Published to accompany our Book of the month is our December Acquisitions list, describing the small but select collection of Sydney-related material put together by Andrew Tink while writing his new biography of Lord Sydney here . This is a collection of books and manuscripts associated with Lord Sydney and his forebears, and thus closely associated with the naming of our great city.

Thomas, widely known as Tommy, Townshend, eventually Baron and later Viscount Sydney, was the most significant of the proponents of the plan to send the First Fleet to Botany Bay, and the man for whom Sydney Cove was named by Governor Phillip. As Home Secretary in Pitt's government Sydney was the first to announce George III's decision to send out the First Fleet in August 1786. He was directly responsible for the choice of Phillip to command the fleet and to be the colony's first governor. He took an enlightened view to the penal settlement, and much of the philosophy of government practised by Governor Phillip can be attributed to his influence.

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 Our new list describes the books we will be exhibiting at the Hong Kong book fair which opens Friday 2 December. It includes a number of important early works on China and the Far East, among them the first European edition of Confucius, works on China by early Jesuit writers, significant editions of the two earliest travellers to go far towards the east, Marco Polo and Mandeville. Books describing the wider region include the remarkable account by Francis Garnier of the French expedition to explore the Mekong River. Our display will also feature an exceptionally rare xylographic printing from Macao (Tavares, Jornada, 1718).
An extraordinary manuscript, Kankai Ibun, heavily illustrated, describes the adventures of shipwrecked Japanese sailors who were rescued and taken to St Petersburg at the close of the 18th century where they saw things that astonished them including hot-air balloons (the first Russian ascent) and the giant globe at the Kunstkammer; they then joined the Krusenstern expedition and their account contains exceptional original images of the Pacific. A small number of manuscript accounts of their experiences like this circulated in Japan many decades before their story made it into print.

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Our new list includes highlights such as the remarkable recipe for brewing beer written by First Fleeter Jacob Nagle, and a fascinating letter from Sir Joseph Banks to the publisher Mary Boydell regarding John Webber's image of the death of Captain Cook. There is a good selection of interesting manuscripts, including two written by a prospective settler in New Zealand in 1840, George Heggie; and two letters from Sir William Parry to the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry; there is also a very rare German-fantasy about the fate of La Pérouse with a terrific map of the North Pole; a presentation copy of Major James Wallis' important book of views of Sydney and Newcastle, the Historical Account of the Colony of New South Wales (1821); as well as attractive copies of classic Pacific voyage accounts such as the English edition of artist Jacques Arago's account of the Freycinet voyage and the biography of Cook by Andrew Kippis.

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A selection of Australian and Pacific portraits, including the wonderful Marony painting of the bushranger Dan "Mad Dog" Morgan, depicted on the cover. There are also stately portraits of the aristocrats who gave their names to Sydney, Hobart, and Melbourne; an interesting group of officers from the Baudin voyage including the second commander Hamelin and the important scientist François Péron; an unusual portrait of Sir Joseph Banks and his mistress; a lovely miniature of James Poate who sailed with Colnett to the Pacific in 1786; three First Fleet officers including the portrait of Lieutenant Watts that was issued too late to be included in the first edition of Phillip's Voyage; and two wonderful images of New South Wales Aborigines by Freycinet voyage artists Jacques Arago and Alphonse Pellion.

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Our August list. Featuring a lovely set of the first Spanish edition of the Endeavour voyage of Captain Cook; a rare Boston-printed almanac with a simple woodblock plate based on Parkinson's drawings of Maoris and Australian Aborigines; an important letter from Captain James King, surviving commander of Cook's third voyage, regarding publication of the official account; a remarkable pen and ink sketch of a Papuan skull-idol collected during the 1825 voyage of Duperrey; an album of Regency sheet music originally from Old Government House; a group of rare books and prints relating to the La Pérouse voyage, including William West's "Toy Theatre" characters and Alessandro Sanquirico's beautiful aquatint of the staging of the "ballet-pantomime" based on the loss of the French voyager; and a small archive of material relating to the "founder" of Queensland, Captain Patrick Logan, including his original commission as Lieutenant

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A collection of Sydney-printed works before 1860, chiefly from the collection of Robert Edwards AO, whose marvellous library will be offered for sale by Hordern House over the next year. The list includes: a superb copy of Busby and Goderich's letter to the Chiefs of New Zealand from the collection of the Reverend William Colenso; a volume including two early works published by Ralph Mansfield, the first on the terrible drought of the late 1820s; the first anniversary address of the [Royal] Agricultural Society by Barron Field; the first Church of England hymn book printed in Australia, a presentation copy from Governor Darling to his brother-in-law;  important books such as the Brockett account of the Torres Strait with Fernyhough's lithographic illustrations; as well as many other pamphlets, almanacs and travel accounts.

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A more than usually broad-ranging list of new acquisitions. A few highlights include: a lovely Dutch edition of Anson with handsome plates; a particularly rare view of the Gostwyck estate in the Hunter, circa 1835; a very rare handbill for one of the first Australian panoramas exhibited in London; one of the rarest of all Australian accounts, Pelletier-Merland's history of the seventeen years he spent with an Aboriginal tribe in Cape York in the 1850s and 60s; a very well-preserved copy of Charles Troedel's "New South Wales Album"; a fascinating manuscript in Louis de Freycinet's hand detailing his reading of the works of James Busby; a handsome set of Ellis' account of Cook's third voyage, one of the best illustrated of the unofficial accounts; the manuscript appointing Georg Forster to the Carolinum College in Kassel in 1778; and a well-executed sketch by S.T. Gill of "South Creek" (now Badgery's Farm).

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A remarkable group of twenty-three unrecorded photographs of Gallipoli in 1915, including images of Australian soldiers preparing to go ashore on April 25 taken from on board one of the supporting destroyers, HMS Beagle. This remarkable find, recently discovered in the UK and never before published, is a real contribution to the history of Gallipoli, particularly the naval aspects of the campaign from April to December 1915, because the Beagle remained in the Dardanelles for its duration.

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Our acquisitions list for April features a selection of chiefly maritime and voyage accounts, including: a wonderful two-colour broadside from the 1820s telling a tale of shipwreck and cannibalism on the Brig George; Thomas Earnshaw's marvellous account of chronometer-building, with a printed letter from William Bligh and notes on the Investigator voyage; an imaginary voyage written by "Ohmiah"; a remarkably appealing set of Cook's third voyage written for children; the first account of Cook's third voyage published in Germany; a particularly handsome large paper copy of William Falconer's The Shipwreck bound for Frances Richardson Currer; Arago's whimsical account of the Freycinet expedition written without the letter "a"; a casually malicious letter from Laurence Hynes Halloran to Alexander Macleay; and a wonderful woodcut print depicting the Tolpuddle martyrs being redeemed while British MPs are shipped off to Botany Bay.

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Our list for March has the theme of "Women in Australia & the Pacific", and features a diverse selection. Highlights include a rare autograph letter by Rose de Freycinet; a wonderful broadside listing the crimes of three of the women convicts sent to Botany Bay on the Lady Juliana; the first published account of the First Fleet by a woman, published in May 1789 in the London Chronicle; three unpublished manuscripts of children's books by Ethel Jackson Morris; a charming pencil sketch by Ann Piper, wife of John and a celebrated figure of the early colony; and a beautiful watercolour of the Blue Mountains by the early colonial painter Eliza Thurston.

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Our first acquisitions list for 2011 includes important manuscript letters by James Taylor, the Hunter businessman known as "Lord Morpeth" and by Wiliam Williamson, a confidence man and chancer as he waited to sail to Tasmania in 1820; a beautiful collapsible globe with its accompanying booklet by Augustin Legrand; a remarkable keepsake album of sketches made by Parisian artist Charles Capellaro during his exile to New Caledonia in 1874-1877; Kittlitz's rare account of the Lutke voyage with an autograph letter tipped in; a lovely original copy of Lasteyrie du Saillant's standard work on the merino; the very rare Melbourne-printed satire of emigration to Victoria, The Travels and Adventures of Mr. Newchamp; and four remarkable and very early stereoscope photographs of Melbourne and Victoria circa 1865, apparently not recorded.

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This month's acquisitions list is devoted to the only two works by John Gould on Australian animals, here offered together.
The set includes a copy of his work on kangaroos in the original printed boards, together with a handsome set of Gould's Mammals in a glorious green morocco binding.
The Kangaroos, like Gould's other monumental books on Australian natural history, was issued by subscription, and the Prospectus lists just eighty-four names, which must account for the book's rarity on the market today.
The Mammals is one of the finest of all Gould's folios and the most visually stunning natural history of Australian animals ever issued.

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A Natural History collection. This month's list includes a copy of Richardson on the zoology of Captain Beechey's voyage to the Pacific; a remarkable set of Philip Miller's Gardener's and Botanist's Dictionary in the "South Seas" edition; a charming copy of The Tower Menagerie; a marvellous sketch made by voyage artist Jacques Arago on the Uranie; handsome copies of natural history handbooks by Duchesne & Macquer, and Edward Donovan; two interesting works on the Giant Moa of New Zealand; fine plates from Gould's birds; an important offprint by Everard Home, the first scientific notice of the echidna; and the rare German-language prospectus issued by the South Australia Company to encourage German settlers to the region.

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This month's list takes as its subject Ships and Shipwrecks. Some of the highlights include: the marvellous world map of Giko Yamazaki in the 1834 Dai Nihon vochi benran; two very fine colour lithographs of HMS Mæander after Sir Oswald Brierly; a handsome copy of Josiah Burchett's 1720 history of the Most Remarkable Transactions at Sea in panelled calf; a very good copy of the rare whaling work on the wreck of the Essex by Owen Chase; attractive copies of both the English and French editions of Peter Dillon's work on the discovery of the wrecks of the La Pérouse expedition; Thomas Martyn's address on the Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture; a fine mezzotint portrait of John Bird, inventor of the mural quadrant; and good copies of the Tegg pamphlets for the loss of the Guardian and the Porpoise & Cato.

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Our Acquisitions list for August features a diverse list of items. Highlights include a very rare early temperance broadside warning backsliders about the danger of being transported to Botany Bay; an excellent copy of Captain James Colnett's scarce account of his voyage to the Pacific in the 1790s; a wonderful 1850s broadside advertising a panoramic lecture series on Australia by James Brice; the illustrated account of the disastrous Swedish 1897 balloon expedition to the North Pole; John Hill's marvellous satire, A Review of the Works of the Royal Society of London; a rare printed edict establishing the Italian consulate in Australia; a very good copy of Chowbokiana, an 1875 pro-Maori booklet by Thomas H. Cockburn-Hood; and an excellent copy of the genuine first edition of James O'Hara's 1817 History of New South Wales.

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In honour of the 2010 bicentenary of Lachlan Macquarie, our acquisitions list for July features a selection of books and prints relating to Phillip Parker King and his circle. King, son of the early Governor Philip Gidley King, is one of the great figures in Australian exploration, and was actively supported by Macquarie, who quickly realised the importance of accurate charting. This list features items from King's major commands, including the account of the voyage of the Beagle; his account of his four voyages on the Mermaid and Bathurst; a fine set of William Jackson Hooker's Exotic Flora, the only major natural history work to include a specimen collected by Cunningham when he sailed with King, as well as several other Australian specimens; a very rare pilot of South American written by King and Fitzroy; two works from King's own library, including Burney's indispensable compendium of voyages; and a fine original sketch by Philip Gidley King.

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Our May list includes an interesting selection of 41 items relating to Australian Aborigines. There is a fine separately issued print after John Lewin of Yango Mungo Ye Yau Go of the Bathurst PLains; one of the very rare editions in English of the Reverend John Brady's vocabulary of Western Australia; the English editon of Crozet's voyage, which includes an account of the Tasmanian aborigines; an early copy of Governor Davey's famous proclamation; a Geelong-printed carte-de-visite of a family group, likely from the region; a lovely French album by Legrand with images based on Field's Foreign Field Sports; a lovely copy of Daniel Bunce's Language of the Aborigines in the original orange-printed paper boards; and David Carnegie's own copy, with the chapters sometimes suppressed, of Walter Roth's Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines.

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The acquisitions list for May features a collection of rare Australian and Pacific portraits. There is a skilful watercolour of Augustus Leopold Kuper, who served under Captain Bremer in the Port Essington settlement; a wonderful and very rare engraving of Sir William Jackson Hooker, the great botanist and successor to Sir Joseph Banks; a fine early work on the Marist missions in the Pacific in the late 1840s by Leopold Verguet; a separately-issued portrait of the botanist on the Flinders voyage, Robert Brown; as well as scarce carte-de-visite photographs of prominent early Australians including Sir Thomas Gore Brown, the actor Grace Egerton, and the banjo-playing minstrel Hosea Easton.

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Our acquisitions list for April is a fine collection of goldfields material. A highlight is the very rare Chinese-language broadside printed by the government printer in Melbourne John Ferres; there is also the fine Six Views of the Gold Fields of Ophir by George Angas; a charming copy of Edward Wilson's Rambles at the Antipodes with illustrations by S.T. Gill; John Leech's wonderful cartoon 'Alarming Prospect. The Single Ladies off to the Diggings'; a fine nineteenth-century goldfields oil painting by Edwin Stocqueler; a very rare image of the Victorian goldfields display at the International Exhibition of 1862; and a fine copy in wrappers of David Tulloch's Five Views of the Gold Fields.

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Our acquisitions list for March has an interesting and varied selection of items, including: the very rare printed letters sent to sea captains in 1800 by the founders of the Admiralty Chart, asking for all new information to be forwarded and promising that contributors will have their names published; an eighteenth-century astronomical work from the library of great marine watchmaker John Harrison, inventor of the marine chronometer, with his signature and bookplate; a fine watercolour of ships among icebergs firmly attributed to George Tobin; four of the fundamental parliamentary acts relating to the establishment of New South Wales, 1784-1787, from the library of Bernard Gore Brett; an early letter by George Fitzroy about the AJC at Homebush; a racy letter from a young naval officer written after his day at the inaugural Perth Cup; an exceedingly rare Italian history of performances at La Scala in Milan, with notice of a ballet based on the death of Captain Cook; and a candid photograph of the crew of HMS Penguin, taken shortly after the vessel completed its survey of the Great Barrier Reef.

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Our acquisitions list for February 2010 previews material we will be showing at the Los Angeles International Antiquarian Book Fair 12-14 February. Included are a number of rarities relating to Cook’s voyages, among them the “Courage and Perseverance” medal struck soon after Cook’s death, Pringle’s Discourse of 1776 announcing Cook’s successes against scurvy, and Maskelyne’s Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris 1769, a copy of which was of great consequence to Cook’s first voyage. Manuscripts include “Foul weather Jack” Byron’s original order book kept by him during several of his commands (despite other myths this was the Byron for whom Captain Cook named Cape Byron and Byron Bay); while other printed books range from the fine Sir Thomas Phillipps copy of Argensola’s Conquista de las Islas Molucas 1609 in 18th century morocco to Sharp’s English Alphabet, For the Use of Foreigners 1786, the book written to teach English to the Tahitian Omai.

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Our November list features a particularly diverse selection, including a lovely set of William Ellis's surreptitious account of Cook's third voyage; an interesting early letter between two early Sydney traders, Robert Brooks and Ranulph Dacre; a law book from the library of Barron Field; a fascinating 1812 publication with 'Fragments for a future History of Botany Bay' including letters from Samuel Marsden and two letters from a failed entrepreneur in Port Phillip; a very rare Dublin edition of the suppressed account of the Anson voyage by Alexander Campbell; a handsome example of the silver medal struck in honour of Admiral Anson's achievements; and the uncommon coloured edition of Alfred J. North's catalogue of the nests and eggs of Australian birds in an extraordinary craft binding.

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This month's acquisitions list includes a selection of Pacific voyage books and prints drawn chiefly from the Robert and Mary Anne Parks collection. The list includes excellent copies of some of the standard reference works, including fine sets of Beaglehole's Journals of Captain James Cook; Commander David's Charts and Coastal Views of Captain Cook's Voyages; Joppien and Smith's wonderful Art of Captain Cook's Voyages; the rare deluxe large-paper edition of Wharton's journal of Cook's first voyage; as well as other works by Rolf du Rietz, Ray Parkin, and Raleigh Skelton. There are besides several real highlights, notably a fine copy of the Duff voyage account of Wilson and Morrison; a signed copy of Major's study of Early Voyages to Terra Australis; a particularly handsome set of the Vancouver voyage account; and a wonderful Dodd engraving of "The Spanish Insult to the British Flag at Nootka Sound", one of the finest eighteenth-century depictions of the northwest coast of America.

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A diverse and interesting list, including a remarkably early work on the platypus with a fine engraved plate of the skeleton of a specimen sent back to Europe; a lovely copy of the Polyhistor of 1538, with its suite of important maps by Sebastian Münster; an uncommon French edition of the voyages of Byron; a very rare presentation copy of a work by Gilbert Blane; a lovely copy of Josenhans' remarkable colour-plate view-book including scenes in the American Northwest and New Zealand; a very attractive copy of the only work published by Governor Macquarie; a handsome and early creamware jug decorated with 'A Map of the World from the Latest Discoveries'; and an attractive set of Frederick McCoy's important work of natural history, the Prodromus of the zoology of Victoria.

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Our July list features an interesting collection of natural history. Included is a very good copy of Busby's influential Australian wine-book, A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine; a lovely set of John Ray's Historia Plantarum Generalis, the first botanical text to include a description of the plants collected by William Dampier; a suite of manuscript material relating to John Gould's last works; two important monographs on kapa and tapa cloth by William T. Brigham and Paul Hambruch; Rothschild's beautifully illustrated monograph on the tree kangaroo of northern Australia and Papua New Guinea; and an excellent handcoloured copy of John White's Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales.

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Our acquisitions list for June is a fine collection of Pacific Voyage Books from a Private Collection. The list includes a good set of James Burney's monumental Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean, handsome copies of both the first and greatly expanded second edition of Sydney Parkinson's journal of the Endeavour voyage, John Webber's magnificent plate book of Views in the South Seas, the ten-volume Histoire du Voyage printing the full narrative of the 1837-40 voyage of Dumont-Durville, excellent copies of the voyage accounts of both La Perouse and d'Entrecasteaux, the latter in the original mottled green paper boards, and an autograph letter from Lord Sandwich, the patron of Captain Cook.

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Our acquisitions list for the month of May concentrates on that great 18th/19th century figure Sir Joseph Banks, long-term President of the Royal Society, a  towering figure in intellectual and scientific England, and a famous member of Cook's first voyage. Many at the time thought of it as his, not Cook's, expedition and it was often referred to it as "Banks' voyage". Closely involved in the discovery of the east coast of Australia and subsequently highly influential in the decision to make settlements there, he thoroughly deserves the informal title long awarded him of "Father of Australia".

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A fine selection of books from a gentleman's library. Highlights include Charles Chewings's Adelaide-published pamphlet on the source of the Finke River; a beautifully bound set of Georg Forster's account of Cook's second voyage; Edmund Fanning's rare Voyage Round the World of 1833; two rare works relating to the Australian expeditions of John Forrest; uncommon accounts of Leichhardt by Daniel Bunce and John F. Mann; a volume of Northern Territory reports prepared for Earl Kintore, Governor of South Australia; and a striking copy of Wallis's famous view book, the Historical Account of the Colony of New South Wales.

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Our first list for 2009 includes an interesting and very diverse selection. A highlight is the very good set of Sharp's important work of Hawaiian natural history, the Fauna Hawaiiensis; and there is also a very attractive first edition in English of the Langsdorff voyage account of Krusenstern's circumnavigation on the Neva. There is a handsome copy of both volumes of the seventeenth-century travel accounts of Pedro Cubero, who journeyed around the world in the 1670s; a very fine copy of Kittlitz's account of the Pacific voyage of Lütke, known for its natural history; and the wonderfully eccentric map books of Joachim Lelewel, a pioneer work on cartography that is rarely seen complete.

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Our October acquistions list takes the theme of Gold in Australia. The highlight is undoubtedly a fine 1855 watercolour of the Government Camp in Ballarat, painted by Captain Justin McCarthy, an officer of the 40th Regiment, just one year after the suppression of Eureka and one of the earliest extant images of this important site. There is a good copy of Gill’s Victoria Illustrated, a rare 1853 Danish handbook for emigrants, a contemporary manuscript cartoon of a nugget displayed in Melbourne (the image was later published in the Illustrated London News), and an excellent copy of J.C.F. Johnson’s To Mount Brown and Back in its original pictorial wrappers.

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An attractive list including a rarely seen map of Australian waters which shows two manuscript voyage tracks (of the Neptune and the Barque Eagle) in the 1830s and 1840s, a handsome prize medal for lithography awarded to Edward Gilks in 1854, William Dampier's Continuation of a Voyage in a beautiful contemporary binding, a suite of design documents for the missionary steamer Southern Cross which foundered off the east coast of New Zealand in 1860, and a particularly handsome copy of Smith and Sowerby's Exotic Botany

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The third Hordern House list in our new format. This diverse list includes the very rare 1693 Nouvelle geographie of Martiny with a significant note on "Terra Australis", Threlkeld's important compendium An Australian Language, a French surveying and topographical work said to be from Phillip Parker King's library, a friendly letter from Charles Duffy to Sir Henry Parkes, a fine set of the unusual "Anspach" edition of Cook's third voyage in German, and Westall's beautiful Views of Australian Scenery in its original decorative wrappers.

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The second Hordern House list in our new format, designed to suit screen or print alike. This eclectic list includes a splendid copy of Erasmus Darwin's eccentric Zoonomia, a French cartoon lampooning popular publishing and plagiarised voyage books from around 1800, a handsome copy of the first edition of Shillibeer's rare Narrative of the Briton's Voyage to Pitcairn's Island, and a fine Wegdwood portrait medallion of Dr John Fothergill, patron of Sydney Parkinson.

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Hordern House is delighted to present our latest acquisitions list, the first to be issued in our new format, which is designed to suit screen or print alike. This list of 24 rarities includes a wonderful pamphlet on fishes collected during the Beagle voyage, an exceptional copy of Kerguelen’s voyage in search of Terre Australe, and an almost unrecorded Arthur Rackham title with its original printed envelope, sent to South Australia around 1910.

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