Pictorial Maritime History
Our new catalogue
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...
Books from a private collection. Part 5: Captain Cook
This catalogue describes the fifth part of the collection of a long-term client and friend of Hordern House: the voyages of Captain James Cook. It includes a fine set of the three official voyage accounts with a uniform contemporary provenance, as well as several rarities including a first and second edition of Zimmerman's third voyage account, together with works of...
Books from a private collection. Part 4: French Voyages before 1800.
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.
Books from a private collection. Part 3: English voyage books before Cook
A shelf of English voyage books of the pre-Cook period is described in our catalogue of the third 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. Anson and Dampier appear here...
Books from a private collection. Part 2: Imaginary Voyages
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.
Books from a private collection. Part 1: Early voyage books and collections
A long-time collector and friend of Hordern House has asked us to catalogue his collection for sale. This first part includes early voyage and discovery books and several voyage collections.
The second part, currently in preparation, will offer imaginary voyage books from the same collection.
The Antarctic from Cook to Mawson
The later Enlightenment
Including works of the later Enlightenment: examples of the curiosity and thirst for scientific knowledge characteristic of that time.
November 2020
Our November catalogue includes an intimate letter by Admiral Sir George Seymour recounting his meeting with Emma, Dowager Queen of Hawaii on her visit to London in 1865. (Also see our detailed study here on the superb lifetime portrait of him.)
Other highlights in the catalogue include a rare lithographed view by Conrad Martens, an original watercolour by Major James...
Wonders of the New World
For a few decades either side of 1800, the natural history of the new world was a novel source of excitement throughout Europe. Some examples of the outstanding works produced at the time appear in our catalogue, including: Edward Donovan's justly famous illustrated work on Australian entomology with the celebrated companion volumes on the insects of China and India; Henry...
A unique assemblage of natural history
A highlight from this catalogue is an album assembled in the 1790s containing a deliberate selection of the groundbreaking earliest scientific and artistic work on the natural history of New South Wales from its first European settlement, which connects six figures each of individual importance to that remarkable story: George Shaw, James Edward Smith, F.P. Nodder, James Sowerby, Thomas Wilson...