot, some light chipping to paint
under glass but overall in good condition. [Great Britain: c. 1830]. £5000
The image adapts the iconic design of the kneeling slave with the motto “Am I not
a Man and a Brother” first produced as a jasperware medallion by Wedgewood
in 1787-88. The image had an immediate impact - women wore the medallions
as necklaces or transformed them into bracelets, pins, or brooches to identify
themselves with the abolitionist cause. It also appeared on the title page of works
written in support of the abolitionist cause. After Wilberforce’s bill to abolish the
slave trade finally passed in 1807, activists turned their attention to the abolition
of slavery and the image of the enchained, crouching slave was adapted for a
new use. Now the image came to symbolize slavery generally and in the framed
plaquette, the slave implores Britannia, the personification of the British nation,
to set him free. The ship in the background behind the slave may be a slave ship,
and if so would allude to the earlier triumph of the campaign to abolish the slave
trade and hint that a similar result awaits the anti-slavery campaign. In the sky
between the motto “BRITANNIA SET ME FREE” and standing Britannia, is the
ever-open-eye, which symbolizes the omniscience of God. The symbol reminds
the viewer that God knows of all the injustices perpetrated by man and subtly
suggests that the viewer is complicit in the injustice if he or she does not act
against it. There are a number of different versions of this wall plaque. In one
the frame is alabaster rather than wood, as in the example at the Hull Museum
[accession number KINCM: 2006.3747]. In others the visual layout of the scene
is slightly different, e.g. in one the slave has a white loincloth and the motto is
more circular. The wall plaques were produced up until parliament passed the
Abolition of Slavery Act in 1833.
7
9 [WILBERFORCE (William).]
An Abstract of the Evidence delivered before a Select Committee
of the House of Commons, in the Years 1790, and 1791; on the
Part of the Petitioners for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade.
First edition. Folding plan of a slave ship & folding map. 8vo. Contemporary
quarter calf over original boards, spine gilt, a pleasing untrimmed copy, a
little shelf worn. xxvi, 156pp. London, James Phillips, 1791. £3500
Important abstract of the evidence presented to the select committee of the House
of Commons with testimony by many of the leading champions of the abolitionist
cause. The work also includes an engraving of three horizontal and four vertical
views of the slave-holding decks of the slave ship Brookes with a cargo of 482
closely packed slaves.
‘The parliamentary hearings, which had dragged on intermittently for nearly
two years, ended in early 1791. The abolitionists then faced a curious problem.
There were nearly 1,700 pages of House of Commons testimony, on top of the
hefty 850-page volume from the Privy Council hearings of several years earlier,
SLAVERY
filled with eyewitness accounts, tables, and excerpts from slave laws of different
colonies, some of them in French. No one could expect even the most sympathetic
M.P. to to master this mountain of material. And so, in the weeks before the next
debate on the slave trade began, a group of abolitionists embarked on a feverish
collective editing marathon - Wilberforce even working on Sundays, so urgent
did he feel the task - to distill some three years of testimony into an account short
enough to be given to each M.P. to read. The committee then sent it to all of
them’ (Hochschild, Adam. Bury the chains New York: Macmillan, 2005. p. 189).
The very well-written preface to the Abstract states the purpose of this work
and outlines the historical context for it: ‘In consequence of the numerous petitions
which were sent to parliament from different Counties, Cities, and Towns in
Great Britain, in the year 1788, for the ABOLITION of the SLAVE-TRADE, it
was determined by the House of Commons to hear Evidence upon that subject.
The Slave-Merchants and Planters accordingly brought forward several persons
as witnesses, the first in behalf of the continuance of Slave-trade, the latter in
defence of the Colonial Slavery. These were heard and examined in the years 1789
and 1790. Several persons were afterwards called on the side of the petitioners
of Great Britain, to substantiate the foundation of their several petitions, and
to invalidate several points on the evidence which the others had offered. These
were examined in the years 1790, and 1791. This abstract then is made up from
the evidence of the latter, in which little other alteration has been made than that
of bringing things on the same point into one chapter, which before lay scattered
in different parts of the evidence; and this has been done to enable the reader to
see every branch of the subject in a clear and distinct shape’ (iii-iv).
Following the preface is an interesting alphabetical list (with biographical
sketches) of the witnesses. The anonymous compiler of this abstract has also
indicated where the testimony of each witness appears in the voluminous original
printing by the House of Commons and by so doing, has provided a valuable
reference tool.
One of the more important aspects of the Abstract is that it offers, apparently for the first time in print, a developed argument against the claim by the
proponents of the slave trade that ‘with this traffick are … deeply blended the
interests of this country, and those of numerous individuals’. Of all the arguments
that the slavery interest offered, economics was the hardest to combat - it would
be impossible to convince parliament that national commerce would not suffer
with the abolition of the slave trade. The situation required the development of
a new line of thinking and the abolitionists framed in chapters six and seven (pp.
94-99) of the Abstract their new concept of ‘legitimate trade’. The abolitionists
argued that Africa produced plenty of other goods ‘in which they could offer [in]
a trade to the Europeans in the place of the trade in slaves’ (94) and that these
goods would more than make up for any aggregate loss occasioned by abolition.
This concept of ‘legitimate’ or ‘socially responsible’ trade ‘became a cornerstone
of British African policy in the nineteenth century, an article of faith espoused
well after 1850 by such figures as Livingstone and Kirk’ (Ralph A. Austin;
Woodruff D. Smith. Images of African and British Slave-Trade Abolition: The
Transition to an Imperialist Ideology, 1787-1807. African Historical Studies,
vol. 2, no. 1 (1969), pp. 69-83).
9
AFRICA
10 ANDRADE (Andre Paulo de).
Explorações antigas e modernas da Africa,
e introdução ao estudo da hydrographia africana.
First edition. Three folding maps. 8vo. Original printed wrappers, spine
perished, but holding nicely. xxi, 147, [7] pp. Bombay, Typographia do
Anglo-Lusitano, 1888.
£950
A very good copy of this rare work. Andrade was a surgeon, and a fellow of the
university of Bombay. He was also a knight of the order of St. Gregory. Ostensibly a work on African hydrography, Andrade provides an overview, and much
interesting information on, the recent exploration of central Africa by the likes
of Samuel Baker and David Livingstone. Rather than focus explicitly on the
search for the source of the Nile, which was settled only a decade previously,
the first map “Mappa da Africa Tropical…” focuses on the Congo river and its
surrounding area, including Lakes Victoria, Albert and Tanganyika. The northern
tip of Lake Nyassa is also included. The large folding map, “Mappa da Africa
Tropico Austral”, shows details of the southern part of the lake regions of central
Africa and focuses on the immediate area surrounding Lake Tanganyika. Further,
there is a facsimile of Duarte Lopes’s 1591 map, “Lagos Equatoriaes e as Lagoas
do Nilo”, which originally appeared in Pigafetta’s Relatione del reame del Congo
(1591). OCLC lists just four copies.
11 [BECHUANALAND]
Twenty original photographs relating to King Khama III
and Sir Henry Loch, Governor of the Cape Colony.
Measuring 145 by 220mm and smaller. 13 laid down on white paper.
Johannesburg et al., c. 1892.
£2000
Sir Henry Loch succeeded Sir Hercules Robinson as Governor of Cape Colony
AFRICA
and High Commissioner for Southern Africa in 1889. He was instrumental in
negotiating with Paul Kruger and Cecil Rhodes over British and Boer interests
for colonial expansion in Southern Africa. In the early 1890s, Cecil Rhodes
pressed the British government to annex the territory belonging to King Khama
III, hoping to open up the country to white settlement and economic exploitation.
In 1892, Khama protested to Loch against Rhodes’ designs on his territory. Loch
subsequently raised the issue with the Colonial Office about the situation and
Rhodes’ plan was abated. The next year, with the help of Dr. Jameson, Rhodes
launched his military invasion of Matabeleland; Loch formed an alliance with
Khama and called on 1700 of Khama’s Ngwato troops to help support British
forces. In 1894, Rhodes’ British South African Company once again attempted to
take Khama’s territory, using his influence with the press to launch a propaganda
campaign against Khama. In response, King Khama and two neighbouring
chiefs, travelled to Britain to lobby Sir Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State
for the colonies, for protection from Cecil Rhodes’ South African Company
plans to expand from the North and the Afrikaner settlers from the South.
Khama eventually succeeded in securing Protectorate status for his kingdom. The
Bechuanaland Protectorate would eventually achieve independence in 1966 as
Botswana. Khama’s diplomatic efforts to convince the British authorities of the
need to protect the Bamangwato, likely saved much of what is today Botswana,
from being absorbed into Rhodesia and South Africa. Loch left South African
in 1895.
The images appear to record meetings between Khama and Loch. One
depicts Khama on horseback before a canvas tent; group portraits capture Loch
meeting with chiefs and there are a number of images of Khama’s kraal (possibly
at Palapye). There is also a portrait of Paul Kruger by the Duffus Brothers of
Johannesburg.
11
13 CARNEGIE (The Hon. David).
Letters from Nigeria, 1889-1900.
First edition. 2 plates. Original pictorial cloth. 8vo. xli, 142, 8pp. Brechin,
Black & Johnston, 1902.
£950
Rare. Carnegie’s sister privately printed 100 copies of this work and her introduction comprises an overview of his life. Carnegie returned to Scotland after his
adventures in Western Australia, where he oversaw publication of his account,
Spinifex and Sand, and was awarded the Gill Medal by the Royal Geographical
Society. Carnegie travelled to Northern Nigeria in December 1899 where he
was appointed assistant resident under Sir Frederick Lugard. Carnegie served
at Illorin, Lokoja and Kerifi, where he was fatally wounded in a skirmish in
November 1900. These letters contain much of the wit and acute observation
that characterised his earlier work.
With Appendix IV
12 BURTON (Richard F.)
First Footsteps in East Africa; or an Exploration of Harar.
First edition, first issue. 2 maps and 4 coloured lithographs, 7 illustrations
in the text. 8vo. Original purple cloth, gilt, with half title, recased, old cloth
laid down, this rather faded and worn, with new endpapers. xli, 648pp.
London, 1856.
£7500
“Exceedingly rare and practically unobtainable” (Penzer). The Preface (p.xxvii)
in listing the contents of the Appendix gives the fourth as: “A brief description of
certain peculiar customs, noticed in Nubia, by Brown and Werne under the name
of [in]fibulation.” However, unlike the copy described here, in most known copies
the fourth Appendix itself is omitted and in its place a cancel is found: “It has
been found necessary to omit this Appendix”. The publisher apparently did not
understand the nature of the “peculiar customs” until the print run had begun
and was unable to accept that accounts of female circumcision were a suitable
topic for his readers. As Penzer puts it: “Since Burton’s time the great importance
of detailed attention on the part of travellers to all kinds of deformations and
mutilations among natives has been fully realized” (p62). Barely a year after
returning from his pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah Burton set out once
again in disguise, this time as an Arab merchant, with the intention of travelling to
the closed city of Harar. Despite achieving his primary objective, the expedition’s
success was overshadowed by the death of Lieut. Stroyan and the loss of stores
and personal possessions during an attack by Somalis whilst they were encamped
on the beach at Berberah. Penzer, p60-1.
AFRICA
14 CRUIKSHANK (Isaac).
An Abyssinian Breakfast.
Engraved print measuring 265 by 365mm. Some minor restoration, but a
very good copy. London, W. Holland, 1791.
£500
A lovely satire on William Bruce’s account of his expedition to Abyssinia, published the previous year, in which he claimed to have witnessed the custom of
eating steaks cut from live cattle. This was just one of many claims received by
a disbelieving public and Cruikshank wasted little time in capitalising on it. To
wit: “There, which the squeamish souls, Britain shocks, Rich steaks devouring
from the living ox; Here starving are thee from the realm of water, Full many a
virtuoso alligator.”
13
Regiment, Mr B Greene’s coach man (an Indian) named Debee, Lacsar Ameer and
5 Indians.” During the ascent, weather conditions proved too adverse to allow for
photographs and thus a second ascent was made in better conditions. The images
from this second ascent feature here. The final three pages give a brief summary of
the different attempts on the mountain, the first being in September 1790. OCLC
locates two copies at the BL and another at George Eastman House in New York.
16 MEROLLA DA SORRENTO (Girolamo).
Breve Relazione del Viaggio nel Regno di Congo Nell’ Africa
Meridionale, fatto dal P. Girolamo Merolla da Sorrento, sacerdote
cappuccino, missionario apostolico. Continente variati clima, arie,
animali, fiumi, frutti, vestimenti con proprie figure, diversità di
costumi, e di viveri per l’uso humano. Scritto, e ridotto al presente
stile istorico, e narrativo dal P. Angelo Piccardo da Napoli.
First Edition. Small 8vo. [xxiv], 466, [39]pp. With an engraved frontispiece,
engraved armorial plate with arms of Cardinal Acciaioli and twenty other
engraved plates. Beautiful period Italian style crimson morocco, elaborately gilt with a black gilt label, several expertly removed library stamps,
otherwise a very good copy. Napoli, Per Francesco Mollo, 1692. £6000
With Six Original Photographs
15 [GREENE (B.)]
The Ascent of the Pieterboth Mountain.
Mauritius: 13 October 1864.
Only edition. 6 original photographs. 16mo. Contemporary quarter sheep,
extremities worn, presentation inscription to ffep. 16pp. Mauritius, Dupuy
& Dubois, 1864.
£1500
A rare Mauritian imprint with six original photographs. This copy is inscribed
on the front free endpaper: “Louis Bols Esq A souvenir of Mauritius HJJ.” The
recipient was probably Louis Guillaume Michael Joseph Bols, who served as
British consul general of Mauritius in 1857-61 and then at the Cape of Good
Hope 1865-70.
“This ascent was undertaken by a party consisting of Captain Johnston and
Mr Simons of the 2/24th Regiment, and Mr B. Greene, who took with them,
to carry up the flag-staff, ropes, and other packages, Private Lowe of 2/24th
AFRICA
First edition of this important account of African life, natural history and customs. The book is often, indeed generally, catalogued under Merolla’s name, but
the title makes it clear that the text was prepared and put into narrative form
by Angelo Piccardo.
Girolamo Merolla was “a Capuchin from Sorrento who went to Africa in
1682. Between 1684 and 1688 Merolla worked largely in the region of Songo,
about 150 miles northeast of Luanda. His Viaggio del Regno di Congo provides
an interesting picture of life in seventeenth century Angola and is often cited for
its anecdotal observations. He was possibly the first to note the use of drums
for military signalling. During a confrontation with an English slaver who was
attempting to trade under the pretext that the Duke of York, the president of
the Royal African Company, was a Catholic, Merolla infuriated the captain
by suggesting that he would send a complaint about the behaviour of the
English to his countrywoman Mary of Modena, Duchess of York. Apparently
the King of the Congo did trade privately with the English, behind the back of
the Capuchins” (Howgego). The author, who “comments upon the influence of
the Portuguese in the Congo, describes in detail the life of the people and the
natural resources of the region [and] his narrative contains some interesting
pictures of the life there and presents a good account of the superstitions of the
natives” (Cox).
The Capuchins were a small but important presence in the kingdom of
Kongo. Their numbers were insufficient to take control of education and so they
concentrated their efforts into setting up hospices near Sao Salvador, Mbamba,
and Soyo and sometimes in remote areas. They were known to free slaves and
their records reflect considerable success in the rate of baptisms among the natives.
Cox I, p373, Howgego M151.
15
EGYPT,
THE NEAR EAST
MIDDLE EAST
&
17 BURCKHARDT (John Lewis).
A Set of Five Major Works: 1. Travels in Nubia. Portrait
frontispiece, 3 engraved maps (2 folding). Lacking the half title
and the blank 3Z2, 1819. 2. Travels in Syria and the Holy Land.
Lithograph portrait frontispiece after H. Salt, 6 engraved maps
and plans (2 folding). Frontispiece shaved with small loss to
imprint, 1822. 3. Travels in Arabia. Folding engraved frontispiece
map, 4 additional maps and plans. Some minor spotting and neat
repairs, map shaved with slight loss of headline, 1829. 4. Notes
on the Bedouins and Wahabys. Engraved frontispiece map, shaved
touching the neat line, 1830. 5. Arabic Proverbs. A very good copy
with some minor spotting and soiling, 1830.
First editions. 4to. Uniformly bound in late 19th-century tree calf by Stocker
& Gilbert, gilt, some joints split with some chipping to head and foot of
spines. Nubia rebacked with old spine laid down. Housed together in a
marbled paper slipcase with morocco lip.
£10,000
A native of Switzerland, Burckhardt moved to England to escape debts incurred
whilst a student. Later he was commissioned to explore the sources of the great
African rivers by the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts
of Africa. “The Association had recently lost all intelligence from Hornemann
… who had been sent out to penetrate Central Africa by way of Fezzan, and
had resolved to send another traveller in the same direction. Burckhardt offered
EGYPT, NEAR & MIDDLE EAST
his services, and these were accepted in 1808. In the meantime he prepared
himself by studying Arabic, chemistry, astronomy and surgery at London and
Cambridge, and in January 1809 received his instructions from the Association:
to proceed to Cairo then cross the desert into Sudan.” (Howgego).
His second book details the many journeys and discoveries he made, most
notably that of Petra, whilst Travels in Arabia, his third work, describes just
over half a year’s sojourn in Arabia in 1814. “Nowadays we can regard the
work of John Lewis Burckhardt as a landmark in the development of western
knowledge of Islam and the Arab world… [his], balanced, objective and often
sympathetic account… can be seen as one of the fruits of the Enlightenment”
(Hamilton). Ataby, 166; Blackmer, 237, cf.239, 240; Gay, 1963, cf.3606; Hilmy,
105; Howgego 2, B76; Weber I, 107, 169.
17
18 LOW (Captain Charles Rathbone).
The Land of the Sun: Sketches of Travel with Memoranda,
Historical and Geographical, of Places of Interest in the
East, visited during many year’s service in Indian waters.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth, slightly shaken & foxed, ownership stamp
to title page. ix, 356, 16ads.(dated Oct. 1870)pp. London, 1870. £3750
The rarest of Low’s works. He is best known for his histories of both the British
and Indian navies. Apart from a chapter on the Andaman Islands this book is
primarily concerned with the Persian Gulf (178pp.) and the Red Sea, with a
chapter or two on the East African coasts.
The Land of the Sun originally appeared in an abridged form ‘in the columns
of an old-established military magazine’ and it appears now for the first time in
its original form. One of the strengths of Low’s work is that he adopts an atypical
form for the travel narrative: ‘it should be stated that as the places treated of in
the following pages were repeatedly visited by the writer, it has appeared to him
to be more advisable to adopt the plan of describing them in isolated chapters
than in the ordinary form, that of a connected narrative. It is not intended,
therefore, that the volume should be classed among regular works on Travel, …
but as a collection of descriptive sketches of places with which he is intimate’
(vi-vii). In addition to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, there is a chapter or two
on the East African coasts - including a description of the struggle to eliminate
slavery and the involvement of the British navy in this activity.
OCLC records only seven copies but only three locations in North America
(McGill, Dallas Theological Seminary, and Athenaeum of Philadelphia). Only
three copies of this work have appeared at auction in the last thirty years.
Popham’s Copy of Ms. Account of Voyage to Egypt
19 [POPHAM (Sir Home).]
Meteorological Journal kept on a Voyage from England to Egypt,
by the Cape of Good Hope and the Red Sea, onboard His Majesty’s
Ship Romney of 50 Guns, commanded by Sir Home Popham
in the year 1800 and 1801. [With] A Journal of the Voyage.
Manuscript in ink, square 12mo. Contemporary green half calf, Popham’s
bookplate on front pastedown. 120pp [including about 20 blanks]. At sea,
1800 - 1801.
£3500
Admiral Sir Popham (1762-1820) had a distinguished, if controversial, career in
the British navy. He devised a new system of signalling which greatly improved
communication in the fleet, and fought in the French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars. He was court-martialed for a bold incursion in Argentina and
was charged by his politically motivated enemies with incurring extraordinary
expenses in his command of HMS Romney.
In late 1800, Popham was commissioned to sail with a troop convoy to assist
with Abercromby’s campaign against the French in Egypt. The voyage from
EGYPT, NEAR & MIDDLE EAST
England to Alexandria is detailed
here, with a daily log indicating
date, location, weather, distance
travelled, and many remarks covering the beginning of the voyage
in December 1800 through a long
stay in Alexandria ending in March
1803. Following this “Meteorological Journal” is a manuscript
journal, from December 1800 to
October 1801, recording observations about the voyage, with some
interesting anthropological and
cultural notes.
The unpublished journal is unsigned and gives no clue as to its
author (Popham is referred to in
the third person). It was possibly
circulated among the officers as a
general record, or perhaps given
to Popham as a souvenir. The
convoy stopped en route to Egypt at Funchal, Madiera (“crowded and excessively
dirty”) and Cape Town (“a large, handsome town”) and toured the vineyards
at Constantia. The journal notes ill-health on a ship of the convoy (“buried a
considerable number of the 65th [a boy regiment,] besides sailors, woman and
children”). Following a strong gale off the east coast of Africa, the convoy is
forced to make major repairs to a ship and then attempts landing on small island
near Madagascar for supplies. Their small boats are surrounded by sharks and
driven back from the rocky coast. Off Mohilla in the Comoro Islands the convoy
is approached by natives on canoes, (“one of them a very handsome young man,
quite black, and apparently of some distinction, came to us last night with some
fruit; their chief remained on board as our Pilot”). Still in need of supplies, the
sailors negotiate for water and cattle from the King of Mohilla (who dupes the
sailors) and trade with the natives who paddle out to the convoy in their canoes.
The journal records observations on the Galla of East Africa (“pagans and
cannibals”), the excellent quality of some of the local food and the hospitality
of the sheriff of Mecca (with whom Popham unsuccessfully negotiates a trade
treaty). At Jeddah the convoy meet with General David Baird and receive word
that Abercomby has had success against the French in Egypt. The convoy crosses
the Red Sea and there follows a long description of Cosseir, Egypt (“in few words
this may with Truth by said to be, the most desolate, dreary and comfortless spot
in the whole world”), and the difficult and dangerous desert crossing to the Nile
on camels and mules. The army sails down the Nile, eventually reaching Cairo,
where the author of the journal buys a double flute from a street vendor and
provides a long description of the city, including its public baths, mosques and
homes. The author catches fever and has to stay behind as the army moves on
to Alexandria. He catches up several days later and provides descriptions of
Rosetta and Alexandria.
19
A charming group of watercolour views executed on a trip across northern
Europe. The images are accompanied by a map depicting the route from Hull
to St. Petersburg.
The images are titled as follows: 1. Helsenberg bearing E. Sweden 2. Tivoli
Gardens. Copenhagen 3. In the Suburbs of St Petersburg 4. Towers of the Kremlin.
Moscow 5. Moscow. Domes of St Basil Cathedral from inside Kremlin 6. Abbess
and nuns. Moscow 7. Chapel in St. Basil Cathedral. 8. Nishni from down stream
Volga 9. Ouswan opposite Kazan on Volga 10. Simbiski on Volga 11. Samara on
Volga 12. Mountains of Caucasus between Petroski and Derbena 13. Caspian
Sea Kobenski range. Caucasus 14. From 4th stage out of Ispahan.
EUROPE,
RUSSIA, TURKEY
20 [ANON.]
[Northern European Views.]
Thirteen watercolours, laid down on cream card, ms. ink captions on card
with watercolour map loosely inserted. Small folio. Recent half calf over
marbled boards. Denmark, Sweden, Russia, September - November, 1869.
£750
Item 21, Berdmore
EUROPE, RUSSIA, TURKEY
With a Beautiful Panorama
21 BERDMORE (Septimus).
Report on the Inzer Estate, Situated in the Government
of Orenburg, in the Empire of Russia, the Property of His
Excellency General Ouchakoff, etc, etc. Accompanied by Plans.
First edition. Two folding lithograph plans, a large folding lithograph map
and a folding lithograph panorama. Folio. Period style maroon straight
grained half morocco with marbled, original upper wrapper bound in,
occasional ms. annotations in ink, some minor chips and wear. iv, [2 errata],
36pp. London, Edward Stanford, 1865.
£2000
The presentation inscription on the upper margin of the wrapper reads: “Dr Percy
F.R.S. With the author’s comps”. John Percy, a British metallurgist, compiled a
report about the quality of the Inzer’s iron ores based on numerous samples given
to him by Berdmore.
21
An early account of prospecting on the Inzer River in the Southern Urals (modern Bashkiria). General Ouchakoff, owner of the estate, employed the author to
ascertain “whether the iron ore, stated to exist on his property, was of such extent
and such quality as to offer an inducement to an English Company to invest
capital in the erection of iron works there”. Berdmore spent sixteen days on the
estate and concluded that there were “magnificent forests of finest timber”, “vast
iron fields”, an “abundance of lime, brick earth, refractory stone and sand” and
“magnificent quantities of marble of the finest quality”. His report provides a
comprehensive overview of the estate and its resources as well as an assessment
of its deposits of gold, iron, stone, coal and “other sources of revenue.” The
report concludes with nine appendices detailing the cost of establishing industrial
operations of the estate.
The illustrations include a beautiful lithographed panorama of the Inzer estate
taken on the spot by Berdmore, two plans showing the location of the estate
in Russia in general and Government of Orenburg in particular, and a large
map of the estate showing the main iron, gold and mineral deposits, as well as
suitable sites for iron works. The first iron smelting factory on the Inzer River was
founded in 1890, which suggests General Ouchakoff did not act on Berdmore’s
recommendations. Rare. Not in OCLC; not in COPAC; not in BL.
22 G. Y.
A Handbook to the Island of Sark.
Sole edition. Frontispiece map. 12mo. Original wrappers with paper label on
upper wrapper, slightly worn. 23, [1ads]pp. Jersey, Gosset & Co., 1859.
£450
Rare. We can only locate two copies - one at the Toronto Public Library, the
other at Leeds. Sark is the third of the Channel Islands. This charming guide to it
provides a general overview before describing some of the geographic landmarks
such as Le Creux Terrible, Les Autelets, Port du Moulin and Ile des Marchands.
The work concludes with six pages of historical remarks, the most important
event being the discovery of silver in the early nineteenth century, which became
known as “Sark’s Hope”: “[f]rom that moment Sark became notorious, and
shortly afterwards was the resort of numerous engineers, workmen, and fortune
hunters.” The frontispiece map is by Stevens.
23 GRANT (Charles Jameson).
The Political Drama. [A Series of Caricatures].
Nos. 1-50. 50 woodcuts. Oblong folio. Contemporary blue paper wrappers.
London, G. Drake, [1833].
£6000
Rare. Despite almost nothing being known of Grant’s family or early life, he was
to become one of the most prolific caricaturists in London in the 1830s. Grant got
his start by providing designs for William and Henry Heath, however by 1830
was producing his own work directly for publishers in accordance to the wishes of
EUROPE, RUSSIA, TURKEY
their audiences. Between 1833 and 1835 he produced 131 images for the weekly
series The Political Drama. This series “captures most fully the spirit of his own
political and social vision. Unremittingly anti-authoritarian and crudely executed,
these prints apparently were expressly designed to appeal to the social, political
and aesthetic experience of the radical working classes. Politicians, bishops,
magistrates, sabbatarians, the monarchy, and the Metropolitan Police Force are
just some of the characters with which Grant peopled a world of blatant hypocrisy, self-interest and abuse of power” (ODNB). Individual examples of these
images appear on the market from time to time, however it is most unusual to
have so comprehensive a selection. Indeed, OCLC shows only the British Library
to hold a complete set.
23
24 HELMERSON (Georg von).
Der Telezkische See und die Teleuten im Oestlichen Altai.
First edition. 8vo. Period style brown half calf over marbled boards, spine
gilt with black gilt morocco label, ownership inscription to title. 110pp.
Saint Petersburg, Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1838. £950
A scarce copy of the first survey of Teletskoe Lake, the second largest in Russia
after Lake Baikal. A Russian translation was not published until 1840.
Departing Biisk in 1834, the author travelled along the Bia River before commencing his topographical survey. In addition to the geographical notes, von
Helmerson includes information on the local tribes (especially the Teleuts) and a
history of Russian exploration and settlement in the area. There are also remarks
on the initial attempts to establish a fishing industry on the lake.
Born near Tartu in Estonia, Gregor von Helmerson was an important geologist
who specialised in searching for coal. The year after his trip to the Altai mountains,
he joined the corps of the mountain engineers (Korps der Bergingenieure) and
remained with it for a decade. His wide ranging travels in search of coal, took him
to the Kirgiz steppes, Sweden, Norway, Germany, the Northen Urals, Cherson and
Kiev. In 1839 along with Karl Ernst von Baer he founded the first scientific journal
of natural history in Russia known as “Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Russischen
Reiches”. He wrote numerous works on the geology of Russia, especially on coal
and other mineral deposits. In 1842, he was awarded with the Demidov prize of
the Russian Academy of Sciences for producing the first geological map of Russia.
“He became inspector of studies (studieninspektor) at the Russian Berginstitut
and from 1865 until 1873 served as its director… In 1871 he made geological
excursions to Finland, Kurland and Esthland, and in 1872 travelled to the coalmining regions of Poland, Silesia and central Russia. In 1873-74 he examined the
lignite formations in Kurland” (Howgego). Howgego 2, H37.
25 VENIUKOV (Mikhail). KRAHMER (Gustav) trans.
Oberst Wenjukow: Die russisch-asiatischen Grenzlande.
Aus dem Russischen übertragen von Krahmer.
of the Russian Geographical Society and the author of several books, mostly
dedicated to Russian relations in Central Asia and the Far East. A mountain pass
through the Sikhote-Alin Range in the Khabarovsk region was named after him.
The Last Major Discovery in Siberia
26 OBRUCHEV (Sergey Vladimirovich).
V Nevedomykh Gorakh Yakutii. Otkrytie Khrebta
Cherskogo. [In the Unknown Yakutian Mountains:
Discovery of the Chersky Range.]
First edition. Folding coloured map and illustrations to text (portrait,
views, maps). Period style brown half sheep over marbled boards, spine
gilt, illustrated front wrapper preserved in the binding. 247pp. Moscow,
Gosugarstvennoe Izdatelstvo, 1928.
£850
“Everyone knows about the circumstances of the deaths of Sedov or Scott, but
who knows about the sufferings and death of the Great Northern Expedition or
about Middendorf’s crossing of the Taimyr when he, dying, lay in the snow for
18 days?… I’m far away from creating a romantic halo around Siberian North…
My task is just to tell about my expedition to Indigirka - to the places entirely
unknown before” (preface).
Obruchev’s account of the discovery of the Chersky Range in North-eastern
Siberia, between the Yana and Indigirka rivers included the mapping of parts
of north-eastern Siberia for the first time. In addition to describing the terrain
crossed, the work also includes notes on the local inhabitants, their hardships,
customs and manners. Sergey Obruchev was the son of the famous Russian
explorer and writer Vladimir Obruchev (1863-1956). He became a prominent
traveller and geologist and in 1926 explored the basins of Yana and Indigirka,
later proving them to be gold-bearing. Obruchev named the newly discovered
range of mountains after the explorer Ivan Chersky, who died in the region during
his scientific expedition to the Kolyma River in 1892.
First German edition. 2 folding lithograph maps. 8vo. Period brown quarter
sheep over brown pebbled cloth boards, spine with raised bands and a
gilt lettered title, ex-library stamps on the half title and title page. 512pp.
Leipzig, Fr. Wilh. Grunow, 1874.
£1250
27 [RUSSO-TURKISH TREATY]
A very good copy of the first German edition of Mikhail Veniukov’s study of
the Russian-Asian borderlands translated from the Russian by Gustav Krahmer.
The book includes Veniukov’s large ethnographical map of Asiatic Russia, and a
map of the border lands between Russia and China. Mikhail Ivanovich Veniukov
(1832-1901) studied at Saint Petersburg University and the Imperial Military
Academy. In addition to his 1868-9 circumnavigation, he travelled widely
through Russia, Amur and Ussuri Rivers, the Baikal region, Issyk Kul, Tian-Shan,
the Altai Mountains and the Caucasus. He travelled further afield again in the
1880s, to Algiers, Tunis, Senegal, Gambia, Brazil and Uruguay. He was a member
First edition. Folio. Period style half crimson morocco over marbled boards,
spine gilt. [ii], 12pp. Moscow, 1775.
£2750
EUROPE, RUSSIA, TURKEY
Traktat Vecnago mira i Druzby, Zakljucennij mezdu Imperiej
Vserossijskago i Ottomanskago Portoju. [Treaty of lasting Peace and
Friendship between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Porte.]
A very good copy of this rare treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca, which is a village near
Silistria on the Danube. “The treaty was a complex document, but it dealt with
three major issues. It was first and foremost a political and territorial settlement
affecting the Danubian Principalities, the Crimean and other Tartars, and the
Caucasus, the zones of the Russo-Turkish frontier west, north, and east of the
Black Sea. It was in a very real sense the first partition of the Ottoman Empire by
25
the Russians. The treaty proclaimed the existence of a Tartar nation consisting
of the Crimean khanate; the Budzhak, Edisan, and other hordes between Dniepr
and the peninsula; and the Kuban Horde between the Eia and the Kuban. The
treaty also took up the cause of the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman Empire;
and, finally, it opened up the question of Russian navigation in the Black Sea
and passage through the straits.” John P. LeDonne; The Russian Empire and the
world, 1700-1917 (1997), pp105-7. No copies located on OCLC.
The Last Scottish Pirate Trial
28 STUART (Alexander).
Report of the Trial of Peter Heaman and Francois
Gautiez or Gautier, for the Crimes of Piracy and
Murder, before the High Court of Admiralty.
First edition. 8vo. Cloth backed marbled boards, slightly shelfworn, paper
label to spine, some occasional, minor foxing. 183, [blank]pp. Edinburgh,
Charles Guthrie, 1821.
£1750
A very good copy of what proved to be the last
Scottish pirate trial. Peter Heaman and Francois
Gautiez were placed on trial for having stolen the
brig Jane of Gibraltar which was sailing toward
Bahia with in excess of $38000 of silver. Heaman
served as mate onboard and Gautiez as a cook.
Not far out from the Canary Islands, the two
men murdered the captain, Thomas Johnson, and
seized the ship. They committed a further murder,
of seaman James Paterson, in the act of taking the
ship. Having sailed north to the Isle of Lewis, they
sank the ship after having removed its cargo and
were apprehended shortly thereafter. This account
of the trial includes a list of witnesses, nearly 90
pages of their accounts (including Heaman and
Gautiez), the closing arguments of the prosecutor
and defendant’s lawyer, plus the verdict and sentence. An edition was printed in
Leith the same year.
EUROPE, RUSSIA, TURKEY
INDIA,
CENTRAL ASIA &
THE FAR EAST
Lithographed in India in 1830
29 D’OYLY (Sir Charles).
Sketches of the New Road on a Journey between Calcutta to Gnah.
First edition. 22 lithograph plates, each India proof mounted onto sheets
with lithographed captions, each with accompanying lithograph text leaf.
Oblong 4to. Publisher’s brown printed wrappers, edges a little worn,
some minor damp staining in a quarter morocco drop-back box. Calcutta,
Asiatic Lithographic Company Press, 1830.
£8500
A very rare work of views by D’Oyly, lithographed in Calcutta at the Asiatic
Lithographic Company’s Press. Born in India, Sir Charles D’Oyly was educated
in England before returning in the service of the East India Company in 1798.
By 1808 he was Collector of Dacca, and in 1818 succeeded to baronet. After
serving in a series of posts throughout India, culminating in his appointment
as Senior Member of the Board of Customs, Salt and Opium, and of the
Marine Board in 1833, he returned to England in 1838, and retired in 1839.
He is now best known for his work as an amateur artist and publisher of lithographs in India.
D’Oyly became a noted student of George Chinnery, who worked in India
between 1802 and 1825. “Chinnery’s love of drawing rural India and its people
and animals comes through strongly in D’Oyly’s work … [D’Oyly’s] work at its
best is fresh and charming, and his topographical work has an engaging vividness”
(Losty). Lithography came to India in the 1820s and D’Oyly was an early adopter.
27
The plates are as follows: 1. A Hindoo temple at Jehanabad 2. View of the Purisnaut
Hills from Chatna 3. View of an insulated rock near Ruggoonauthpore on the
New Road, 1828 4. View of the rocky hills at Ruggoonauthpore, 1827 5. View
on the road from Chunder Kerree to Chass crossing the Odilbun Nullah, 1827
6. View on the road from Angballee to Goomea crossing the Damooda River,
1827 7. View in the Chittroo Pass on the road from Gomea to Chittroo Chutta,
1828 8. End of the Chittroo Pass, 1827 9. View of the Village and Hill of Silwar
with a telegraph tower 10. View from the summit of the Kutcumsundee Pass,
1828 11. Summit of the Kutcumsundee Pass, 1828 12. End of the Dungye Pass
on the New Road, 1828 13. Entrance into the city of Gyah by the Sheerghathy
Road 14. View of the Summun Boohe in the city of Gyah 15. View of the back
entrance to the Summun Boorhe in the City of Gyah 16. View of the Bishunpud
Temple and part of the city of Gyah from the Fulgo River 17. Temple of Seta
Mahaish Mahadeo at the bottom of the Burrum Jewun Hill near Gyah 18. View
of the Muccundee Dewul and the Beturnee Tank at Gyah 19. View of a small
Hindoo temple in front of the Great Temple at Bhood Gyah 20. Hindoo temple
at Bhood Gyah, 8 miles from the city of Gyah 21. Terrace of the Hindoo temple
at Bhood Gyah in Behar 22. View of an excavated chamber in the summit of the
Barabur Hill, 14 miles N.E. from Gyah.
“In 1824 D’Oyly was the moving spirit in setting up a society of dilettanti called
the Behar School of Athens … for the promotion of the Arts & Sciences, and
‘for the circulation of fun and merriment of all descriptions’” (Losty). D’Oyly
had ordered a lithographic press from England in 1823, though transporting it
to Patna proved difficult, with the first attempt resulting in the destruction of the
press in a squall on the Ganges. A second press was ordered, and was established
at Patna in 1828 (though there is evidence that D’Oyly had access to lithographic
stones at an earlier date) and named The Behar Amateur Lithographic Press.
“During 1827 and 1828, D’Oyly had been drawing on stone, a series of views
taken from his pen and ink drawings of the road which had recently been laid
between Calcutta and Gaya and these were eventually published by Thomas
Black [at his Asiatic Lithographic Press in Calcutta] … This does not necessarily
indicate that D’Oyly had by 1830 grown tired of the Patna Press” (Losty). Losty
suggests that D’Oyly accomplished the work at Patna, but had the finished stones
sent down the river to Calcutta for printing and the addition of the title page and
text. The original drawings for the work survive, located in the British Library.
Unlike many of the other D’Oyly “published” works from this early period of
lithography in India, each of the plates in the Sketches of the New Road… bear
D’Oyly’s imprint identifying him as the artist on stone.
INDIA, CENTRAL ASIA, FAR EAST
“Although [D’Oyly’s published works] appear to be regular books in the sense
that various copies of them were printed, it is obvious that none of the products
of the Behar Lithographic Press was ever published in any commercial sense”
(Losty). As a result, all are rare and of those extant, most bear direct association
with D’Oyly. The present example includes provenance to Sir H.H. D’Oyly (18641948), as well as another D’Oyly family presentation. Provenance: Hastings
Hadley D’Oyly (inscription on title). OCLC locates five copies, with only the
Abbey copy in North America. Abbey, 455; Archer, India Observed, pp70-72;
Godrej & Rohatgi, Scenic Splendours, pp58-60; Jeremiah P. Losty, “Sir Charles
D’Oyly’s Lithographic Press and his Indian Assistants” in Rohatgi & Godrej,
India: A Pageant of Prints, pp135-160. [see front inside cover for illustrations]
Portraits of the English in India
30 HODGSON (Charlotte, nee Beckett).
Portraits of Relations and Friends by
Charlotte Hodgson. 1847-1899.
Large album containing 102 captioned watercolour and pencil portraits.
Portraits measuring approx. 205 by 155mm and 125 by 75mm. Oblong
folio album, half morocco, gilt, extremities rubbed, lacking approximately
50 leaves, 20 leaves trimmed irregularly, five portraits loosely inserted.
56ll. India, Switzerland and England, 1850-1900.
£8500
These 102 portraits of British Army and East India Company officers, engineers,
civil servants, clergymen and other English men and women constitute a wonderful gallery of the human faces of the incipient British Raj in northeast India.
The majority of the images (84) were painted in India between 1850-70, the
period which includes the Indian Mutiny and the establishment of the British Raj.
29
The portraits are all similarly composed and the subjects appear in civilian
dress. Of real interest is that each image is captioned, providing enormous scope
for further research. Hodgson identifies her subjects by name, rank, or title and
she typically provides specific dates and locations for each image. These captions
document the travels of the artist herself, who, over a period of twenty years,
visited Agra, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Meerut, Landour, Mussoorie,
Naine tal and Nowgong.
Notably, of the 49 military officers depicted, 29 are of high rank: majors,
colonels, a brigadier and a general. General C.S. Reid, R.A. (#32) is shown in an
1858 portrait with an amputated right arm, the result of an injury received in
battle in 1853. The album contains two portraits of Colonel, later General, Sir
Andrew Waugh, Royal Engineers (#7 & 27). Waugh (1810-78) was SurveyorGeneral of India, 1843-61, and is noted for his surveying of Karachi and Kashmir
and for having named Mt. Everest after Sir George Everest, his predecessor as
Surveyor-General. Number 69 is an 1867 portrait of Major George Bruce Malleson
(1825-98), who was promoted to lieutenant-colonel the following year. In 1857,
Malleson wrote the anonymously published work, The Mutiny of the Bengal
Army, commonly known as the “red pamphlet”. The pamphlet was controversial
for criticizing the British Army and the colonial administration of India. Malleson
also rewrote and completed Sir John Kaye’s History of the Sepoy War in India,
1857-8 and wrote several other works on Indian history.
INDIA, CENTRAL ASIA, FAR EAST
Among the military figures are a Captn Banks (#11) painted on July 29, 1850
at Mussoorie. He is likely Major John Sherbrooke Banks (1811-57), chief commissioner of Lucknow. Hodgson has annotated beneath the portrait that Banks
“was killed in the Siege of Lucknow.” The same applies to G. Cooper R[oyal]
A[rtillery] (#16).
Thirteen portraits in the album appear to be of those in the civil service, some
obviously bearing the letters C.S. after subject’s names. Among this group is Sir
William Muir (1819-1905), here identified in an 1861 portrait at Allahabad as
“W. Muir C.S. now Sir Wm Muir Lt Govr.” During the Indian Mutiny, Muir was
in charge of the intelligence department at Agra. Muir served as an administrator
in the Bengal Civil Service and in 1868 became lieutenant-governor of the Indian
North-West Provinces. Muir was an Orientalist and was the author of A Life
of Mahomet and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira. The central college
at Allahabad, Muir’s College, was named after him and in 1885 he was elected
principal of Edinburgh University. Five of the civil service portraits are of men
who appear to have been attached to the lieutenant-governor’s camp. Another
portrait is of “Mr M[atthews]. Kempson, Educational Department.” Kempson
entered the department in 1858 as principal of Bareilly Collele. His 1861 portrait
was completed the year before he became Director of Public Instruction in the
North-West Provinces. Kempson also translated Raja Shiva Prasad’s A History
of India into Urdu and English.
Among the other portraits painted in India are three clergymen and at least
14 portraits within the album appear to be tipped in to show husbands and
wives. All of these images (except one pair) were done in India. There are also
ten, possibly twelve, portraits of the artist’s relatives.
Charlotte Beckett Hodgson was the second daughter of Captain W.H. Beckett,
a British officer who served in India. She was born on December 11, 1827 and
baptized on July 27, 1828 at Secrora, West Bengal. A pair of 1866 portraits in
the album depict “Captn W.H. Beckett” and “Mrs W. H. Beckett” (#57 & 58).
These are probably Charlotte’s parents, although there’s a small chance it could
be her brother and sister-in-law. On March 12, 1855, the artist married Charles
James Hodgson (1825-91) in Deyrah, India.
Charles Hodgson attended Addiscombe Academy in Surrey, formerly the
East India Company Military Seminary. Here young officers and engineers were
trained to serve in the Company’s private army in India. During the 1857 Mutiny,
Hodgson served in the Punjab campaign. The next year, he succeeded Major
Crommelin as Government Consulting Engineer in the Railway Department.
(Col. Crommelin’s portrait, dated 1860, is #41 in the album.) By 1867, then
Colonel Hodgson was a member of a vice-regal commission of inquiry on railway
management and was Public Works Secretary to the North-West Government.
Charlotte and Charles Hodgson had five children. Three of them are represented in six portraits: Caroline Mary “Lena” Hodgson (#35-37 & 91),
Robert Durie Hodgson (#81-2) and Rose Hodgson (#83). “Lena” Hodgson is
identified as Mrs J.W.A. McNair (#91) and her husband Mr J.W.A. McNair is
#90. They were married in 1881 and are depicted as newlyweds at Wandsworth
Borough, London in 1882.
This lovely album depicts her family and friends as well as her husband’s network of East India Company colleagues and associates. It’s extremely unusual to
31
have so many accomplished images together and all of them captioned. Several
of Charlotte’s sitters are featured in the ODNB and of those who aren’t, these
may well be the sole extant portraits of them.
A full list of the subjects is available on request.
The Mission to Sikkim
31 MACAULAY (Colman).
Report of a Mission to Sikkim and the Tibetan Frontier
with a Memorandum on our relations with Tibet.
First edition. Folding map and 22 original photographs pasted within printed borders, with printed descriptions below. 4to. Original cloth titled in
gilt on the upper cover, with a gilt device. [vi], ii, 105pp. Calcutta, Bengal
Secretariat Press, 1885.
£9500
One of the very rarest accounts of British enterprise on the Tibetan frontier, and
furthermore illustrated with original photographs, this is one of the black tulips
of Central Asian exploration.
The number of copies printed must have been very small. Macaulay was
accompanied on this mission by the famous pundit Sarat Chandra Das, the Lama
Ugyen Gyatso and a Mr. Oldham. He gives us his diary verbatim and together with
the photographs it retains an immediacy lost in many more polished memoirs.
Among other objectives the mission was required to visit the Lachen Valley to
see if a trade route could be opened in that direction, with the province of Tsang
in Tibet. It is this expedition that is narrated in the diary. The work concludes
with a 43 page Memorandum covering many aspects of Tibet including history
and political affairs, especially her foreign relations, and particularly those where
British interests are affected.
most remote corners and describes its decline in some detail. Additional notes are
included on Nepal, and there is an overview of Indian demographics and customs.
The author considered a study of India vital for Russia and states: “The
one who has seen the English rule in India itself and, not being carried away
with wrongly understood patriotism, didn’t close his eyes for all the good which
Englishmen done there, that person will of course be far away from the thought
of a new foreign hegemony over Indians. It’s not the dreamlike plans of grandiose
conquest that should be the stimuli for studies of India in Russia. We need to know
the richest English possessions because England in Asia is our neighbour and our
rival. The result of our rivalry strongly depends on our knowledge of British rule
at home and over its overseas colonies; the better, more comprehensively and
objectively we’ll estimate everything that has been done by England, the closer
will be our success.”
In a distinguished career, Ivan Pavlovich Minaev was professor in the
Sanskrit department of the Eastern Faculty of Saint Petersburg University, he
founded the Russian scientific school of Indian studies and was a member of
the Russian Geographical Society. Minaev made three expeditions to India,
Ceylon, Burma and Nepal: in 1874-75, 1880 and 1885-86. His main interest
was Buddhism, and its philosophy; he collected Sanskrit and Pali manuscripts
and translated and published several important pieces of Buddhist literature.
Russian Historic Encyclopaedia, Russian Brokhaus Dictionary on-line, Great
Soviet Encyclopaedia.
Original Artwork from Lady Brassey’s last Voyage
33 PRITCHETT (Robert Taylor).
Five original watercolours relating to the last
voyage of the Sunbeam with Lady Brassey.
Measuring 355 by 505mm. Abyssinia, India, Borneo, 1886-7.
A Russian in India & Ceylon
32 MINAEV (Ivan Pavlovich).
Ocherki Tseilona i Indii: Iz Putevikh Zametok Russkogo. [Essays
on Ceylon and India: From the Travel Notes of a Russian.]
First edition. 2 vols. 8vo. Period style green quarter morocco with green
cloth boards, spines gilt, ownership inscriptions to title pages, half titles
and in the end of the text, custom green slip case. [iv], v, 285; [iv], ii, 239,
[2catalogue]pp. Saint Petersburg, L.F. Panteleev, 1878.
£1250
A very good copy of this account of Minaev’s first expedition to India in 18745. Sponsored by the Russian Geographical Society, his journey covered Ceylon,
Nepal, and northern India from Calcutta to Lahore, including the provinces of
Bihar, Punjab and Rajputana (modern Rajastan). His route was governed largely
by his interest in Buddhism and Indo-Muslim relations, which is reflected in the
text. Minaev’s notes on Ceylon are of real interest as he travelled to some of its
INDIA, CENTRAL ASIA, FAR EAST
£8000
Pritchett was educated at Kings and made a career at Enfield gun-makers until
the dissolution of the East India Company in 1858, which was the firm’s major
client. At that point, having exhibited at the Royal Academy several times from
1851, he devoted his life to painting. He joined the staff of Punch in the 1860s and
began to travel widely through Europe and then around the world in 1880-2. He
accompanied Sir Thomas and Lady Brassey several times on their ship Sunbeam,
during which time he composed these images. He provided the illustrations for
In the Trades, the Tropics and the Roaring Forties (1885), and The Last Voyage
of the Sunbeam (1889).
The images, all in excellent condition, are as follows: 1. “Dragging the Canoe
with Lady Brassey at Low Water. Madai N. Borneo.” This image appears on page
199 of the book. 2. “December 10 Going out for the evening. Port Said.” This
image appears facing page 1 in the book where it is titled, “Port Said. Coaling
Party.” 3. “Feb. 1st 1887. Maha Jhikarpur.” This image doesn’t appear in the
book, but the subject is covered on pp11-12. 4. “December 20 1886. Abyssinia
Ajab.” This image precedes the text by a matter of days. The book commences
33
Diaries of a Photographer in India
35 ROUSSELET (Marie Théophile Louis, 1845-1929).
[Diaries from 1865 & 1866].
on Christmas Day 1886 at Port Said. This was executed en route. 5. Untitled but
India. Dated 1887, it would have been painted in the opening days of the year,
possibly on the 13th at the bazaars at Shirkapur.
Lady Anna Brassey was an avid Victorian traveller and her accounts on board
her luxury yacht the Sunbeam are classics of the genre. Brassey also collected
natural history specimens on her trips and exhibited them at Hastings in the
early 1880s. cf. Robinson, Wayward Women, p203.
34 RISLEY (H. H.) BENGAL GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT.
The Gazetteer of Sikhim.
First edition. 2 folding maps and 21 plates (12 folding). 4to. Original brown
cloth, gilt, ink stamp to title page. xiv, [ii], xxii, 392pp. Calcutta, Bengal
Secretariat Press, 1894
£3750
A lovely copy. The Gazetteer was printed in an edition of just 500 and includes
notes on the history of Sikhim and the British intervention of 1817, geography,
natural history, architecture, Monastic routine and magic rites. Contributors
include L. A. Waddell, author of Lhasa and its Mysteries, J.C. White, J. Gammie
and Lionel de Niceville, the lepidopterist and curator of the India Museum
at Calcutta. The two folding maps are “Skeleton map of Sikhim” and “Map
shewing approximate race distribution in Sikhim 1892”. The 21 plates are wide
ranging and include everything from family trees, charts of the universe, charms
against disease and plans of temples.
Included is a TLS from H. Wheeler, Under-Secretary to the Government of
Bengal, to H. H. Dowling confirming despatch of this copy. Yakushi, B126.
INDIA, CENTRAL ASIA, FAR EAST
Two vols (198 by 133mm). Both Lett’s Diary or Bills Due Book, and An
Almanack. I: printed pages (almanac &c) 38 + [xxii]; 6 blank pages for
notes, filled with ms. entries; printed page (Lett’s advertisement); 314 blank
pages with date printed at the top, one page to a day, the majority filled with
ms. entries, but several pages cut out and removed; 28 pages for notes for
1866, printed with months, 2 pages per month, filled with ms. entries. II:
printed pages (almanac &c) 28 + [viii]; 12 blank pages for notes, filled with
ms. entries; printed page (Lett’s advertisement); 363 blank pages with date
printed at the top, one page to a day, the majority filled with ms. entries;
27 pages for notes for 1867, printed with months, 2 pages per month, filled
with ms. entries; printed pages (Lett’s advertisement) 16. Both bound in beige
buckram-covered hard-boards, with blind-stamped foliate decoration front
and back, four bands in the spine, gilt lettering on spine and in cartouche
on front cover; with marbled pastedowns and edges, and metal lock clasps.
Binding tattered and worn, but contents in excellent condition. 1865-6.
£27,500
Two volumes of manuscript diaries for this celebrated photographer, covering a
key period during his five-year journey to India, late 1864-1866, which furnished
the material for his album Voyage dans L’Inde. This two-volume publication
containing 160 albumen prints was published by Goupil & Cie and is very
rare; only one complete set is known. The Musée Goupil still holds the prime
public collection of Rousselet’s work, with 153 out of 160 prints; a full set of
his 160 photographs is with his descendants. In 1875, Hachette also published
a version under the title L’Inde des Rajahs with 317 wood-engravings based on
Rousselet’s photographs (second edition 1877).
A geographer and archaeologist, Rousselet undertook ethnographic and
archaeological explorations in India and the Himalayas, working as secretary
to the Anthropological Society of Paris. During this time, however, he also
turned his attention to photography, still in its infancy at that date, and in
combining these two interests, became one of the great photographic recorders
of the 19th century. His name is in the second volume on the single printed page
at the end of the blank section for notes at the front. The first volume (1865)
commences with a brief survey covering the period from 23 September to 31
December 1864.
In the second volume, this space is taken up with hand-drawn maps and
routes taken across parts of India, a list of the Indian sovereigns, and a résumé
of the places and dates on which he met various dignitaries. In both volumes, the
space designed for the year ahead is used as a way to summarise the year past,
noting the dates of travel from one point to another, dates which record financial
matters, dates and places of photographs taken, and so on. In the volume for
1865, Rousselet uses any blank spaces he has left to continue a record of a day
which over-runs the single page allotted to it, cross-referencing by date so that
35
it is easy to follow. Both volumes also contain drawings, inserts such as letters,
photographs and newspaper cuttings. The volume for 1865 covers (in Rousselet’s
orthography) Bombay, “Baroda” and Simla; that for 1866 covers “Oodeypoor”,
“Ajmeer”, “Jeypore”, “Amber”, Agra, “Bhurtpora” and “Futtenpore”. He is
fascinated by the country and customs he encounters, the temples, historic sites
and places of natural beauty he makes special visits to see, but also the street
customs, methods of transport and engineering, games and entertainments, and
court life which he sees in several cases from close quarters, as a guest of the
local prince.
Rousselet’s hand is extremely legible, as are his ink drawings. They include
several full-page landscape views but also maps and views of incidents such as a
rhinoceros fight or the court of the sovereign at Baroda; besides these there are
many small sketches of figures, architectural, religious, engineering or costume
details, flora and fauna, rifles, methods of wrestling, and other points of interest,
interspersed through the text. Some full-page drawings have been cut from the first
volume, although a couple have been re-inserted as loose leaves, in their original
positions. Cuttings include notices of stocks and shares, and of developments in
the American Civil War, which Rousselet appears to have followed with interest.
The volume for 1865 contains 14 original photographs, all small albumen prints
with rounded top corners and with the plate noted below. The volume for 1866
contains, among other inserts, a recipe for a varnish.
These unique manuscript diaries are a superb record of Rousselet’s journey during these years, offering a detailed picture not only of the places he visited and
his day-to-day experience, but of a meticulous, deeply curious and talented artist.
INDIA, CENTRAL ASIA, FAR EAST
Photographs
1. Etang de Raboula à Mazagou (Bombay)
2. Bungalow à Mahableschwar (Montagne près de Bombay)
3. Intérieur d’un temple taillé dans le roc à Mahableschwar
4. Chowpatee, sur la Back Bay, Bombay
5. Bureau de douane sur la jetée “Apollo Buuder” Bombay
6. Temple taillé dans le roc à Mahableschwar
7. Temples à Mahableschwar
8. Temple indien à Wace, près de Mahableschwar
9. Le Grant Medical College à Bombay
10. Caves d’Elephanta, Bombay
11. Fort de Sattara, près Poonati (Deceau)
12. Vieux Brahmin de Bombay
13. Un tombeau musulman à Ahinedabad
14. Femme d’Aba Sahib, ex premier minister du roi (Barodal) [fait par
Ruddoujee]
36 TENNENT (James Emerson).
Ceylon. An Account of the Island Physical,
Historical and Topographical.
First edition. 2 vols. Frontispieces,2 folding maps and illustrations to text.
8vo. Original pictorial cloth, gilt. London, Longmans, 1859.
£1200
A lovely copy of Tennent’s account. He was made colonial secretary of Ceylon
37
in 1845 and remained there until 1850. During these years, the market for coffee
and cinnamon was greatly affected by a depression in the United Kingdom. Facing
pressure to reduce export duties, Tennent sought, and won, approval to abolish
export duties on coffee and have those on cinnamon reduced. The shortfall in
revenue in Ceylon was made up by the introduction of an additional tax. This
proved an unpopular move and one of the causes of the 1848 Matale Rebellion.
This wide-ranging work includes chapters on geography, minerals, climate,
agriculture, natural history, Singhalese history, ethnographic notes on native
customs and habits. The illustrations were provided by Andrew Nicoll, Tennent’s
protégé. Tennent secured him a position teaching art at the Colombo Academy.
Tennent published another book on Ceylon, Christianity in Ceylon (1850). A
friend of Charles Dickens, Tennent is the dedicatee of Our Mutual Friend.
37 [WORLD WAR TWO] [COHN (David L.)]
The Ledo-Burma Road.
Diazo blue-line print measuring 430 by 785mm, with ms. annotations in
ink, adhesive-tape repair. Ledo, India? c. April, 1945. [With] COHN (David).
“The Old Man with the Stick: General Lewis A. Pick” in Atlantic Monthly
August, 1945.
£1250
Inscribed on the lower right blank space: “To David L. Cohn, the first correspondent to travel the Stilwell Road from Ledo to Kumming without restriction
and in his own jeep. Lewis a. Pick, Maj. Gen. U.S.A., Ledo Road.” Pick had
already served with distinction in the First World War and later in the Philippines
as part of the Engineering Corps, before he was assigned to the China Burma
India Theatre in 1943. Allied supply lines had been cut by the Japanese to an area
of strategic importance and Pick was placed in charge of creating a road from
Ledo (in north-east India), through the Burmese mountains and connecting with
the northern stretch of the Burma road into China. The Ledo-Burma Road, also
known as Stilwell Road and Pick’s Pike took a force of 63,000 men two years
to complete. David Cohn’s account of his driving the new road was published
in the August 1945 edition of the Atlantic Monthly. A copy of the magazine is
included here.
INDIA, CENTRAL ASIA, FAR EAST
AUSTRALIA
& THE PACIFIC
Banks Co-Ordinates a Significant Introduction
38 BANKS (Joseph).
ALS to Mary Boydell about acquiring “Mr Bartolozzi’s
Print” of the Death of Captain Cook.
Manuscript in ink. Single leaf of laid paper. Small 4to measuring 230 by
185mm., old folds, heavily clipped with loss of thin strip at top of first leaf
and some two-thirds carefully cut away from second leaf, but importantly
retaining all of Banks’ letter and the relevant address panel; not signed
but in Banks’ hand and written from “Soho Square”; small note in Mary
Boydell’s hand; very good. Soho Square, August 22, 1785.
£8500
A remarkable survival. Joseph Banks here answers Mary Boydell’s earlier
correspondence and apologises that “he can not procure for her so good a copy of
Mr Bartolozzi’s Print as her valuable collection of that masters works deserves but
he has recommended it to … the publisher to furnish her with the best he has…”
Although he does not specifically say so, he is doubtless discussing Bartolozzi’s
smaller issue of the Death of Cook plate which had been published only six weeks
before, on 1 July 1785. The folio-sized issue was published the previous year and
(though separately issued) is sometimes found bound into the atlas of Cook’s
third voyage. Clearly demand was sufficient to warrant an additional version.
In 1787 Mary Boydell married George Nicol, the king’s bookseller and
publisher of Cook’s third voyage. A note in her hand on the verso records: “This
letter from Sir Joseph Banks was the origin of my knowing my worthy Husband.”
One wonders if this also was how the Boydells came to be acquainted with John
Webber. Mary’s younger brother, Josiah Boydell, would later publish Webber’s
Views of the South Seas, perhaps the most significant of all Pacific colour plate
books. See Forbes 108. [see inside front cover for illustration]
39
of the London Missionary Society, wrote that “He was led away to stare, and be
stared at, at our public places, and be abandoned as those who frequent them”.
Travelling on Cook’s third voyage Omai left England with many presents,
including a sword from Banks and a suit of armour fashioned for him by the
Tower of London armourers from Lord Sandwich. On his arrival back in Tahiti
he made, according to Rickman, a spectacular impression on his fellows: “dressed
cap-a-pie in a suit of armour… mounted and caparisoned, with his sword and
pike, like St. George going to kill the dragon”. As with the Hodges portrait, this
image corresponds to Solander’s description of 1774: “He is very brown, almost
a[s] brown as a Mulatto. Not at all handsome, but well made. His nose is a little
broadish, and I believe that we have to thank his wide Nostrills for the Visit he
has paid us - for he says, that the people of his own country laughted at him upon
the account of his flatish Nose and dark hue, but he hopes when he returns and
has many fine things to talk of, that he shall be much respected.” Here, as in the
Reynolds portrait, the feet are bare, the robes flowing and the hand tattoos visible,
but Dance has captured the dark skin and wide nostrils that Solander refers to,
and depicted his subject in a much more natural posture. The items which Omai
holds are accurate representations of Tahitian artefacts, and a similar neck-rest
can be found illustrated by Parkinson in his journal, where he says that such large
ones were also used as stools. Spence, p238.
39 BARTOLOZZI (F.) DANCE (N.)
Omai a Native of Ulaietea, Brought into England
in the Year 1774 by Tobias Furneaux, Esq.
Commander of His majesty’s Sloop Adventure.
Stipple engraved portrait. Framed and glazed, minor damage at the very
foot of the engraved dedication. London, October, 1774.
£2850
Able seaman Tetuby Homy, otherwise known as Omai, was added to the list of
the Adventure’s able seamen three months after being entered on the ship’s books
as a supernumerary on 9 September 1773. A native of Utaietea, his father was
dispossessed during a civil war and the young Omai fled to Tahiti. He was on
this island when Wallis and later Cook, in the Endeavour, visited, and he bore a
scar from a musket ball fired by one of Wallis’s men. After Cook departed, Omai
moved to Huahine and it was from here that he later embarked with Furneaux,
when the Adventure, the companion ship on Cook’s second expedition, landed
on the return voyage to England.
On his arrival in July 1774 Omai was fêted by fashionable society in London,
which readily adopted him (he was the guest of both Sir Joseph Banks and the
Earl of Sandwich) holding him up to be the exemplar of the noble savage. Sir
Joshua Reynolds portrayed him in an idealized exotic landscape, the flowing
robes, bare feet and classic gesture all suggesting strong links with antiquity: “a
thoroughly neo-classical version of the noble savage” (Bernard Smith). Other
images, such as the more realistic and less idealized portrait by Hodges painted
for the surgeon John Hunter, were, however, closer to a true representation of
Omai. Not everyone was delighted with Omai: indeed Thomas Haweis, a founder
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
40 BAYS (Peter).
A Narrative of the Wreck of the Minerva Whaler of Port
Jackson, New South Wales on Nicholson’s Shoal.
First edition. Lithograph frontispiece. 12mo. Original marbled paperbacked boards, uncut, printed label, spine worn, boards lightly soiled, with
a bookform box. viii, 182pp. Cambridge, B. Bridges, 1831.
£5000
The Brooke-Hitching copy. The Minerva was en route to Tonga and the Solomon
Islands when, due to out of date charts, it was wrecked on what is now known
as Minerva Reef. Bays’ narrative includes a detailed account of his time on the
Tongan islands, but is perhaps more important for his visit to the Bay of Islands,
New Zealand and his description of a fight between two tribes which resulted in
over a hundred deaths. Ferguson, 1417; Hill, 84.
41 BAYS (Peter).
Appeal on Behalf of the Natives of Turtle Island and
the Islands in the South Seas & the Pacific.
Ms. in ink. Bifolium with integral blank and address. Cambridge, Naval
Academy, November 1st, 1841.
£950
Peter Bays is best known for his 1831 work, A Narrative of the Wreck of the
Minerva… (see the item above). He was part of the crew when the Minerva was
wrecked in 1829 en route to the Solomon Islands from Port Jackson. Here, a
decade later, the Pacific islands are still very much on his mind. Addressed to
41
Wesleyan Mission House, Bays presents a draft of his appeal which he hopes
“to present copies of to about 200 friends to the cause, but not without some
authority signifying that approbation … also to insert it as a letter to one of our
Editors of Newpapers.” Bays makes note of his own gratitude to the natives of
Turtle Island, who “spared his life when in most imminent danger and surrounded
by murderers and cannibals; to wit, the Feejee Islands, whereon, at that time if
a man set his foot he would instantly be felled to earth with a club or spear and
devoured - But about a year ago some fifteen native women of LeKemba were
butchered and eaten and some of the bones thrown into the Missionary’s hut.”
Here Bays hopes to repay the kindness of Fiji islanders. Having discovered that
“for the trifling sum of £10 a year a native missionary from the Friendly Islands
may be procured who will read and expound the scriptures already translated
into their own language”, his appeal is to give this scheme every chance of success,
noting that for “one shilling a year - a penny a month - a farthing a week may be
supplied with a native teacher … would support 14 such missionaries.”
The Ingleton Copy
42 BONWICK (James).
The Bushrangers; illustrating the early days of Van Diemen’s Land.
Born in County Cavan, Ireland, Brady trained in France and served on
Reunion Island before arriving in Sydney in 1838. He was appointed to Windsor
where he was prominent in establishing convicts right to worship. Five years
later he was made vicar-general of Perth, arriving on December 13, 1843.
Buoyed by Governor Hutt’s grant of land for a church and school, he petitioned
Rome to send priests and missionaries and, in the same year as his appointment
as bishop, published this vocabulary to aid their work. The next year twentyseven missionaries arrived whom Brady sought to use in areas such as King
George’s Sound and Port Victoria. Despite his best efforts and optimism, it was
a short-lived enterprise. Stricken by disease and privation, the mission lasted
just seven years before being disbanded. Having faced admonishment in Rome,
Brady then returned to his native diocese of Kilmore in Ireland and spent his last
years as a hermit in France. The Italian edition is significantly scarcer than the
English edition. Ferguson, 3996.
Rare
44 CASPARI (Eduoard).
Déterminations de positions géographiques faites par la frégate
autrichienne Novara, commandée par le baron de Wullerstorf.
First edition. 12mo. Original blindstamped cloth, faded and soiled, bookplate
to front pastedown. 95, [1]pp. Melbourne, Published For The Author By
George Robertson, 1856.
£650
Offprint from Annales Hydrographiques. Folding map, tables and graphs
in text. 8vo. Original printed wrappers, partially unopened. 36pp. Paris,
Paul Dupont, 1864.
£950
Inscribed by Ingleton on the front pastedown beside his own bookplate: ‘This
little book is the first factual history of bushrangers, although it is restricted to
Tasmanian Bushrangers. It is one of Bonwick’s most readable works, as well as,
being extremely scarce and valuable. Geoff C. Ingleton”
“This book is intended as a narrative of persons whose career affected the
social conditions of a whole country, and presented the best illustration of the
operations of Prison Discipline, and the early career of a Penal Colony” (preface).
Ferguson, 1703.
Rare. Just a single copy is recorded at the BNF. This offprint reports on the
Novara voyage, which was the first scientific circumnavigation conducted by
the Austro-Hungarian Navy. In addition to visits to Rio de Janeiro, Capetown,
Madras, Ceylon and Singapore, the Novara docked at Sydney on 5 November,
1858 and proceeded to Auckland, Tahiti, Valparaiso.
Caspari compares his data against the likes of Bougainville, Hunter, Dupperey,
Horsburgh and draws on the works of Raper, Practice of Navigation (1857)
and Cheyne, Sailing directions from New South Wales to Shanghai (1855). He
outlines the Novara’s route between Sydney and Shanghai, shows chronometer
readings between Sydney and Auckland, and provides notes and positions on
several small islands between the two such as Guam, Bradley Reef, Santa-Anna
Island (in the Salomon archipelago), Stewart Island and Avon Island. The map
shows the ship’s tracks on October 7-8, 1858 as it passed from Bradley Reef to
Gower Island. There is also a double-page table listing the cities and the dates
on which the Novara visited each.
The scientific collections amassed constituted over 26,000 examples, most of
which ended up at the Austrian Natural History Museum. The official account
of the voyage, Reise der osterreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde was
published in parts from 1861-1876. The author of this report, Caspari, was
a French maritime engineer and astronomer. His 40 year career included the
surveys of the coasts of Gulf of Tonkin, Guadeloupe, and the Gulf of Siam. Not in
Ferguson.
The Rare Italian Edition
43 BRADY (Rev. John).
A Vocabolario della lingua nativa dell’ Australia occidentale
of W. Australia by the Very Rev. J. Brady V.G.
First Italian edition. 16mo. Clean and bright in the original blue wrappers.
50, [2]pp. Rome, S.C. de Propaganda Fide, 1845.
£2250
A superb copy of this rare and interesting pamphlet, the Italian edition of John
Brady’s Descriptive vocabulary of the native language of Western Australia. This
was published in the same year as the original English edition, but it is here
translated for the use of Italian missionaries like the Benedictine Dom Salvado,
who sailed with Brady when he returned to Western Australia in 1846.
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
43
John Cleveley was a talented maritime painter, and these images, engraved
by F. Jukes are lovely representations of early contact between Europeans and
Pacific islanders. Each print shows the Resolution and the Discovery at anchor
in the Sandwich (Hawaiian) or Society islands. This French set, issued just a year
later, all include lengthy captions describing each scene and placing it in relation
to Cook’s third voyage.
The prints are as follows:
1. “Vue de l’ile Huaheim dans la Mer du Sud.” [A View of Huaheine.] Groups
of English sailors are shown in rowboats or building temporary dwellings on the
shore, as natives row out to meet the Resolution and Discovery.
2. “Vue de l’ile Marea une des Iles des Ami dans la Mer du Sud.” [A View of
Moorea.] Natives and English sailors are shown in the same small boats and
working together on shore in this active scene.
3. “Vue du Detroit Charlotte dans la Nouvelle Zeland dans la Mer du Sud.”
[View of Charlotte Sound in New Zealand.] On those prints issued with captions,
this scene actually shows Matavi Bay, Tahiti.
4. “Mort du Capitaine Cook.” [A View of Owijhee] This print depicts the death
of Captain Cook. English sailors in rowboats fire at natives on the shore. Cook
attempts to have his men cease fire, as a Hawaiian chieftain is about to stab him
in the back.
An important and rare collection of Pacific views. Joppien & Smith III, pp.216-221.
A Beautiful Set
45 CLEVELEY (James & John).
[Views in the South Seas.]
1) “Vue de l’ile Huaheim dans la Mer du Sud”; 2) “Vue de l’ile Marea une
des Iles des Ami dans la Mer du Sud”; 3) “Vue du Detroit Charlotte dans
la Nouvelle Zeland dan la Mer du Sud.” (actually Matavi Bay, Tahiti]; 4)
“Mort du Capitaine Cook.” Set of 4 hand-coloured aquatints measuring
approx 465 by 600mm. Paris, chez Bance, c. 1789.
£30,000
A rare French set of four prints depicting scenes in the Pacific from Captain Cook’s
third and final voyage, including a depiction of Cook’s death at the hands of
Hawaiians. These are early and beautiful images of the South Seas, exemplary of
the European fascination with Pacific exploration during the eighteenth century.
Joppien and Smith call them “the kind of prints that anyone who travelled with
Cook, whether officer, midshipman or able seaman, might want to possess to
remind him and his family of the days when he travelled with Cook.” According
to the publisher’s prospectus, these views were produced “on the spot” by James
Cleveley, a carpenter aboard the Resolution, and “redrawn and inimitably
painted in water-colours by his brother…John Cleveley, and from which the
plates were engraved, in the best manner by Mr. Jukes.” However, in the absence
of any surviving drawings by James Cleveley, Joppien and Smith discount this
claim, believing that the kinship between the two was, as far as these images are
concerned, coincidental, being simply used to promote the prints, while no actual
graphic link existed.
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
45
first striking the Society Islands, before reaching New Zealand, whose coast he
surveyed. From thence Cook proceeded to New Holland surveying the whole
East Coast, before returning home via Batavia, proving once and for all the New
Guinea was not a part of Australia, a fact first shown by Torres in 1607. He
finally reached England in 1771, anchoring off the Downs on 12th June, having
lost one third of his crew.
In July of the following year Cook, now promoted to the rank of commander,
set out in the Resolution with the Adventure once more for the southern Pacific.
This voyage was particularly important since Cook made the first crossing of
the Antarctic Circle and finally determined once and for all that the Southern
Continent did not exist. In addition Cook secured the medal of the Royal Society
by successfully eradicating scurvy through diet and better hygiene. Only three
shipboard deaths (all resulting from accidents) were recorded on this voyage - a
dramatic reduction from the one third who died on his first voyage.
The Voyages of Captain James Cook
46 COOK (Capt. James), HAWKSWORTH (John) & KING (James).
An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of his
Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern
Hemisphere [and] A Voyage towards the South Pole, and
Round the World [and] A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean [with]
KIPPIS (Andrew). The Life of Captain James Cook.
First, second, first, first editions. 9 vols. text, 1 atlas. A total of 203 charts
and plates, with in addition 23 duplicate charts which are present in both the
atlas and throughout the text to the third voyage. The portrait to the second
voyage, one plate and the map of the Straights of Magellan supplied. 4to. and
folio. Fine matching contemporary russia, backs richly gilt in compartments,
the boards with triple gilt fillet borders surrounding gilt greek key border
with further bind tooling within, some light sporadic foxing. [xii], xxxvi,
676; xvi, 410; [vi], 411- 799; xl, 378; [viii], 396w xcvi, 421; [xii], 549; [xii],
558pp. and (Kippis) Portrait xvi, 528pp. London, 1773, 1777, 1784 and
1788.
£50,000
A fine set of Cook’s three voyages and Kippis’s Life uniformly bound in contemporary russia. Cook (1728-1779) was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and
despatched by the Admiralty at the insistence of the Royal Society to observe
the 1769 transit of Venus across the face of the sun and to seek out the muchdiscussed southern continent. Accompanying Cook were Joseph Banks (from the
Royal Society), the Swedish naturalist Dr. Daniel Carl Solander and the artist
Sydney Parkinson. Sailing via Madeira and Tierra del Fuego, Tahiti was reached
in April 1769 where the transit was successfully recorded in June of that year.
From Tahiti, Cook sailed to the South Pacific in search of the new continent,
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
Cook’s third voyage began in July 1776 and concentrated on the North
Pacific, resulting in the discovery of Hawaii, which Cook considered to be his
greatest feat. In addition the theory of a Northern passage connecting the Pacific
to the Atlantic was also disproved. With him travelled George Vancouver who
later charted the North West Coast of America and also the artist John Webber
who provided Europe with many images of the Pacific. Cook however was killed
on 14th February, 1779 in a shoreline skirmish and Captain King took over
command of the expedition, which returned to England in 1780.
This set belonged to Archibald, 5th Earl of Rosebery, Prime Minister and
a celebrated bibliophile. His engraved armorial bookplate is in each volume.
Holmes, 5/24/47/69; Hill, p139/61; Sabin, 30934/16245/16250.
47
if it might have been the work of a Cambridge student, while others contend it
may have been written by third lieutenant Richard Pickersgill.
The first edition was published in 1776. This second issue has an altered
title page but is otherwise comprised of the remaindered sheets from the first.
It was likely published in response to news of Cook’s death in Hawaii, which
reached England in 1780. Davidson remarks on the “rarity of either edition of
this anonymous work.”
In July 1772 Cook, now promoted to the rank of Commander, set out once
more for the southern Pacific in the Resolution, with the Adventure alongside.
This voyage was particularly important since Cook made the first crossing of
the Antarctic Circle and finally determined once and for all that the Southern
Continent did not exist. In addition Cook secured the medal of the Royal Society
by successfully eradicating scurvy through diet and better hygiene. Only three
shipboard deaths (all resulting from accidents) were recorded on this voyage
- a dramatic reduction from the previous voyage when one third of the crew
were lost. Beaglehole II, clv-clvi.pp; Beddie, 1246; Davidson, A Book Collector’s
Notes, p63; Holmes, 39. cf. Rosove, 1005.
The First Englishman to see the Pacific
48 [DRAKE (Sir Francis)], NICHOLS (Philip).
Sir Francis Drake Revived.
Second edition. Engraved portrait vignette on the title page. Small 4to. Period
style crimson calf, gilt. [viii], 80pp. London, Nicholas Bourne, 1628.
£12,000
Rare Unauthorized Account
47 [COOK’S SECOND VOYAGE] OFFICER (An).
A Voyage Round the World, in the years
MDCCLXXII, LXXIII, LXXIV, LXXV.
Second issue. 4to. Nineteenth century cloth, bookplate on front pastedown.
ii, 102pp. London, W. Lane, 1781.
£27,500
Very rare. This surreptitious account of Cook’s second voyage was originally
attributed to Cook, though in this second issue, authorship has been assigned to
“an officer on board.” Published a full year before the official account, this was
considered to be the first serious report of Cook’s second voyage. However, having
consulted with Cook himself, in October 1776 the Monthly Review published a
list of fifteen falsely reported events in the work. Although Beaglehole described it
as a “palpable fake”, he concedes that “it recounts a few incidents not otherwise
known, which do not seem out of key with the voyage as a whole.” He wondered
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
The second edition, after the first of 1626, of this account of Francis Drake’s
highly successful raid against the Spanish in Panama in 1572-73, one of his early
Caribbean raids of plunder and harassment. Sabin states of this edition: “It differs from that of 1626 in having had the advantage of the incorporation of the
errata of the latter date under the personal superintendence of the nephew of
the great voyager. The last four leaves are larger than the rest of the book.” The
expedition of fifty-two Englishmen attempted to seize Nombre de Dios, but were
repulsed when Drake was wounded in the shoulder. After many reversals and
hardships, the British managed to waylay an entire pack train of Peruvian silver,
bringing home a fortune. Drake’s bold move was approved by Queen Elizabeth,
who shared in the plunder, but the politics of his raid on Spain during a period
of ostensible peace made it necessary for him to disappear to Ireland for several
years after the event. Besides his success in plunder, on this expedition Drake
became the first Englishman to see the Pacific Ocean. The book was originally
written in a manuscript account of the expedition given to Queen Elizabeth on
New Year’s Day 1593. In his letter of presentation which serves as the introduction
to the book, Drake suggests that, while it is pleasant to think of past victories, he
would rather be undertaking new employment of the same sort. The opportunity soon presented itself, with more raids in the West Indies; and just over three
years after giving the manuscript to the Queen, the intrepid Drake died at sea off
49
First edition Stipple engraved portrait. Small 8vo.
Attractive & unrestored contemporary half calf, a
touch rubbed, back gilt, (“superior to the Brooke
Hitching copy” F. B-H). 122pp. Berwick, W. Phorson
et al. 1793
£9500
Ken Webster’s copy, with his acquisition mark. Webster was the foremost dealer in ethnographica after
the Second World War and he amassed a huge collection of Pacific material.
Captain Edwards was sent out to Tahiti to arrest
and bring back the Mutineers from H.M.S. Bounty.
Those who were traced were placed in a prison cage
on the quarterdeck of the Pandora. On her return
from the Friendly Isles the ship struck a reef and was
wrecked in Endeavour Strait with great loss of life. The
author gives a remarkable and matter-of-fact account
of the voyage, the wreck and the second open boat
voyage occasioned by the mutiny on H.M.S. Bounty.
Hill, p136; Ferguson, 151; Kroepelien, 507; O’ReillyReitman, 606.
Walter Baldwin Spencer’s Copy
50 [HORN EXPEDITION] WINNECKE (Charles A.)
Journals of the Horn Scientific Expedition, 1894…
Together with maps and plans; and report of the
physical geography of Central Australia.
Puerto Rico during a raid on Spanish shipping. Thirty years after Drake’s death,
courtier Philip Nichols reworked and published the manuscript. The timing of
publication of the first edition is significant. James I, Elizabeth’s successor, had
been eager to conciliate the Spanish, and no publication so openly lauding raids
on Spanish property would have been tolerated under his reign. James I died in
1625 and Sir Francis Drake Revived was published the following year. European
Americana, 628/87; Sabin, 20838; STC, 18545; JCB III, II:213.
First edition. 2 vols. 23 photogravure plates. 8vo. A very good copy in original wrappers with manuscript note from Baldwin Spencer tipped in;
accompanied by a portfolio of four maps and sheets within original printed
card folding case, comprising a large folding map measuring 1290 by
1290mm., a plan of the Hermannsburg mission measuring 822 by 587mm.,
and two smaller loose folding sheets; book and maps housed together in
early (?original) green cloth slipcase lettered “Horn Exped. 1894”. Adelaide,
C.E. Bristow, Government Printer, 1897.
£7500
The Hunt for the Bounty Mutineers
Important association copy of the narrative journal of the central Australian
Horn Scientific Expedition, antagonistically presented by its author and expedition-leader Charles Winnecke to Baldwin Spencer, expedition member, famous
anthropologist, and the editor of the competing official publication of the expedition; accompanied by a testy note by Spencer relating to the publication.
49 HAMILTON (George).
A Voyage Round the World in His Majesty’s Frigate Pandora.
Performed under the Direction of Captain Edwards in the Year
1790, 1791, and 1792. With the Discoveries made in the SouthSea; and the many Distresses experienced by the Crew from
Ship-wreck and Famine, in a Voyage of Eleven Hundred Miles in
open Boats, between Endeavour Straits and the Island of Timor.
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
Winnecke’s journal of the Horn expedition was first planned as a parliamentary
paper in 1896 but was quickly suppressed by the state Premier following a complaint from William Austin Horn, financier of the expedition. Winnecke’s narrative was then dropped from the official four-volume account of the expedition
51
too. Previously, Horn had fallen out with Winnecke over finances, leaving other
members of the expedition divided in their loyalty. Baldwin Spencer had sided
with Horn, and therefore also fell out with Winnecke.
The breakdown of relations
between the three men is well documented in the surviving manuscript record: see, for example,
the Spencer Papers in the Pitt Rivers Museum where various stages
in the struggle between them are
quite apparent, including Horn
noting “Winnecke’s Journal not
acceptable”, “Winnecke’s regrettable attitude”, “Winnecke has
behaved badly”, “Winnecke is to
receive no credit. I don’t mind
paying literally, but I won’t be
blackmailed”. Spencer specifically advises Horn in return that
Winnecke’s publication “must be
forestalled”. Winnecke would not
be forestalled however. Since his
narrative was now not to appear
in the official account of the expedition edited by Spencer, he went
his own way and organised his
own publication, in this form,
prepared with an impressive suite
of folding maps by the Adelaide
government printer.
Wantrup notes its scarcity, estimating that no more than 650 copies were
printed. Winnecke must have taken some bitter pleasure in presenting this very
copy to Baldwin Spencer, inscribing the title page “with complts Chas. Winnecke
11/2/97”. It was not a gift intended to give much pleasure. Baldwin Spencer
wrote a note, tipped in here; signed “W. Baldwin Spencer” it states that this is
an “unauthorized edition”, followed by a numbered list of plates illegitimately
included. The note states “The plates are the property of Mr. WA. Horn & are
reproduced without his permission.”
Privately funded and well resourced, the Horn scientific expedition was a
major undertaking, travelling some 3500 kilometres and mapping almost 70,000
square kilometres of remote territory. In addition to Baldwin Spencer, the staff
included several eminent scientists such as Professors Edward Stirling and Ralph
Tate. This narrative includes the very large plate of central Australia lithographed
for the suppressed parliamentary printing of the previous year by the Surveyor
Generals Office in Adelaide. Additionally, the suite of folding sheets includes
a detailed plan of the Hermannsburg mission on the Finke River (with inset
architectural plans), a meteorological chart and a topographic survey of Mount
Watt. Ferguson, 8686a; McLaren, 16969; Wantrup, 211.
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
An Early Account of the Pacific from Narborough’s Papers
51 LE HERMITE (Jaques).
The Lord L’Hermite his voyage into the Sowthe Seas
Thorrow the Straits Lemar in the year 1623.
Manuscript. Written in possibly two early seventeenth century hands. 12pp.
Folio. England, n.d. but after 1626. £18,000
The first sketchy news of this expedition was published in 1625, (“A True
Relation…” London, 1625) which is derived from Spanish newsletters outlining
Admiral L’Hermite’s predatory exploits. A full account in Dutch was not
published until the return of the expedition in 1626, this was in turn translated
into Latin and published by De Bry firstly in condensed form in the Petits
Voyages (1628) and later more fully in the Grands Voyages (1634). It is most
probably from the condensed De Bry text that the above manuscript is derived.
The first full version in English was not published until much later (Harris 1704).
This ms. is completed in several scribal hands and was probably translated to
order, however Admiral L’Hermite’s last port of call before embarking on his
expedition was Cowes in the Isle of Wight, so it is just possible that an English
sailor was recruited, and has left this rather bare bones account.
Jacques Le Hermite sailed with a fleet of nine ships and a yacht (the Nassau
Fleet) for the South Seas via the Straits of Le Maire in order to extend Dutch
influence. A savage freebooting campaign ensued with hostages taken, lost and
murdered. On one occasion Le Hermite hung twenty five Spanish captives from
the foreyard of his flagship. Le Hermite died during this cruise and was buried at
the Dutch headquarters on San Lorenzo Island off Peru. Geen Schapenham took
over command and attempted without success to capture the Manilla galleon and
intercept the silver fleet. His orders were that the Nassau fleet should eventually
cross the pacific and make for the Spice Islands, this they successfully achieved
but with great loss of life. The fleet was dispersed and Schapenham himself
died in the East Indies and is buried in Batavia. This manuscript was formerly
amongst the papers of Sir John Narborough (d. 1688), who may have had the
text translated as it directly concerned waters he intended to explore on his
voyage to the Pacific coast of South America. It was one of the few printed texts
concerning these waters that had, at the time of Narborough’s voyage (1669-71),
no English translation.
52 MANN (David Dickenson).
The Present Picture of New South Wales; Illustrated with Four
Large Coloured Views, from drawings taken on the spot, of
Sydney the Seat of Government: with a plan of the colony
taken from actual survey by public authority. Including the
present state of agriculture and trade, prices of Provisions and
labour, Internal regulations, state of society and manners, late
discoveries in natural history, and other interesting subjects;
with hints for the further improvement of the settlement.
53
Bligh lead him to join the rebel government, and he accompanied Johnston to
London and spoke at that officer's court martial. It was on this visit that he published his work. Little short of a "panegyric of Hunter's administration it is most
important as a statistical survey of the colony’s development." (ADNB). According
to Wantrup it is a work of "the greatest rarity". The same author recommends
it as the "last work written in the tradition of the First Fleet journalists…. [and
also for its containing] Mann's personal account of the period 1799 to 1808".
John Eyre was a convicted housebreaker. He arrived in Sydney in 1801 and was
granted a conditional pardon in 1804. From then on he appears to have eked out
a precarious existence as a draughtsman and painter. Ferguson, 518; Wantrup,
37; McCormick, 94-7; Abbey, 566.
Napier Family Copy
53 NAPIER (Col. Charles James).
Colonization: Particularly in Southern Australia: with
some remarks on small farms and over population.
First edition. Folding hand coloured engraved map. 4to. Fine contemporary
calf, spine gilt, lacking the views. vi, 99, [1]ads.pp. London, John Booth,
1811.
£6250
This work was originally sold
in two versions, either with the
plates bound in for £3 13s 6d, or
in a more expensive version for
£4 4s, with the plates bound in a
separate portfolio. Here we have
an example of the text portion of
the more expensive version. The
folding frontispiece map is titled,
“A New Plan of the Settlements
in New South Wales by Order of
the Government.” Dated July 20,
1810, it records the area between
Port Kembla and Broken Bay and
then west to the Blue Mountains.
The author of the text and the
artist were both convicts. In 1798
Mann was transported for life for
fraud but by 1802 had earned an
absolute pardon. In 1807 Governor Bligh ordered him to leave
his house which had been granted
him improperly during King's
governorship. His antipathy to
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
First edition. 8vo. Nineteenth century half calf over marbled boards, red
morocco label on spine, gilt, slightly shelf-rubbed, bookplate on front
pastedown. xxxii, 268pp. London, Boone, 1835.
£1250
Napier’s wry tone is evident from the outset: “a former Colonial Secretary having selected me as a fit subject for transportation, it is probable that the sentence
may, at some future period, be carried into execution. In the interim, my time
could not be better employed than in discussing the subject of our expedition, and
the more I consider it, the more I think it likely to answer your expectations; but
the dearth of information relative to the shores of Spencer’s Gulf is lamentable.”
The work here is a compilation of available material.
Napier never took up the appointment, his terms proving unacceptable, and
so continued his military career. A notice, printed on pp.ix-xxx, includes the
correspondence between himself and Lord Glenelg. With the passing of the South
Australian Act in 1834, the colonists petitioned for the appointment of Napier
as governor. A hero of the French wars, he wrote this work to set out his views
on the proposed colony. Finally, in May 1835, he was informed that the terms
he proposed on behalf of the colonists were not acceptable to the Company, so
he declined the appointment in 1836 to continue his military career. Although
Napier prepared the book from the writings of others, it is, like Samuel Sidney’s
almost two decades later, of interest as an attempt to present eye-witness reports
of the first explorers and earliest settlers to a very wide public.
This is T. W. Boone’s first Australian publication. Over the next twenty years
the house would be responsible for publishing first-hand accounts of the all the
major figures of mid-nineteenth century Australian exploration: Mitchell, Grey,
Eyre, Hodgkinson, Stokes, Jukes, Leichhardt, Sturt and Read. Ferguson, 1991.
55
by Hawkesworth and an injunction was
granted to prevent this, but the unpleasantness led to the exclusion of any mention of Parkinson in Dr. Hawkesworth’s
An Account of the Voyages… for making
Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere in
spite of the fact that he drew on his journals and reproduced some of Parkinson’s
drawings. This second edition, often considered the most desirable due to the inclusion of an appendix which contains accounts of the voyages of, amongst others,
Byron, Cartaret and Bougainville, was put
together by Dr. John Fothergill, a friend
of the Parkinsons. His four-page supplement attempted to justify the dispute between Parkinson’s brother Stanfield and
Sir Joseph Banks (very occasionally, but
not here, four further pages, printing letters between Parkinson and his cousin
Jane Gomeldon and a poem by her, are also found). Hill 1309; Holmes, 49.
55 PRATT (Clement).
[Bush Poetry]
Autograph manuscript journal. 8vo. Limp green leather with gilt and blind
decoration. 100pp. np, 1905 - 1909.
£950
The Rare Coloured Issue
54 PARKINSON (Sydney).
A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in
His Majesty’s Ship The Endeavour.
Second edition. Double-page map, portrait, and 27 hand-coloured engraved
plates. 4to. Deluxe full period style tree calf, using old marbled boards,
the new flat spine richly gilt. xxiv, 22, 212, [2]errata, lxxii, 213-353pp.
London, Dilly & Phillips, 1784.
£38,000
A beautiful copy of the rare coloured issue. Parkinson had been appointed as botanical draughtsman to the first voyage of Captain Cook by Sir Joseph Banks, and
his “unbounded industry” extended greatly the collection of drawings relating to
the voyage. His untimely death at sea, however, led to an unfortunate controversy
over the title to his papers and drawings between his brother, Stanfield Parkinson
and Sir Joseph Banks. In spite of a generous payment made to Stanfield, he had
the papers transcribed while they were on loan to him, and prepared the present
work. His publication threatened to pre-empt the official account of the voyage
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
Clement Pratt is now remembered as the author of the 1910 novel, Caloola, or
The Adventures of a Jackeroo, which was filmed a year later although the print
was subsequently lost. He is the brother of the more famous Ambrose Goddard
Hesketh Pratt, novelist, journalist and lawyer. The Pratt family were raised in
Forbes, New South Wales, and Ambrose was sent to St. Ignatius College and
later Sydney Grammar School. It’s likely that Clement would have received a
similar education.
Dated both 15 October 1905 and 15 October 1909 on the front page, this
notebook coincides with the writing and publication of Caloola. It opens with
34pp of extracts and poems in another hand before Pratt’s distinctive script
appears. The heart of the book are the 35 unpublished poems all in Pratt’s
hand, many of them initialled and dated. Three drafts of a poem title “Ruth”
are included. Pratt’s interest in the bush, as detailed in his novel, is also reflected
in his poetry and there are memorable evocations of the Australian landscape
in “Night” and “The Mantle of the Night”: ‘Sweet summer nights are glowing/
With the pulsing earth’s warm breath.’ An intriguing poem about an ignored
beggar precedes his hymn to “The Bush”: ‘Oh sing me a song of a summer day/
When the sun the earth’s breast kisses. And take my soul to the far away/ To
the bush and the smelling trees. Oh land of the bush sweet garden of dreams/
Away from the world of care/ Our souls are free and nature seems/ With us in
harmony there’. There is also an 8-page poem “Requiescat” in the hand of his
aforementioned brother.
57
second voyage and had returned from a brief excursion to Iceland. Although
his own voyages were at an end, once elected president of the Royal Society, he
became the architect of some of the most important English voyages over the
following twenty-five years. Banks played an active role in the expeditions and
voyages of William Bligh, Matthew Flinders, Mungo Park, and Johan Burckhardt
among others.
The engraving was accomplished by Dickinson, who served his apprenticeship
under Robert Edge Pine and became Reynolds’ engraver of choice. He went on
to produce a further twenty-one mezzotints after Reynolds paintings. Beddie,
4203; Carter, Sir Joseph Banks, 1743-1820, Paintings - engraved no.3; Nan
Kivell & Spence, p16.
By a Protege of Sir Joseph Banks and an Australian Wine Maker
57 SUTTOR (George).
The Culture of the Grape-Vine and The Orange in Australia
and New Zealand: Comprising Historical Notices; Instructions
for Planting and Cultivation; Accounts, from Personal
Observation, of the Vineyards of France and the Rhine; and
the most Celebrated Wines, from the Work of M. Jullien.
First edition. Engraved frontispiece and a number of illustrations in the text.
Small 8vo. A fine copy in original green cloth by Westley’s & Clark (binder’s
ticket on the rear pastedown), bookplate on front pastedown, ownership
inscription on front free endpaper, covers blind stamped with a central tool
based on an illustration of a vine from the book, spine gilt, small stain to
upper board. viii, 184, 24pp. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1843. £2500
The Architect of the British Empire
56 REYNOLDS (Sir Joshua).
Joseph Banks, Esq.
Mezzotint engraved by W. Dickinson. Image size: 500 by 360mm. Framed
and glazed: 632 by 480mm. London, W. Dickinson, January 30th, 1774.
£10,000
A lovely copy of the mezzotint produced after the oil painting from the previous
year. This is the definitive portrait of Banks as a young man in his late twenties.
Sitting at his desk with a globe in the background, Banks was at the height of his
fame having not long returned from Cook’s first voyage. The quote from Horace
in the background “cras ingens iterabimus aequor” [tomorrow we will set out on
the vast ocean], is interesting as by that stage Banks had withdrawn from Cook’s
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
According to ABPC the last copy of this book to appear at auction was in 1981,
before that the only other copy was sold at Christie’s in 1978. George Suttor
(1774-1859) was born in London but sent by Sir Joseph Banks to Australia with
a collection of trees, grapevines, apples, pears and hops that he hoped to establish
in the colony. Suttor set out in October 1798 but it was not until November 1800
that he landed in Sydney after being beset by storms on a number of occasions.
Banks had actually warned Suttor of the difficulties of settling in Australia,
though was impressed enough on his eventual arrival to arrange for a five guinea
reward for him from the Treasury. Having settled quickly onto his property at
Baulkham Hills, Suttor became a prominent settler, noted for his agricultural
success as much for his support of Governor Bligh in the 1808 Rum Rebellion. In
1810, he returned to England and testified as a witness on Bligh’s behalf. Suttor
notes in his preface to the book that he wishes to promote the rich fruit growing
potential of the Colony in such a way that might stimulate trade with the rest
of the world. His section on the growing of vines in Australia is directly based
on Suttor’s own experiences establishing a vineyard. The proceeding sections of
the book are based on Suttor’s own visits to the vineyards of Europe and the
“writings of the best Authors on the subject”. There are sections dedicated to
France, Spain, Italy and a number of other countries. In particular Suttor makes
59
book is distinguished in being the first to use live specimens, grown from seeds in
London nurseries. Each of the 56 plates are accompanied with 2pp of explanatory
text. The plants are primarily from New South Wales, Kangaroo Island, Tasmania
and King George’s Sound.
The specimens were drawn from collections at Kew Gardens, Sweet’s former
employer Whitley, Brames et al. Specimens were also compared with those at
Josephine Bonaparte’s collection at Malmaison. Robert Brown, naturalist on
Matthew Flinders voyage, and later Joseph Banks’s librarian, provided assistance.
Despite Sweet’s evident accomplishment, his career and health were ruined by
charges of stealing plants from Kew Gardens in 1826. Although acquitted of the
charge, he left Colvills and devoted the next five years to producing botanical
works, this being the first. Ferguson, 1144; Great Flower Books, p.143.; Nissen,
(BBI), 1924.
59 WAKEFIELD (Edward).
New Zealand Illustrated. The Story of New Zealand
and Descriptions of its Cities and Towns… Also… The
Natural Wonders of New Zealand (Past and Present).
considerable use of Andre Jullien’s Topographie des Vignobles. (1818). Suttor’s
accounts of the tour are informal (often composed as diary entries) and attempt,
in many places, to draw comparisons between Australia and the Continent. In
one passage he notes the “kind people” of Chateau Margaux who apparently
informed him that “some Englishmen […] had speculated in vineyards here, but
had not been successful; neither had they improved the wine” (85).
This copy has an interesting provenance, with the signature on front endpaper
(lightly crossed through), dated Adelaide, 1849, of Norman Campbell, who
subsequently became private secretary to Governor La Trobe in Melbourne; and
with the nineteenth-century armorial bookplate of the South Australian pastoralist
Peter Dowding Prankerd. Ferguson, 3731; Gabler, G38440.
58 SWEET (Robert).
Flora Australasica; or a Selection of Handsome and Curious
Plants, Natives of New Holland and the South Sea Islands.
First edition. 56 hand-coloured engraved plates. Tall 8vo. Nineteenth century
half purple morocco, gilt, some minor foxing. London, James Ridgeway,
1827-28.
£4000
First edition. One large folding and 13 other fine chromolithograph plates
and one uncoloured lithograph plate with three images. Oblong folio (285
by 490mm). Original morocco-backed boards, the upper with a large
chromolithograph panel. [iv], [39]pp. Wangnanui, A.D. Willis, 1889.
£3250
“Chromolithographs by W. Potts from photographs by J. Martin, S. Carnell,
Burton Bros., Wrigglesworth & Bins, Tyree, etc., except for the eruption of
Tarawera, a magnificent choreographic extravagance by Blomfield. The quality and
clarity of the reproductions is heightened by the neo-primitive conventionalised
representation of figures, trees and the facades of buildings” (Bagnall).
The plates are titled as follows: Auckland Harbour, N.Z.; Napier, N.Z.;
City of Wellington, N.Z.; Wanganui, N.Z.; New Plymouth, N.Z.; Nelson, N.Z.;
Greymouth, N.Z.; Lyttelton Harbour, N.Z.; City of Christchurch, N.Z. (From
the Cathedral); Oamaru, N.Z.; Dunedin, N.Z.; Pink Terrace, Rotomahana, N.Z.
(Destroyed by the Eruption of Mount Tarawera, June 10, 1886.); White Terrace,
Rotomahana, N.Z. (Destroyed by the Eruption of Mount Tarawera, June 10,
1886.); Mount Tarawera in Eruption, June 10, 1886 (From the native village of
Waitangi, Lake Tarawera, N.Z.) - large folding chromolithograph; The Waitomo
Caves, N.Z. (The Blanket. Mair’s Cave. The Blanket…) - uncoloured lithograph.
The chromolithograph on the upper board is entitled “Queenstown, N.Z.”
Bagnall mentions an extra illustrated title page, with the chromolithograph of
Queenstown used on the upper board, however we have been unable to find another copy which includes this. cf. Bagnall (N.Z. Nat. Bib.), 5786; Not in Hocken.
A very good copy of this handsome work. Sweet was a partner at the Stockwell
Nursery and later worked at the nursery of Whitley, Brames, and Milne before
being employed by Messrs Colvill. From 1818 he produced the five works that
would ensure his posterity. Working under the influence of Joseph Banks, Sweet’s
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
61
SOUTH AMERICA
Directly to One Associated with the
Organisation of Columbus’s Second Voyage
60 FERDINAND and ISABELLA (King and Queen of Spain).
Decree announcing royal protection to the brothers Arieta and
their merchandize against personal detention, harm, or any
financial claims made against them. Signed by their Catholic
Majesties “Yo el Rey” and “Yo la Reyna” and addressed to
all the naval commanders, Spanish subjects on board all fleets,
and to judicial authorities, in the province of Guipuzcoa.
Manuscript. Single sheet, 420 by 310mm. Docketed with remnants of wax
seal on the reverse. Torn and repaired where originally folded, crease marks,
else fine. Valladolid December 22, 1488.
£12,000
The contents of this document are plain. Joan Nicolas de Artieta and his brothers
Iñigo, Francisco and Pascual, all of Likeitio, are licensed to trade both at sea
and on land in various merchandise and articles, and have, because they “dread
that by reason of any debt or debts” their goods, their vessels, their “factors and
servants” and trade might be seized, detained or embargoed by the authorities of
Iketao, of the province of Guipuizcoa (or elsewhere in Vizcaya), sought protection
and indemnity from the crown. “And we do assure them against all persons
whatever who are our vassals, subjects…that they the creditors may not arrest
their persons, nor take nor embargo nor occupy their said vessels, … This decree
SOUTH AMERICA
is to be publicly proclaimed by a town crier and before a public notary so that it
is common knowledge, and it is made clear that legal steps will be taken against
any one contravening it.”
The four Artieta brothers were from an important and powerful merchant
family of Leikitao, a sea port at one end of the Bay of Biscay, and were all the
sons of Nicolas Ibánez de Artieta. In the 1470s the basis of the family trade was
commerce with the Balearic islands and with parts of Italy, including Genoa and
Sicily. They dealt in fish and salt, but were also probably involved in other things.
One of their ships was called Maria Grasa, and in 1484 Iñigo Artieta had a new
ship built in Lekeitio. They would seem to have been commercially active for
about twenty years from 1478 until about 1498.
63
On 20 September 1487, Iñigo was accused of having seized a ship supposedly
belonging to the King of Naples, but various defences were brought. However the
proximity of trade and piracy at this date (and indeed subsequently) is quite close.
His most important role however was as captain of the fleet of ships, the
Armada Vizcaya, one of which he provided, established to protect the second
voyage of Columbus to the New World. The rivalry between Portugal and Spain
as to the trade routes etc. was fierce and unremitting, and protection was needed
for both voyages nearer the Atlantic coast of Spain and for those further afield.
Much earlier in the mid-1470s, Iñigo Artieta had (in 1477) in fact been involved
in hostilities between Spain and Portugal in respect of the Guinea trade, and had
furnished a ship, the Santa Maria Magdalena. It is also possible that he furnished
another ship, and our knowledge of both of these is derived from lawsuits and
documents in the “Registro general del Sello”. One of these suits reached the
chancellery of Valladolid (see Aznar Vallejo pp. 43-44 and note 18). Later he
was to be commander of the Armada Vizcaya involved in October 1493 in the
transport from Almeria in Spain to North Africa of the last Muslim ruler of
Granada and some 1130 of his subjects (Aznar Vallejo p.46) as well as in other
marine exploits. Iñigo Artieta, by far the best known of the group, seems to have
died between 1503 and 1512.
See “Marinos vascos en la guerra naval de Andalucia durante el siglo XV” by
Eduardo Aznar Vallejo, published in Revista de Estudios Marítimos del País Vasco
2006, no. 5, pp. 41-52. A copy of this is enclosed, together with a transcript and
translation of the document.
Beautiful Views of Rio
61 LE CAPELAIN (John), NICOLLE (Edward) & DICKSON (James).
Panoramic Views of Rio de Janeiro and Its Surrounding Scenery,
Lithographed by James Dickson, from Paintings by the late Le
Capelain the Original Sketches by Edwd. Nicolle Junr Esqre.
First edition, sepia issue. Lithograph title and ten tinted lithograph plates.
Folio. Publisher’s brown pebble-grain cloth, upper cover gilt, slightly rubbed.
Liverpool, Baines & Herbert, [1848?]
£25,000
A lovely copy of this rare work. Le Capelain produced the ten views here based
on original sketches by Nicolle. The ten views are uncaptioned and feature images
of the city, Guanabara Bay, Sugarloaf Mountain and the surrounding hills.
The son of a Jersey printer, Le Capelain (1812-1848) received most of his
training in the family business. His artistic talent came to the notice of many
with the publication of his watercolour of Mount Orgueil in Moss’s Views of
the Channel Islands in 1829. He lived in England for a short while in 1832 and
travelled to Scotland and France where he continued to paint. On the visit of Queen
Victoria to Jersey, he was commissioned to produce an album of watercolours to
commemorate it. The Queen was so delighted with The Queen’s Visit to Jersey
(1847), she asked him to produce a series of views of the Isle of Wight. Sadly, Le
Capelain died of consumption before he was able to complete the commission.
SOUTH AMERICA
Abbey’s note is curious, attributing authorship to Le Capelain, who never
travelled further than France. Unfortunately, very little is known about Nicolle.
Seven copies of this work located on OCLC, but only two copies have
appeared at auction in the past 30 years: one in modern half morocco, the other
disbound. Abbey, 710; Borba de Moraes, I 226.
62 LERY (Jean).
Historia navigationis in Brasiliam, quae et America dicitur.
First Latin edition. Seven full-page woodcuts in the text, and a folding plate.
Small 8vo. Later wrappers. Geneva, Vignon, 1586.
£8500
This is an unexpurgated edition, translated from the French by Léry himself,
which contains material concerning the conflict between Catholics and Protestants
in Villegagnon’s fledgling colony in Rio originally included in the second edition
(1580) and ethnographic material (especially regarding native music) which did
not appear until the third edition in 1585.
Lery’s Histoire is one of the earliest eye-witness accounts of the New World, in
particular of Villegagon’s ill-fated expedition to found a French colony in Brazil
in 1555-6. Léry though is concerned with painting a broad picture of Brazil, the
Indian population, their customs, language etc. He was a Calvinist and did not
view the Tupinamba Indians as potential converts, but as irredeemable sons of
Ham. This gave him a particularly detached view of his subjects; almost that of
a modern social scientist. Indeed Levi Strauss calls the Histoire “the breviary
of the anthropologist”. He also takes pains to demonstrate the inaccuracy of
the only other version of events, that of the Catholic friar André Thevet, whose
Singularitez de la France antarctique was hitherto the only available record of
65
events. Despite his aversion to Thevet at least one of the remarkable illustrations
owes something to one of Thevet’s woodcuts.
“Of all the many travel narratives of the sixteenth century Jean de Léry’s
Histoire d’un voyage fait en la terre de Brésil contains the most sensitive and
detailed account we have of a Native America people before prolonged contact
with Europeans had radically changed their culture.” Anthony Pagden (Man vol.
29, no. 1).
63 SALAZAR (Brigadier Jose Maria de).
Autograph letter signed to the Excmo. Don Luis Maria de Salazar,
referring to secret information communicated to him by the Princess
of Brazil with regard to the attitude of the British Ambassador;
and describing his meeting with the Prince Regent of Brazil.
Manuscript in ink (in Spanish). 4pp. Folio. Rio de Janeiro, 19th February,
1815.
£850
Salazar is best known for his role in the events following the May 1810 revolution
in Buenos Ayres and later served as the interim Governor of Monte Video.
Translation: “…accompanied by our official, I proceeded to Santa Cruz, some
twelve leagues away, on the 16th (for the honour of meeting the Prince Regent)
and having been presented to him, he received us with the utmost hospitality,
and I handed him a letter from the Princess who had the kindness to read it to
me before closing it. In it she recommended me to him, and enclosed a copy of a
letter from the Marques de Casa…who he greatly esteemed, and we thereupon
entered upon the object of my mission. At the first words he interrupted me,
saying: ‘Spain is delaying in sending out an expedition to Rio de la Plata, and the
fleet that should have sailed from Cadiz has not arrived either, because it is going
to Panama to join Pezulea there.’ …I replied, ‘I do not know, Sir, whether the
King, my master, has been obliged by unforeseen circumstances, to alter his plan.’
‘Yes, yes,’ he replied, ‘I know for certain, and it will not be here before the spring.’
“I had not divulged our secret except to our official and the Princess, who
assured me she would not tell the Prince as, of so, Lord Stanford would know of
it at once and consequently, those at Buenos Aires…”
Coloured Plates of Rio
64 STEINMANN (J.)
Souvenirs de Rio de Janeiro dessinés d’après nature…
12 particularly fine highly finished hand-coloured lithograph plates with
original tissue guards, laid onto buff sheets. Oblong 4to. Modern straight
grain green morocco, titled in gilt on upper board, with original buff printed
wrapper (comprising title within elaborate lithograph border incorporating
Brazilian scenes and vegetation) bound in. Paris, chez Rittner et Goupil, but
Basel, [1835].
£22,000
SOUTH AMERICA
This is a lovely copy of an exquisite and rare book; the plates are so finely coloured and heightened that they might easily be taken for original gouaches, the
workmanship being the equal of the very best Swiss view books of this period.
This copy is entirely unaffected by oxidization which frequently occurs with
this work.
Steinmann was Swiss by birth and emigrated to Brazil in 1825. He set up a studio in
Rio and contributed illustrations to a number
of works printed there between 1827 and
1830 when he was under contract to lecture
at the Military Archive. He seems to have
returned to Switzerland in about 1832 where
he published a series of large loose views of
South America and the above album. According to Borba, the book was issued with a
variety of dates from 1834 to 1839 .
The views shown are as follows: “Bota Fogo”; “Vista Tomada de Sta. Thereza”;
“St. Joao de Carachy, a Praya Grande”; “Moro de Castello & da Praya d’Ajuda”;
“Novo Friburgo (Colnia Suissa, ao Morro Queimodo) “; “Igreja de St. Sebatiao”;
“Largo de Paço”; “Ilha das Cobras”; “Plantaçao de Café”; “Caminho dos
Orgaos”; “Vista de N.S. da Gloria et da Barra do Rio de Janeiro”; “Vista do
sacco d’Alferès & de St. Cristovao”. Each plate is ascribed to a particular artist,
with nine being by Steinmann himself, two by Kretschman and one by Victor
Barrat. They were all engraved by Frederico Salathe. Borba de Moraes, p. 839;
see Sabin, 88693.
67
CENTRAL AMERICA
&
in 1922 and remained in the West Indies for the rest of his life. He wrote a number of books on the Caribbean, this being the first. In the foreword, the book
is summarised as a “description of the chief scenic and other attractions of the
island.” However it is much more interesting and considered than that. The
opening chapter includes a discussion of three different maps of the island and
their relation to the one produced here (originally produced under the direction
of Alexander Gross and first printed “on a single sheet of the Victory Series by
“Geographia” Ltd, London”). He then proceeds to correct some of the small
inaccuracies of it from first-hand information. Following the general format of
an itinerary, Devas provides detailed descriptions of the Grand Etang, Mt. Qua
Qua, Concord Falls and the Blue Basin, Mt. St. Catherine, Victoria and Hapsack
and St. Patrick’s, Lake Antoine and “Fedon’s Camp” and Carriacou. Devas also
discusses some of Grenada’s natural history, with lengthy notes on the iguana
and some of the native birds. In this engaging account, he combines historical
and topographical information and occasionally interleaves this with some of
his own experiences.
THE WEST INDIES
65 [AMHURST (Nicholas).] D’ANVERS Caleb [pseudonym].
Some Farther Remarks on a Late Pamphlet, Intitled, Observations
on the Conduct of Great-Britain; Particularly with relations to the
Spanish Depredations and Letters of Reprisal. In a Letter to the
Craftsman. To which is added, a Postscript in Vindication of the
West-India Merchants, against a late Charge of Theft and Pyracy.
First edition. 8vo. [2], 38pp. Modern wrappers, date inked on title page,
edges browned, minor worming. London, R. Francklin, 1729.
£400
A forthright refutation of those allegations made against the conduct of British
West Indian merchants, specifically that they are “no better than a vile Combination
of Smuglers, Pyrates and Thieves.” Sabin 86644 & 1335a; European Americana
729/200; Cundall 2009; Kress 377; Eberstadt 164: 352; Beinecke 153.
66 DEVAS (Fr. Raymund)
Up Hill and down Dale in Grenada. With a Foreword by the
Hon’ble Gerald Smith, Colonial Treasurer, British Honduras.
First edition. Double-page colour map. 8vo. Original cloth-backed printed
paper boards, a little faded, errata slip tipped in. [v], ii, 93pp. St. George’s,
Grenada Guardian, 1926.
£350
A lovely copy of this scarce Trinidad imprint, the double-page map was also
printed on the island. After a distinguished war service, Devas settled in Grenada
CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES
67 MAUDSLAY (Anne Cary) & MAUDSLAY (Alfred Percival).
A Glimpse at Guatemala, and some notes on the
Ancient Monuments of Central America.
69
First edition. Folding coloured map, 42 uncoloured plates, 2 chromolithographed plates, 21 maps and plans. 4to. Original quarter cloth, extremities
rubbed. 290pp. London, John Murray, 1899.
£1500
Alfred Maudslay was a diplomat, explorer and archaeologist. Having served as
consul at Tonga and Samoa, he left the foreign service in order to pursue his interest in archaeology. He travelled to Central America in 1881, arriving at Belize
from where he travelled to Guatemala to work among the Mayan ruins. During
this time he made six expeditions in total and was the first to describe Yaxchilan.
His archaeological findings were published as Biologia-Central Americana and
prints were shown at the 1893 Columbian exhibition in Chicago.
Maudslay made a seventh expedition to Guatemala, which included two weeks
work for the Peabody Museum and served as a honeymoon for himself, new bride
and co-author. This work is an account of the seventh expedition though includes
a vast amount of archaeological and ethnographic detail. Howgego IV, M38.
Procedures Governing the Conversion of the Natives
68 MONTESCLAVOS (Marquis de).
Puntos de la Buena Doctrina de los Indios de Nueva Espana.
Manuscript in ink. 7pp. Folio. np, 1606.
£5000
The Marquis de Montesclavos, Viceroy of Nueva Espana, writes to Fray Diego
de Soto, Provincial of the Province of Michoacan on the subject of the spiritual
care and welfare of the native Indians.
The Marquis sets out the terms of a Royal Decree that has been introduced
to bring about certain reforms in the procedure at that time adopted over the
conversion of natives. The Viceroy, after a short preamble, divides the Royal
message into five parts. After the recital of each part, the Viceroy’s comments
appear on the right hand column of each page, the opposite column having been,
at first, left in blank for the Provincial’s observations. These were duly filled in
by the latter after consideration had been given by him and a number of the
representative Fathers of his Province, to the proposed reforms.
The express desire of the King and his counsellors was that the spiritual
and temporal welfare of the Indians should evolve with the least possible
inconvenience to those natives. For that reason, it was desirable to gather those
who were scattered in mountain passes and wild places into communities, where
they might be taught the doctrines of Christianity in an atmosphere of cleanliness
and in climates to which they were accustomed. On the other hand, those who
already lived in communities where facilities existed for their conversion to the
Faith, should not be removed to other places. In cases where Indians had been
transferred from habitable dwellings and farms to other localities, in order to
prepare for conversion, they were to be allowed to return to their homes, if they
so desired, provided that upon information derived from the superior prelates and
Mayors of the districts concerned, all parties were satisfied on that point. Where
converts, on returning to their homes, found others in possession, they were to
be entitled to dispossess the newcomers, even if their properties had been handed
CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES
over to the latter with the authority of the Viceroy. The manuscript closes with
two short messages to the Marquis - one signed by Fray Diego de Soto; the other
by this Provincial and three members of his Chapter, including Fray Balthasar
de los Reyes. Both of these postscripts are intended as assurances to the Viceroy
that everything will be done to give the fullest effect to His Majesty’s wishes.
69 PALAFOX (John, Bishop of Puebla de los Angeles).
Sobre la Beatificacion del Señor Palafox y el expediente que se
formó en el Consejo de Indias en razón de sus desavenencias
con los Regulares de la Puebla de los Angeles especialmente
los Jesuitas, por las licencias de Confesar y predicar.
Manuscript in ink. Report (in Spanish, with the first five pages in Latin),
on the beatification of John Palafox, and transcripts of the despatches from
the Council for the Indies relating to the Bishop’s dissensions with the
priesthood of Puebla de los Angeles. 55pp. Folio. c. 1777.
£5500
Juan Palafox y Mendoza, Bishop of Puebla de los Angeles and Inspector General of
Mexico, was the central figure in a violent ecclesiastical and political controversy.
Taking up his appointment in 1640, and fully aware of his power as a judge
and administrator, he soon came into collision with the Viceroy when the latter
attempted to increase the prerogatives of the “conservadores.” Palafox consistently
refused to acknowledge their authority, and stubbornly resisted the representations
of the political administrators. His influence over the people was great, and
with the definite ranging of his followers upon his side, there ensued a quarrel,
“gaining strength and drawing in all manner of issues” as he writes to the Bishop
of Guaxara, such as Mexico had never known before. Excitement ran high when
he was threatened with excommunication, and the state of the town can best be
imagined from the description of his militant tactics, given in one of the official
reports quoted in this manuscript.
“The city of Los Angeles was in a tumult, and in danger of being lost … The
Bishop’s resistance (against the ‘conservador’ judges) has created a scandal: he
has tried to influence the Ministers of the Real Audiencia to oppose the Viceroy
and President, engineering disturbances and dissensions. He has asked the Bishop
of Guaxara to come to his assistance [the original letter to this Bishop is quoted
towards the end of the paper] … He has collected threatened with violence from
two hundred ruffians from Mexico, who were paid by the Jesuits to rob his
house and the church. He has armed men staying in his house, guarding it, with
a great quantity of munitions, bombs, grenades, gun powder. A clerical assistant
of his, named Pedro Ferrer, has been inducing clergymen to come and help,
and in their turn to influence their relatives and friends; besides this, they are
agitating amongst the populace and have a large following of negroes, mulattos,
half-castes, and boys, and in order that these should enter and leave the house
secretly, he had a secret door let into his garden … all of which has given rise to
great disturbance and scandal in the town.
“In order to rouse the Mulatto slaves, the Bishop has published abroad the
statement that he has in his possession a blank royal decree, to give their freedom
71
to the negroes who followed him. He has made a standard of green cloth with
the royal arms, for the purpose of raising companies, and says if there are not
enough recruits in Puebla, they can be drawn from the countryside.”
On the 4th June 1647, a mysterious order was given for the cathedral
bells to chime all day from early mass until late at night - “the bells chimed in
uniform strokes of two, a most extraordinary way of pealing, never before heard,
particularly as it was not a festival.” It is later explained that it was a ceremony
for the Bishop, and “the clergyman Juan de Herrera addressed the public and
saying that it was their duty to follow him and defend him, repeating that they
should not tolerate the conservadores as judges…” The text then states that the
Bishop was proclaimed Viceroy on the 7th of June and the people shouted “‘Long
live Palafox the Bishop Viceroy!’ This was a terrible day of tumult in the city
and many feared some of the characters that had appeared there … citing the
disturbance of Mexico, which is that of the 15th of January, which began with
little cause and ended in far greater and more dangerous consequences.”
Further details of the Bishop’s campaign are given in the succeeding pages,
and the crowning sensation comes on the 17th June: “Quite unexpectedly on
the Monday, the Bishop left the city of Los Angeles at night, with his servants,
and went to the city of Tepeaca, five leagues away, on the pretext of meeting the
Bishop of Guaxara. From there he proceeded to the estancia of Captain Juan de
Vargas, and remained there the whole of the following day and stayed the night
and from there he disappeared, for on the morrow he was missing, and it was
realized that he had gone with some servants, and it is not known for certain
where he went or where he is … following upon his absence there is great peace
and quiet in the city … which proves that all the tumult and disturbances were
caused by the Bishop himself.”
The chronicler then records that no preparations had been made at the Augustinian and Jesuit Convents in opposition to the Bishop, as he had stated; and
adds, with malicious precision, a statement of all the Bishop’s debts (which
were ascertained when, on the Viceroy’s instructions, his house was searched
for papers). The greater part of this very interesting document is taken up with
transcripts of the original papers lodged in the various archives of the ministry
for the Indies, and reveals the full case of Palafox’s bitter contentions with the
Jesuits and the political authorities in Mexico. The man’s colossal moral courage
in fighting for a principle is apparent throughout the many relations, and the
testimony of eye-witnesses quoted in these pages; his influence - like that of all
strong characters - being equally felt by his friends and enemies.
In a letter to the judges (written, it is said, with the intention of influencing
them against the Viceroy) Palafox writes, on the 26th May, 1647: “A person,
zealous in the service of His Majesty, has informed me that the Jesuit Fathers,
after exceptional efforts, have obtained from Viceroy the promise to assist them
in the execution of their design - which is to bring in the Religiosos of Santo
Domingo whom the Jesuit Father-Provincial nominated as Conservatives; and
although this information can scarcely be credited, and the dispute is in its earliest
stages … nevertheless, I am constrained to notify your Honour that if it is true
that they are bringing with them for the purpose of disturbing this country and
bishopric, many are the disturbances which are likely to result, to the detriment
CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES
of the service of God and the King … Although I desire peace and quiet in these
dominions, and do all in my power to preserve it, it is regrettable that I am not
so powerful as to pacify an entire community should any fire be kindled. Your
Honour, as one of His Majesty’s Ministers, should be notified of this, and should
represent the position to the Viceroy, pointing out the many resultant dangers
which are to be dreaded. In the midst of the King’s many cares, it is incumbent
upon us to maintain the peace; with a view to which I have written to you to
propose the best means of dealing with so grave a matter of which I have already
sent a report to the King. I also send His Majesty a copy of this letter. Let us await
his Royal decision, for certainly the peace of the Kingdom must weigh more with
him than the pretensions of the Jesuit Fathers, even if they were perfectly right
and not contrary to the expressed decisions of the Councils and Papal bulls. I
beg you again to put the matter to the Viceroy.”
News of an English Colony at Mobile & the
Extermination of the Scotch Colony at Darien
70 PINEDO (Francisco de).
Autograph Letter signed to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, in
which he gives news of the movements of various fleets.
Manuscript in ink. 3pp. Folio. Veracruz, 13th November, 1699.
£3750
“Don M. de Zevala left this port (Veracruz) with the ships under his command,
to exterminate the Scotch at Dariel [Darien] and these…demolished the fort they
had built there, and leaving the place unfit for occupation returned to the Island
of San Thomas to continue their practice of piracy in America.
“A fleet appeared at Penzacola which proved to be a war fleet of French
ships intent upon colonizing the place. They found Don Andres de Arriola in
possession, who behaved admirably and having built fortifications on land the
present whereabouts of this squadron are not known (!). Some English residents are
established at La Mobila, twenty leagues from Penzacola, in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Darien (in modern Colombia) frequently suffered from pirate raids and at
the end of the 17th century was the locale of a curious attempt at colonization:
one William Paterson (founder of the Bank of England) tried to establish there
a colony of Scots anxious to escape English persecution at home. This colony
(“Caledonia”) with a capital (“New Edinburgh”) was established in 1698 on
an offshore island in the Gulf of Darien. Since it was a potential danger to
Spanish shipping, it was attacked by the Spaniards with the result that Patterson’s
experiment failed after only two years.
This letter is of additional interest as it pre-dates the European settlement of
Mobile, which began officially with the French in 1702. Then called Fort Louis
de la Louisiane, the colony was settled in order to protect French possessions in
Louisiana.
73
NORTH AMERICA
“August 2nd 1769 The Infamas Govener left our town”
71 [BERNARD (Sir Thomas)].
The Life of Sir Francis Bernard, Baronet,
late Governor of Massachusetts Bay.
First and only edition. Privately printed. 8vo. Contemporary tree calf, board
edges worn, unsympathetically rebacked, new morocco label. xii, 1-211 pp.
London, 1790.
£12,500
The third known copy of a contemporary biography of a “principal actor in the
advent of the American Revolution” (Nicolson, “Governor Francis Bernard”,
p. 24). Only two other copies are recorded: at the British Library and Harvard.
Sir Francis Bernard (1712-79) was governor of New Jersey, 1758-60, and then of
Massachusetts, 1760-69. The author, Thomas Bernard, who studied at Harvard,
was his second surviving son and amanuensis.
As governor of New Jersey, Bernard reconciled feuding Presbyterians and
Quakers, garnered support for the French and Indian War and negotiated a
treaty with the Delaware Indians. His success in New Jersey led to Bernard’s
appointment to the governorship of Massachusetts in 1760, which occupies
the bulk of this book with extensive quotations from his correspondence (both
incoming and outgoing) as well as from official documents. Bernard attempted to
govern Massachusetts even-handedly. "He raised thousands of troops for defence
of the frontiers while taking the province's part in opposing wartime embargoes
on colonial shipping and the Sugar and Stamp Acts. He solicited funds to replace
the Harvard College Library, destroyed in a fire in 1764, gave the college his own
books, and designed the new building. However, he erred badly in appointing
Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Hutchinson chief justice of the superior court
almost immediately after his arrival, thereby alienating the powerful Otis family:
James Otis sen. claimed that the two previous governors had promised him the
post. James Otis jun. proceeded to unify the Boston merchant community - which
NORTH AMERICA
he represented in the writs of assistance and other cases where they were accused
of violating British trade regulations - with the town meeting and legislature in
opposition to the new imperial regulations and the governor who was obliged to
enforce them. While Bernard opposed these regulations himself, he considered it
his duty to support royal policy and maintain authority in the town of Boston.
In 1766 he vetoed the election of resistance leaders to the council; the next
year he called for troops to protect the customs commissioners who had been
frightened out of town by crowd harassment. After the troops arrived in 1768,
Bernard criticized the town and province for failing to provide quarters for them
according to the Quartering Act of 1766. In letters to newly appointed colonial
secretary Lord Hillsborough, Bernard urged that the provincial council (elected
each year by the outgoing council and the incoming house of representatives,
subject to the governor's veto) be appointed by the crown as in the other royal
colonies, as it had failed to support him in the exercise of his duties. Somehow
the Boston Gazette, the leading resistance newspaper, acquired these letters
and published them in April 1769. The legislature requested Bernard’s removal,
he himself asked to be relieved of his duties, and on 1 August 1769 he left
Massachusetts for ever, amid public rejoicing” (ODNB).
Bernard’s subsequent demonisation by historians of the American Revolution
has been unrelenting, but recently Colin Nicolson, in “Governor Francis Bernard,
75
the Massachusetts Friends of Government, and the Advent of the Revolution”,
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, third series, vol. 103 (1991)
and The ‘Infamas Govener’: Francis Bernard and the Origins of the American
Revolution (2001), has sought to show that Bernard was placed in an almost
impossible position of trying to balance bitterly opposing interests in the colony,
who would emerge as Patriots and Loyalists during the Revolution, on the one
hand and trying to impose rules inflicted on him from London on the other. As the
Life of Sir Francis Bernard (the only early attempt to defend Bernard’s actions)
concludes in response to a petition to the King in July 1769 by the representatives
of the Massachusetts legislature laying seventeen charges against Bernard: “Such
was the nature of the accusation, and such the integrity of the Governor’s conduct,
that after nine years administration of a very extensive province, - five years in
the confidence of popularity, and four in the warfare of opposition, - the industry
of his enemies, in all their accumulation of charges, had no facts to allege, but
what consisted of obedience to the King’s especial commands, or of the ordinary
exercise of the Governor’s duty; and the evidence whereof was chiefly derived
from official copies of his confidential correspondence with government. - No
public oppression, no concealed peculation, no acts of injustice or corruption are
suggested: - venial as the error of judgment might have been in his situation, we
do not find indiscretion of temper, or even impatience of zeal, imputed to him as
part of his misconduct” (pp. 197-8).
Not in Sabin or any other key reference books on American history or bibliography and not noticed in the DNB or ODNB entries on Francis Bernard and
Thomas Bernard. OCLC records it only in a microfilm of the British Library
copy. The text was used in vols. 1 and 2 of Mrs Napier Higgins, The Bernards
of Abington and Nether Winchendon: a Family History (4 vols, 1903-04), but
is otherwise little known and is only occasionally cited by scholars. It is referred
to four times in Nicolson’s The ‘Infamas Govener’, where it is listed in the
bibliography as one of only a few secondary sources relating to Bernard and his
family. An appendix of various documents is specified in the contents list, but
it is not present here, nor in the British Library or Harvard copies. A note on
p. 209 might hold a clue as to its non-inclusion: referring to Sir John Bernard’s
claim for compensation for the loss of his father’s estates in America, the author
writes: “I had intended to have inserted Sir John Bernard’s case in the Appendix
to this work - but I have thought it better to wait for some minutes of evidence,
which I have applied for, to the American Board”.
Provenance: Bernard family, the pastedown with 18th-century signature “C. M.
Bernard” and the late 19th-century engraved armorial bookplate of J. Bernard
Baker (James Bernard Baker was descended from James Baker, who published
a Life of his uncle, Sir Thomas Bernard, author of the present work, in 1819).
Collection of Hans Fellner (1925-1996), antiquarian bookseller and Christie’s book
expert, recently dispersed at Christie’s South Kensington and at Chiswick Auctions.
Literature: Colin Nicolson, “Governor Francis Bernard, the Massachusetts Friends
of Government, and the Advent of Revolution” in Proceedings of the Massachusetts
Historical Society Third Series, Vol. 103, (1991), pp. 24-107, 109-113; Colin,
Nicolson, The ‘Infamas Govener’: Francis Bernard and the origins of the American
Revolution (2001).
NORTH AMERICA
“The Most Famous Colour-Plate Book of
American Plant & Animal Life”
72 CATESBY (Mark).
Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama
Islands containing the figures of birds, beasts, fishes,
serpents, insects and plants; particularly those not hitherto
described, or incorrectly figured by former authors,
with their descriptions in English and French.
Third edition. 2 vols. Double engraved map with original hand-colour. 220
hand-coloured engraved plates after Catesby. Text in English and French.
Folio. Modern green morocco, elaborately gilt, in separate slipcases.
London, Benjamin White, 1771.
£120,000
“Catesby’s Natural History is the most famous colour-plate book of American
plant and animal life. A fundamental and original work for the study of American
species” (Hunt). Considered the founder of American ornithology, this is the
work on which Catesby’s reputation rests. It remains unrivalled in the period
before Audubon.
Although lacking formal training, Catesby was tutored by his grandfather,
Nicholas Jekyll, and the naturalist John Ray. In 1712, he travelled to Virginia and
spent the next seven years collecting botanical specimens which he sent back to
England. The next three years were devoted to arranging the collection and, partly
77
NORTH AMERICA
79
of 1812 and twenty years later led the “British Band” against European-American
settlers in the Black Hawk War in Wisconsin. At the conclusion of the war, he
was held in captivity at Jefferson Barracks with eight other leaders. On President
Jackson’s orders, they were taken on a tour across the country and exhibited at
several different cities. In his last years, Black Hawk returned to Sauk by the
Iowa River and sought to make amends with the whites and fellow Sauks he had
fought against. Howes, D-459; Sabin, 20810 (unseen by him, incorrectly stating
the pagination as 264pp).
A Great Rarity with a Wonderful Association
74 HOPKINS (Samuel).
Historical Memoirs, relating to the Housatunnuk Indians:
or, an account of the methods used, and pains taken, for the
propagation of the gospel among the heathenish tribe.
First edition. 8vo. Modern tree calf by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, gilt with red
morocco label, title page and first leaf expertly remargined, final two leaves
chipped with no loss to text, some minor scattered foxing. [4], 182pp. Boston,
S. Kneeland, 1753.
£5000
backed by Sir Hans Sloane, he returned to America in 1722 where he commenced
work on his Natural History. Catesby travelled though Georgia, Carolina, Florida
and the Bahamas to produce this wide-ranging history. In addition to the notes
on ornithology and botany, the work covers anthropology, geology, climate and
history. The images were drawn from life, where possible, the plants when freshly
picked, fish specimens replenished as colours faded. His commitment to the work
led him to study under Joseph Goupy so that he might etch the plates himself.
First issued in parts between 1730-47, a second edition was published 1754.
This 1771 third edition appeared in two issues.The first was printed throughout
on laid paper. We have a later issue with the plates on wove paper. Fine Bird
Books, p. 86; Great Flower Books, p.85; Meisel III:340; Nissen BBI 336, IVB
177; Sabin 11509; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 1057; Wood p. 282.
[see outer covers for further illustration]
73 DRAKE (Benjamin).
The Life and Adventures of Black Hawk: with Sketches of
Keokuk, the Sac and Fox Indian, and the Late Black Hawk War.
First edition. Woodcut frontispiece and 1 plate. 12mo. Original plum blindstamped cloth, sunned, remnant of original paper label to spine, some minor
restoration. 252pp. Cincinnati, George Conclin, 1838.
£950
A very good copy of the scarce first edition. Published within months of Black
Hawk’s death (3 October 1838) it was the first posthumous book-length biography.
Black Hawk led the Sauk Indians and fought on the side of the British in the War
NORTH AMERICA
“One of the rarest books relating to New England” (Sabin). With the ownership
signature of Elizabeth Williams, dated 1763. She was the sister-in-law of John
Sargeant, who led the mission described in this work. She was also the first cousin
(once removed) of John Williams, who wrote the Redeemed Captive. Located
near where the upper Housatonic river and the Connecticut-Massachusetts
border intersect, Hopkins provides a detailed overview of the mission from 173449. In addition to recounting the methods of the missionary education, in the
sometimes day by day accounts of activities on the mission, he sheds much light
on relations between the whites and the Indians. Just three copies have appeared
at auction in the past thirty years. The Streeter copy lacked the title page and the
final two leaves. Church, 986; Evans, 7023; Howes, H632 (“b”), Sabin, 32945;
Streeter sale, 679.
81
In Memoriam
75 [LINCOLN (Abraham).] VICTOR (Orville James).
The Private and Public Life of Abraham Lincoln.
First edition thus. Frontispiece. 16mo. Original pictorial wrappers, expertly
repaired. 4, [4], ix-xiii, 14-96pp. New York, Beadle & Co., 1865. £500
Originally issued as a campaign document the previous year, it was reprinted
immediately after Lincoln’s assassination with a frontispiece and a four page,
black-bordered, “In Memoriam” (signed O.J.V.). This reissue omits pp 97-98
from the 1864 edition, which were quotes from Harper’s Weekly. Johannsen vol.
1, p369; Monaghan, 363.
Early Maps of Texas
76 LOPEZ (Tomas).
Atlas Geographico de la America septentrional y meridional.
First edition. Engraved portrait, 31 maps (1 folding) and 7 plans. 16mo. A
fine copy in contemporary calf, gilt.[12], 116pp. Madrid, Casa de Antonio
Sanz Plazuela, 1758.
£8500
A lovely copy of this atlas by one of
the most important eighteenth century Spanish cartographers. In addition to the folding map of the Americas, it includes maps of California,
Florida and an early map of Texas,
“Pays de los Teguas.” The work is
an update of the Spanish-American
Empire and each of the maps are
augmented with information regarding the natural resources of the
area depicted. The information was
compiled from surveys completed by
the relevant parishes. Lopez trained
under the renowned French mapmaker, Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon
d’Anville, and two years after this
publication became the official cartographer to the King. This work is
of additional interest for being compiled during the French and Indian
War, the consequences of which involved France ceding nearly her entire holdings in America and Spain gaining all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi. Medina (BHA) IV, 3859; Palau 140284; Sabin 41999.
NORTH AMERICA
A Beautiful Copy Owned by a Revolutionary War General
77 MANTE (Thomas).
The History of the Late War in North-America, and the Islands
of the West Indies, Including the Campaigns of MDCCLXIII
and MDCCLXIV Against His Majesty’s Indian Enemies.
First edition. 18 folding engraved maps, charts and battle plans. 4to. Contemporary tree calf, back richly gilt. [iv], viii, 542, [1]pp. London, 1772.
£70,000
83
A fine copy with the rare errata slip. This is the most comprehensive and best
illustrated contemporary account of the French and Indian War, and perhaps
also the rarest. Its relative scarcity is all the more surprising given the expense
involved in producing the beautiful and finely engraved maps, many of which
are extremely large. The author, Mante, was Assistant Engineer during the Siege
of Havana, and a Major of Brigade in the Campaign of 1764. He therefore
played no part in the earlier campaigns in the war. Nevertheless, as Field
comments, he made “good use of his opportunities to gain information… [and]
describes with great detail the Campaigns of Washington and Braddock, of
Generals Abercromby and Amherst, and of Colonels Bradstreet and Boquet”.
The introduction gives an account of Washington’s escape from an attempted
assassination by his Indian guide.
Sabin notes, “Copies with all the maps are scarce. It is probable that but few
were printed, though the large and beautiful plans and military maps (which gave
it so great a value) must have made its production a work of much expense.”
78 PRICE (Richard).
Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution
and the Means of Making it Benefit the World.
First edition. 12mo. Modern half calf, red morocco label to spine, gilt,
annotations to title page and ownership inscription to final page. 86, [2]
pp. London, printed: New-Haven, Re-printed by Meigs, Bowen and Dana,
1785.
£500
With the ownership inscription of Roger Skinner, the Federal Court judge from
Litchfield Connecticut. A very good copy of this important British work in
favour of the American Revolution. The first edition was printed in London in
1784; three editions were printed the following year in Boston, Philadelphia and
New Haven. Evans, 19201; Howes, P-85; Sabin, 93937
The maps are as follows: 1. “Fort Beau Sejour, & the adjacent Country Taken
Possession of by Colonel Monckton” 2. “Lake Ontario to the Mouth of the
River St. Lawrence” 3. [Map of Lake George and its environs] 4. “A Plan of
Fort Edward & Its Environs on Hudsons River” 5. “Communication Between
Albany & Oswego” 6. “Attack on Louisbourg” [by Amherst & Boscawen] 7. “The
Attack of Ticonderoga” [by Major General Abercromby] 8. “Plan of Fort Pitt or
Pittsbourg” 9. “Guadaloupe” 10. “Attack on Quebec” [by Wolfe & Saunders]
11. “A Sketch of the Cherokee Country” 12. “The River Saint Lawrence from
Lake Ontario to the Island of Montreal” 13. “A Plan of the Attack upon Fort
Levi” 14. “River St. Lawrence from Montreal to the Island of St. Barnaby.& the
Islands of Jeremy” 15. “A View of the Coast of Martinico Taken by Desire of
Rear Adml Rodney” 16. “Part, of the West Coast, of the Island of Saint Lucia”
17. “Plan of the Retaking Newfoundland” [by Colville & Amherst] 18. “Attack
of the Havanna” [by Albemarle & Pococke].
This copy was owned by Hon. Lt-General George Lane Parker who was the son
of the Second Earl of Macclesfield. Having attended Hertford College (Oxford),
Parker joined the First Foot Guards as a lieutenant in 1749. It’s uncertain whether
he served in the Seven Years War, but emerged from it with the rank of captain
and became colonel of the 20th Foot in 1773. In 1774-5, Parker was considered
too senior (he was 50) to accompany his regiment to America, and “remained at
home helping the government prepare for an ever larger war. He was one of a few
general officers who regularly inspected infantry regiments, and in 1779 he proved
an innovative commander of the forces assembled for training at Warley” (Gruber).
He also served as the MP for Tregony. As is clear from the number of books in
the Macclesfield library bearing his bookplate, Parker was a noted bibliophile.
He is further known to have been active in the sale of a general officer’s library
in June 1773, where he purchased eight books: “Parker bought only books on
war, books of the kind needed only by a discriminating officer who was fluent
in French and who was rounding out his library” (Gruber). Sabin, 44396; Field,
1003; Church, 1092; Howes, M267 (c). Streeter, 1031; Ira Gruber, Books and the
British Army in the Age of the American Revolution (2010), pp112-4.
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Land for Revolutionary War Veterans in the Old Northwest
79 [SACKETT (Nathaniel)]
A Memorial &c.
First edition. Engraved map (Birch sculpt N. York) with outline colour and
ms. addition as issued. 4to. Modern quarter morocco. 11, [1]pp. New York,
S. Kollock opposite the Coffee House, [September,] 1785.
£32,000
This rare tract is the first printed response to the Congressional Ordnance of May
1785 in which the disposal of territory in the “new western lands” was discussed.
Sackett here proposed that he and his co-memorialists, all of whom had to be
single men and veterans of the American cause with testimonials so to prove,
85
should be leased (“on an ear of indian corn annually if demanded”) the land in
question to secure the new northern boundaries against British incursion. The
thrust of his argument is given in summary on the last page: “The Memorial of the
subscribers … praying for a grant of a tract of land, lying between the river Ohio
and Lake Erie, for the purpose of forming immediately a respectable settlement
thereupon; beg leave to represent it as our opinion, That such a grant will be of
productive of essential good consequences to the United States, by securing the
interior country from hostile and rapacious incursions; encouraging and making
more easily practicable a settlement of that country, greatly enhancing the value
of the lands there which will remain the property of the United States, and
thereby rendering them more speedily a more productive fund for the discharge
of our national debt, and other public purposes…” The main body of the text
gives us an outline of the proposed quasi-military constitution of the settlement,
and in the second part a summary of the likely dangers posed by having a hostile
neighbour together with reports indicative of British attempts to destabilise the
area, and further proposing the likelihood of an invasion from the north. We
learn from Finley (U.S. Army Intelligence History: A Sourcebook 21, 1995) that
Sackett had been “particularly successful in ferreting out British agents” and
that he won the notice of Washington for his intelligence work during the War
of Independence. So this line of argument may have carried more weight that it
perhaps deserved.
The map, illustrated in the Streeter sale catalogue, is one of the earliest of
Ohio. It illustrates the site of the intended settlements inland from Sandusky
placed between the shores of Lake Erie and the Ohio River.
In the last hundred years only the trimmed Streeter copy has hitherto appeared
on the market. He bought it in 1944 and it was sold in 1967 for $2800. The
Streeter copy had appended six blank leaves ruled for “signers”, these leaves do
not appear in the collations provided by Evans, Thomson, Sabin and NAIP. This
copy was recently de-acquisitioned from the New Hampshire Historical Society
and bears their label, together with a lightly stamped number on the reverse of
the map. OCLC records 8 copies, while ESTC adds two we have been unable to
verify. Sabin, 74756; Evans, 19232; Thomson, 813.
80 SAINT-AMANT (M. de).
Voyages en Californie
First edition. 2 maps (1 folding) and numerous illustrations to text. 8vo.
Unopened copy in original printed wrappers, some minor foxing. lii, 651,
[blank]pp. Paris, Librairie L. Maison, 1854.
£1000
“The most comprehensive and reliable contemporary French description of
California” (Hill). A lovely copy. Saint-Amant was the French consul at Sacramento,
close to where a number of Frenchmen were employed by the gold mines. In
addition to the long account of his journey into the Oregon Territory, there are
notes on mining, agriculture, natural history and on the native and emigrant
population. The folding map tracks the author’s journey through Oregon. Hill,
1513; Howes, S20; Palau, 285061; Sabin, 74989.
NORTH AMERICA
The Holster Atlas
81 SAYER (Robert) & BENNETT (John).
The American Military Pocket Atlas being an approved
collection of correct maps, both general and particular,
of the British Colonies, especially those which are
now, or probably may be, the theatre of war.
First edition. 6 folding engraved maps, hand-coloured in outline. 8vo. Contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards, maps soiled and frayed at
edges, some discolouration at folds, expertly rebacked. London, Printed for
R. Sayer and J. Bennett, [1776].
£17,500
Published at the behest of Governor
George Pownall, the advertisement clarifies its purpose: “Surveys and Topographical Charts being fit only for a Library, such maps as an Officer may take
with him into the Field have been much
wanted. The following Collection forms
a Portable Atlas of North America, calculated in its Bulk and Price suit the Pockets
of Officers of all Ranks.” The six maps
here represent a distillation of what the
British high command saw as the most
pertinent topographical information for
soldiers and, being issued at the war’s
outset, provides keen insight into how
the British envisioned the war unfolding.
As with this copy, the atlas was usually
folded down to octavo size. Not quite
small enough to fit in a pocket, it was
generally carried in a soldier’s holster and
soon was referred to as the holster atlas.
The six maps are:
1. DUNN (Samuel). “North America,
as Divided Amongst the European Powers. By Samuel Dunn, Mathematician.” Engraved map, hand-coloured in outline
measuring 345 by 465mm. London, printed for Robt. Sayer, Jan. 10, 1774. Engraved for Dunn’s A New Atlas, London, 1774.
2. DUNN (Samuel). “A Compleat Map of the West Indies, Containing the
Coasts of Florida, Louisiana, New Spain, and Terra Firma: with all the Islands.”
Engraved map, hand-coloured in outline measuring 335 by 470mm. London,
Robt. Sayer, Jan. 10, 1774. Engraved for Dunn’s A New Atlas London, 1774.
3. “A General Map of the Northern British Colonies in America. which comprehends the province of Quebec, the Government of Newfoundland, Nova-Scotia,
New- England and New-York. From the Maps Published by the Admiralty and
87
Board of Trade, Regulated by the Astronomic and Trigonometric Observations
of Major Holland and corrected from Governor Pownall’s Late Map 1776.”
Engraved map, hand-coloured in outline measuring 525 by 680mm. London,
Robt. Sayer & Jno. Bennet, Aug. 14, 1776. A very good copy, here in its first state.
The map also issued separately and was re-issued in 1788 with an updated title.
4. EVANS (Lewis). “A General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America
containing Virginia, Maryland, the Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania and New
Jersey with the addition of New York, and the greatest part of New England, as
also of the bordering parts of the Province of Quebec, improved from several
surveys made after the late war, and corrected from Governor Pownall’s Late
Map 1776.” Engraved map, hand-coloured in outline measuring 520 by 680mm.
London, R. Sayer & J. Bennet, Oct. 15, 1776. Based on the 1755 Lewis Evans
map, with subsequent corrections.
5. ROMANS (Bernard). “A general map of the Southern British Colonies, in
America. comprehending North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West
Florida, with the neighbouring Indian countries. From the modern surveys
of Engineer de Brahm, Capt. Collet, Mouzon & others; and from the large
hydrographical survey of the coasts of East and West Florida. By B. Romans.”
Engraved map, hand-coloured in outline measuring 520 by 655mm. London, R.
Sayer & J. Bennett [sic.], 15 October. 1776. Based on charts and maps by Roman
and others.
6. BRASSIER (William Furness). “A Survey of Lake Champlain including Lake
George, Crown Point and St. John, Surveyed by order of … Sr. Jeffery Amherst
… by William Brassier, draughtsman. 1762.” Engraved map, hand-coloured in
outline measuring 710 by 520mm. London, Robt. Sayer & Jno. Bennet, 5 Aug.,
1776. Also issued as the first separately published map of Lake Champlain, this
chart was based on a survey made during the French and Indian War, but not
published until the Revolution. Included is an inset illustrating America’s first
naval battle, in which General Benedict Arnold, though forced back down the
lake, was able to delay the British attempt to descend to the Hudson for that year.
Howes, A208; Nebenzahl Atlas of the American Revolution pp.61-63; Phillips
Atlases, 1206; Sabin, 1147; Schwartz & Ehrenberg, Mapping of America, 190.
The Trans-Atlantic Cable
82 STERETT & BUTLER.
The Celebration in San Francisco, In
Commemoration of the Successful Laying of the
Atlantic Cable Monday 27 September 1858.
Wood engraved broadside measuring 405 by 250mm. Four images surrounded by a border of 35 smaller images. A very good copy with some old
folds and minor stains. San Francisco, Sterett & Butler, 1858.
£1250
Stretching from Valentia Island, Ireland, to Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, the
completion of the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable on August 4, 1858, marked
NORTH AMERICA
a significant advance in communications between Europe and North America,
providing a genuine alternative to the ten day journey by sea. The first message
sent via the cable began “Europe and America are united by Telegraph…”
The second was from Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan. However,
this first instance of the cable soon declined and within three weeks proved
inoperable. Publishers in New York and London were quick to commemorate
the feat and several issued broadsides celebrating the achievement. This appears
to be the only commemorative piece issued on the west coast. The celebration is
described in some detail on the broadside - the people in the street, a procession
of wagons attached by cables, ceremonial speeches and mentions that the British
and French Consulates were illuminated. The event itself was corroborated by a
report in the Daily Alta California. The description is augmented by four large
illustrations of the event, plus the border featuring the seals of the thirty states
of the union, four stars and an unknown portrait. Rare. OCLC locates copies at
the Bancroft and Beinecke only.
83 WHELAND (Captain William).
A Narrative of the Horrid Murder & Piracy Committed
on Board the Schooner Eliza, of Philadelphia, on the high
seas by three foreigners … together with an account of
the surprising recapture of the said schooner, by Captain
Wheland, the only person to escape from their Barbarity.
[bound with]The Last Words and Dying Confession of the
Three Pirates who were executed this day (May 9th, 1800).
First edition. 8vo. Modern quarter calf, gilt label to upper board. 16, 8pp.
[Philadelphia], Folwell’s Press, 1800. £2500
Scarce. Just a single copy has appeared on auction records. The appended Last
Words is also very scarce, with just copies at the LOC and Clements Library
being recorded.
In August 1799, the schooner Eliza left Philadelphia en route to Santo
Domingo. Two weeks into the voyage, the ship was attacked by three pirates Joseph Baker, Peter Lacroix and Joseph Berrouse - posing as crew members. The
success of the raid was somewhat mitigated by the admission that none of the
pirates were able to navigate the ship. In exchange for his life, Captain William
Wheland volunteered to sail the ship on their behalf to the Spanish Main where
they might rendezvous with other pirates and sell the cargo. Wheland probably
thought little of his attackers and even less once he surprised two of them by
locking them in the hold. He then managed to capture the third and chain him
to the ballast for the rest of the voyage. He sailed the Eliza to St. Kitts and
the three men were arrested, returned to Philadelphia, tried and then hanged.
The last words are direct transcripts of letters written by each man to either
brothers or uncles expressing remorse or guilt. Each letter is followed by some
editorial comments attesting to the behaviour of the men in their last hours
and underscoring the severity of their crimes. Evans, 39087 & 37781; Sabin,
103227.
89
ginal red cloth, gilt, with the Norwegian flag on the backs and upper covers,
a very good copy. xxxv, 392; x, 449pp. London, 1912.
£3750
“Amundsen’s modest account of his extraordinary South Pole exploit is a classic
in the exploration literature” (Rosove). Rosove, 9.A1; Spence, 16.
85 [BRITISH ARCTIC EXPLORATION, 1875-76]
[NARES (Capt. George S.)]
Copeland Dinner Bowl.
ALASKA &
THE POLAR REGIONS
Measuring 9 inches diameter. Rope border with expedition crest in the
centre, stamped “Alert” on the verso. London?, 1875.
£2500
A fine example of the expedition’s crockery. Nares was recalled from H.M.S.
Challenger on arrival at Hong Kong in 1874 to lead the British Government’s
Arctic expedition, the aim of which was to reach the Pole by way of Smith Sound.
The expedition was equipped with two ships, Alert and Discovery, and, though
unsuccessful, on May 12, 1876, a sledging party led by Albert Hastings Markham
reached a latitude of 83° 20’26”N, which was a record at that time.
The First Photographs Taken on the Antarctic Continent
86 COLBECK (William, Sub-Lieut. RNR).
A series of small photographs relating to Borchgrevink’s
expedition to Antarctica, 1898-1900, fourteen depicting
scenes on the Southern Continent, the remainder showing
scenes and posed groups aboard the Southern Cross, both
just prior to departure and later in the expedition.
60 photographs in total, measuring 108
by 155mm and smaller. London, 18981900.
£5500
A Beautiful Copy
84 AMUNDSEN (R.)
The South Pole. An Account of the Norwegian
Antarctic Expedition in the “Fram”, 1910-1912.
First English edition. 2 vols. 21 maps and charts, 136 illustrations. 8vo. OriALASKA & POLAR REGIONS
The Antarctic images are taken from the
Southern Cross Expedition, led by Borchgrevink on which Colbeck served as magnetic observer. This expedition wintered over
in the Antarctic and reached latitude 78°50’,
being the southernmost point achieved at
that time. The images include a portrait shot
of Borchgrevink, images of Cape Adare,
the magnetic tent Colbeck used during the
expedition, the Southern Cross itself and
many group portraits onboard. Most of the
Antarctic shots include pictures of the crew
performing their duties, and many feature
the burgee used as a sledge flag. Colbeck was
a member of the Pirate Yacht Club and his
91
Images not to scale
Pristine in the Original Wrappers
87 DUMONT D’URVILLE (Jules Sébastien César).
Voyage au Pôle Sud et dans l’Océanie sur les corvettes
l’Astrolabe et la Zélée, éxecuté par ordre du roi
pendant les années 1837-1838-1839-1840.
First edition. 10 vols. 9 folding maps. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Paris,
Gide, 1841-6.
£5750
A pristine set in the original wrappers.
In 1837, Dumont d’Urville submitted a proposal to continue exploration in the Pacific, however,
mindful of Weddell’s success and
Wilkes’s U.S. Exploring Expedition, he was issued instructions to
explore the Antarctic – with the
ideal aim of claiming the South
magnetic pole. The Astrolabe and
the Zélée made two attempts: first
in 1838, where they reach 64°
South but could not break the
ice pack, and then again in early
1840 where they discovered Adelie Land. In between the expedition
continued to explore the Pacific, visiting the Marquesas, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga,
Guam, Fiji, New Guinea, Borneo, New Zealand and Tasmania.
This set comprises the text volumes only, although includes some of the
earliest maps of the Antarctic. A complete set would include the twelve scientific
volumes and nine atlases. Dumont d’Urville passed away in 1842 before the
complete account was published. The final seven volumes of the text were
edited by Charles Jacquinot, commander of the Zélée. Ferguson, 3184; Hill,
508; Howgego II, D35.
Written in the Ice Cave at Cape Evans
88 LEVICK (Staff-Surgeon G. Murray).
Ms. outline of a novel.
Autograph manuscript in pencil. 4to. 3pp. Some soiling from fingerprints
and old folds. Antarctica, Evans Cove, 1912.
£9500
burgee featured a skull and cross bones. Also included are assorted news clippings:
an obituary of Colbeck, and a picture of Scott’s Discovery departing East India
Dock. There are also two receipts from the Hull General Cemetery Company to
Elizabeth Colbeck for her husband’s interment in the family vault.
ALASKA & POLAR REGIONS
A remarkable survival. George Murray Levick (1876-1956) was appointed surgeon and zoologist on Scott’s Terra Nova expedition. He served as second in
command under Victor Campbell on the Northern Party. While the Polar Party
made their journey south, the Northern Party was instructed to explore the
93
King Edward VII Land. However, unable to find a suitable point to disembark,
they made for the Victoria Land coast. Due to inclement weather and heavy
pack ice, the Terra Nova was unable to collect them and so they were forced to
winter over at Evans Cove with just four weeks rations, which they immediately
supplemented with the penguins and seals they caught. They constructed an
igloo on Inexpressible Island, which included a bathroom and a blubber stove.
It remains one of the most remarkable feats of survival in the Heroic Age and
Levick’s skills as a doctor, diplomat and psychologist played a significant role in
their survival.
Katherine Lambert’s account of the Northern Party, Hell with a Capital H
(2002), recalls how winter evenings were spent and describes the manuscript we
have here: “After the evening hoosh had been consumed and diarists’ work was
done, Levick read a chapter or two of a book aloud to the others, recumbent
in their bags … A picture is conjured up of the five men listening intently in the
darkened cave pierced by pinpricks of light, the two cooks resting their poor
sore eyes and Levick straining to make out the words in the fitful gloom …
Levick, whose literary bent was to find an outlet in his book on Adelie penguins,
started to compose a ‘tale of adventure’ set ‘in the East of the Mediterranean,
where a battleship lies at anchor in Voulah Bay, on the coast of Asia Minor’.
The two heroes are an impoverished submariner (representing the ratings) and
a moustachioed soldier (the officers); a fig tree provides scenery and a beetle
rolling a piece of wood uphill an Aesop element. The story owes its setting to
Levick’s experiences aboard HMS Bulwark, flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet,
and their current expedition also puts in an appearance.”
Ever busy, it was during this time (1910-12) that Levick gathered the information required to complete his work on the Adelie penguin, Antarctic Penguins
(1914). Having survived the winter, the Northern Party made their way back
overland on September 30. They reached Cape Evans on November 7 where they
learned the sad fate of Scott and the Polar Party.
Scott Family Copy
89 LEVICK (Dr. G.)
Antarctic Penguins. A Study of their Social Habits.
First edition. Numerous illustrations. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth, staining
to front and back cover. x, 140pp. London, 1914.
£1250
Levick was a Naval surgeon who accompanied Scott on his last voyage as
medical officer and zoologist. He compiled the information for this study in the
summer of 1911-12 at Cape Adare. This was not only the most extensive study
of the Adelie penguins but the first to have observed an entire breeding cycle.
This copy is further distinguished in being owned by Lady Ellison Macartney,
Scott’s sister. It bears her ownership inscription to the front free endpaper, a
printed announcement and service from Levick’s wedding and a condolence
card. Spence, 705.
ALASKA & POLAR REGIONS
90 [LOVE (Mary).]
A Peep at the Esquimaux; or Scene on the Ice. To
which is annexed, A Polar Pastoral. With forty coloured
plates, from original Designs. By a Lady.
Second edition. 40 hand coloured illustrations 12mo. Original dark red roanbacked marbled boards. viii, 58, [4]ads.pp. London, 1828.
£3000
A very good copy of this popular work, being a collection of linked poems interleaved with lovely woodcuts depicting Eskimo life. The first edition was published
in 1825, subsequent editions appeared in 1830 and 1833.
On Board the Discovery
91 MURRAY (George).
The Antarctic Manual for the use of the Expedition of 1901.
First edition. Numerous illustration in text, maps at rear. 8vo. Original blue
cloth, gilt and blind-stamped, worn, a little shaken. xvi, 586pp. London,
1901.
£7500
Albert Armitage’s copy. His inscription on the
half-title reads: “Albert Armitage 31st July,
1901 Antarctic Exploring Ship ‘Discovery’.”
Armitage was Scott’s navigator and secondin-command on the Discovery expedition.
He distinguished himself in leading a party
of twelve on a 52 day round trip reaching
the summit plateau of Victoria Land which
stood 9000 ft above sea level. Interestingly,
most of the rumours of animosity between
Scott and Shackleton generate from Armitage’s account of the voyage in his autobiography, Cadet to Commodore, published in 1925. This work includes a translation of Dumont d’Urville and the first publication of Biscoe’s journal of the
discovery of Enderby Land. There is also an excellent bibliography. Spence, 829.
92 NANSEN (Fridtjof).
“Farthest North”. Being the Record of a Voyage of
Exploration of the Ship Fram 1893-96 and of a Fifteen
Month’s Sleigh Journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johansen
with an Appendix by Otto Sverdrup Captain of the Fram.
First English edition. 2 vols. Portrait frontispiece, 4 large coloured folding
maps, 16 colour and several other plates, with numerous illustrations in
the text. 8vo. Fine original green pictorial cloth, gilt. xvi, 510; xvi, 672pp.
London, 1897.
£425
95
Nansen’s voyage in the Fram captured the world’s imagination and publications
of his exploits were exceedingly popular. Having traversed Greenland on skis
with three Norwegians and two Sami, he came up with a plan to reach the
North Pole by allowing a purpose built ship to drift in the ice from East to West.
Launched in 1892, the Fram was built by Norway’s renowned shipbuilder Colin
Archer (his parents were Scots) to withstand the great pressures of the Arctic ice,
and designed so that it would be lifted out of the water rather than be crushed
by the expanding ice. Setting out in 1893, Captain Otto Sverdrup of the Fram
steered a course for the waters North of Siberia where, as Nansen had planned,
the ship was trapped in the ice. It soon became evident however that the ice
would bring the ship too far south, and so Nansen and Lieut. Johansen set out
to ski to the North Pole. Although drifting ice and shortages of food prevented
them reaching their destination, they did travel closer to the North Pole than
anyone had managed previously. So, having decided to turn back the two men
were forced to travel across the ice to Franz Joseph Land where they managed
to meet up with an English expedition led by Frederick George Jackson, who
took them back to Norway, to national and international acclaim as great Polar
explorers. The Fram meantime returned safely to Kristiania (Oslo) in September,
1896 with no loss of life.
in exploration though found it difficult to secure funding to mount his own
expeditions. In 1840 he charted Cumberland Sound (which he inadvertently
believed to have discovered himself) and in 1847 and 1849 tried to sail through
and make contact with Franklin’s missing ships.
With the support of Lady Franklin, In 1850-1, Penny led one of many expeditions in the search for John Franklin. Equipped with two ships, the Lady
Franklin and Sophia, his search was simultaneous with that of John Ross and
Capt. Horatio Austin. The three parties agreed to search different areas, Penny
heading to Wellington Channel. In August, Penny reported to Austin his opinion
that Franklin had sailed through the channel and a terrible quarrel broke out
between the two men. Incredibly, this led to both parties abandoning their search
and returning to the UK. An inquiry followed, and although Penny was broadly
uncensored, his reputation never properly recovered and this was his final part
in the search for Franklin.
Pearce was friends with Colonel John Barrow, who commissioned him to
paint a portrait of “The Arctic Council discussing a plan of search for Sir John
Franklin,” which he completed in 1851. In addition to this, he painted portraits
of Robert McClure, George Nares, Leopold McClintock and William Penny in
full Arctic gear.
Presentation Copy
A Rare Copy of the Special Issue
93 PARRY (William Edward).
Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a NorthWest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; performed in the
years 1821-22-23, in His Majesty’s Ships Fury and Hecla.
First edition. 40 engraved maps, charts and views. 4to. Contemporary calf,
expertly rebacked with contemporary-style endpapers. [viii], xxx, 571pp.
London, 1824.
£3250
Inscribed in the author’s hand: “Thomas Martyn Esq., With the Author’s kind
regards”. Parry had already sailed to the Arctic with Ross before setting out on
the first of his three voyages, during which he discovered Melville Island and
made extensive meteorological observations. On this his second voyage Parry
was iced up, as before, for several months and was therefore able to make various
land excursions, during which he made an extensive study of the Eskimos and
their life - well illustrated in the plates. Sabin, 58861; Hill, 1312.
95 PHIPPS (Constantine).
A Voyage towards the North Pole.
First edition. 3 folding maps and 12 engraved folding plates (including
views and diagrammatic plates). With tables (some folding). 4to. Fine contemporary calf. viii, 253pp, [binder’s directions]pp. London, 1774. £4000
A lovely copy of the special issue with two of the maps printed on different paper
stock. Departing in 1733, Phipp’s led the Racehorse and Carcass in search of a
route to India via the Arctic. It was the first expedition to specifically set out for
the North Pole since 1615 and they reached as far as 80°48’ before being blocked
by the ice north of Spitzbergen. The work includes valuable scientific results
obtained on the expedition and a description of the successful efforts to distill
sea water into drinking water. Horatio Nelson (then 14) served as a midshipman
aboard. Hill, 1351; Sabin, 62572.
96 PONTING (Herbert G.)
94 PEARCE (Stephen).
This Portrait of Captain Penny…
Mezzotint measuring 580 by 420mm. Some wear and minor tears to margins,
not affecting the image. London, Henry Graves, 1863.
£2250
Born in Scotland, William Penny (1809-92) was just 12 when he made his first
whaling voyage on his father’s ship Alert. He became increasingly interested
ALASKA & POLAR REGIONS
The Great White South Being an account of
Experiences with Captain Scott’s South Pole Expedition
and of the Nature of Life of the Antarctic.
Fifth edition. Numerous photographic plates. 8vo. Original pale blue cloth.
xxvi, 306pp. London, 1923.
£100
97
A Haunting Record of a Vanished Community
97 SCHMIDT (Christian) et al.
Inuit archive.
32 original photographs: 20 silver prints, 2 cyanotypes, 10 albumen cabinet
cards and two postcards. Various sizes, each laid down on paper. Okak and
Makkovik, Labrador, Canada, 1896-1907.
£8750
The photographs in this collection are a poignant record of a lost community:
in 1918 Spanish influenza claimed the lives of 161 of Okak’s population of 220.
First edition. 2 vols. Numerous illustrations etc. Good original cloth. xlviii,
372; xvi, 419pp. London, 1909.
£950
A very good copy of Shackleton’s account of the Nimrod expedition. Although,
they failed to reach the pole, the expedition did reach the magnetic south pole,
successfully ascended Mount Erebus and surveyed the active volcano on Ross
Island.
100 SHACKLETON (Sir Ernest).
South. The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition 1914-1917.
The town of Okak, in Northern Labrador, was founded in 1776 by Jens Haven
of the Moravian Church. The Moravian Church also founded the nearby town
of Makkovik in 1896. These missionary stations doubled up as trading posts.
Twice a year a missionary ship would arrive in Okak to deliver supplies to the
community – also to take away the seal skins and other Inuit products which
were sold to fund the mission and other facilities in the town. The ship’s arrival
was a big event for the remote community; the crew would be greeted with great
excitement and most of the town’s inhabitants would board the ship at some
point whilst it was in harbour. Tragically, in 1918, the ship brought with it an
unwelcome cargo – Spanish influenza. The population was ravaged by the virus,
leaving the survivors at the mercy of their hungry dogs and the harsh climate.
The mission was abandoned in 1919, with survivors relocating to Makkovik
and other nearby settlements. The wharf, a few building foundations and the
graveyard are all that remain of the mission today. The photographs in this
collection record Okak’s inhabitants before the arrival of influenza; there are
views of the school and its pupils, family portraits, group shots and topographical
views. One of the portraits bears the ink stamp of Christian Schmitt on the
reverse. Schmitt [1868-1933] was a Moravian missionary and trade inspector,
stationed at nearby Hopedale, Labrador. [see inside back cover for illustration]
First edition. Large folding coloured map and numerous illustrations. Tall
8vo. Original pictorial cloth, blocked in silver, a bit worn xxii, 376pp.
London, 1919.
£2500
The Facsimile Edition
A Beautiful Copy
98 [SHACKLETON (Ernest)].
Aurora Australis.
Facsimile edition. 4to. Quarter calf over plywood boards with sign of the
penguin stamp to upper board, in the publisher’s plywood box. Auckland,
SeTo Publishing, 1988.
£1500
Facsimile edition of the “Julienne Soup” copy held at the Alexander Turnbull
Library, Wellington, New Zealand. Number 37 of 375.
99 SHACKLETON (Sir Ernest).
The Heart of the Antarctic Being the Story of the
British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909.
ALASKA & POLAR REGIONS
Perhaps the greatest of all Antarctic adventures, it stands along with Scott’s
Last Expedition as one of the twin pillars of the Heroic Age. Having watched
Amundsen claim the Pole for Norway, Shackleton determined there was one
last great expedition to be undertaken and his Trans-Antarctic expedition set
out to be the first to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. Far from completing
the 1800 mile journey, Shackleton’s crew didn’t even reach the mainland. The
Endurance was trapped and later crushed by the ice. “Shackleton now showed
his supreme qualities of leadership. With five companions he made a voyage of
800 miles in a 22-foot boat through some of the stormiest seas in the world,
crossed the unknown lofty interior of South Georgia, and reached a Norwegian
whaling station on the north coast. After three attempts. Shackleton succeeded
(30 August 1916) in rescuing the rest of the Endurance party and bringing them
to South America” (DNB).
Owing to paper shortages at the close of the First World War, this first edition
was printed on poor quality paper and is thus prone to browning. Conrad p. 224;
Spence 1107; Taurus 105.
101
SNOW (W. Parker)
Voyage of the Prince Albert in Search of Sir John Franklin:
A Narrative of Everyday Life in the Arctic Seas.
First edition. Folding map (outer edge strengthened) and 4 chromolithographic plates. A fine, bright copy in the original cloth, gilt. 8vo. xvi, 416pp.
London, Longman et al, 1851.
£2750
“Journal of an expedition, June-September 1850, under Captain C. C. Forsyth,
sponsored by Lady Franklin, which the author accompanied, acting as the ship’s
doctor. Describes in detail the voyage around Baffin Bay, through Lancaster Sound,
Barrow Strait, entering into Wellington Channel, Prince Regent Inlet, landing at
Cape Riley, etc; comments on encounters with other Franklin search ships in the
area, descriptions of ice conditions, navigation, etc.” Snow had in fact approached
99
Images not to scale
Lady Franklin with the intention of leading his own search expedition for her
late husband. Although his offer was refused, he was instead made second in
command of Forsyth’s. His account is an edited version of his diary. Abbey, 638;
Arctic Bib, 16362; Lande, S2105; National Maritime Museum I 906; Sabin 85560.
102 WILD (Commander Frank).
Shackleton’s Last Voyage. The Story of the “Quest”.
First edition. Coloured frontispiece and 100 plates. 8vo. Fine original
pictorial cloth, gilt. xvi, 372pp. London, Cassell, 1923.
£500
The voyage of the Quest marks the end of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration.
Led by Ernest Shackleton, this account includes extracts from the diary he
kept from 24-28 September, 1921 and 1-4 January, 1922, as well as a poem.
Furthermore, there is the official narrative of the Quest expedition drawn from
the diaries of Alexander Macklin and James Marr. The scientific results all appear
in the appendices. Wild and Worsley were both members of Shackleton’s TransAntarctic Expedition, 1914-17, and Wild takes the opportunity to remark on that,
especially concerning the trek across Elephant Island. Rosove, 349.A1.
Item 97, Schmidt, p.98
ALASKA & POLAR REGIONS