OUR NEW CATALOGUE includes some fine illustrated natural history material, literature and travel. Some of the catalogue items are examined in more detail on our website here . There are links to the relevant pages in the catalogue.

This catalogue describes French voyage books associated with the "grands voyages", the major French enterprises of discovery and exploration of the early nineteenth century, dating from Baudin’s voyage at the start of the century and closing with Dumont d’Urville’s second voyage, completed in 1840. These form part of the collection of a long-term client and friend of Hordern House, with a few additions; their collection has been assembled over several decades, with books acquired from ourselves as well as from other specialist dealers.

The 1821 French edition of Krusenstern’s world voyage puts us in mind of a Pacific Midsummer Night’s Dream with its enchanting lithographs, while the aquatints in the 1802 Relación of the Spanish voyage to the American Northwest coast include a depiction of a breathtaking celebration at Nootka Sound in 1792. These are accompanied in our new catalogue by other major voyage or travel books including Laplace’s formidable account of his world voyage, which is also superbly illustrated with aquatint plates, as is the beautiful copy of Lycett’s Views Australia, or New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land Delineated... . The fine set of Cook’s Voyages in the catalogue belonged to one of his early shipmates.

This catalogue describes the fourth part of the collection of a long-term client and friend of Hordern House, with a few additions. The subject matter ranges from Bougainville and Crozet’s voyages to the La Pérouse expedition, covered in the collection in detail; its tragic fate would remain mysterious for forty years — the eighteenth century’s MH370.

This catalogue of Imaginary Voyages describes the second part of the collection of a longterm client and friend of Hordern House, with a few additions; their collection has been assembled over several decades, with books acquired from ourselves as well as from other specialist dealers.