A unique and magnificent (and at 18.5 kgs remarkably substantial) specially prepared photographic album in a superb and complex binding by the Government Bindery. The album showcases the virtues of New South Wales, and was presented by George Houston Reid as Premier of New South Wales to the Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria in 1897.
The importance of William Swainson’s Zoological Illustrations to Australian and Pacific natural history cannot be overestimated: several plates feature Australian specimens figured for the first time, while many of the illustrations are derived from the collections of important figures such as Sir Joseph Banks, Elizabeth Bligh, Allan Cunningham and John Byron. This is a particularly attractive set of both the first and second series of this beautiful work of natural history.
A slim work of great beauty, John Richardson’s Icones Piscium: the first separately published work on Australian fishes, the plates after drawings by James Barker Emery, the first Lieutenant on the Beagle voyage during her survey of the Australian coast 1837-1841.
A very finely painted depiction of a traditional Greenlandic Inuit hunter after harp seals in his distinctive hunting kayak. The unsigned watercolour is of considerable quality and style, and depicts an Inuit pursuit with a level of detail whose accuracy modern historical sources now confirm.
John Hayter's striking portrait of the three Yahgans ("Fuegians") who accompanied Charles Darwin on the Beagle voyage is featured above. (The full account of the Beagle voyage may also be viewed here) Darwin's experience with the Yahgans both on the voyage and in their homeland can be singled out as formative in his development of ideas for both the Origin and for The Descent of Man.
A unique item: an illuminated presentation album prepared in fine detail by Ludwig Lang and bound by the Melbourne firm Detmold. The album was a gift from the prospering German citizenry of Sandhurst (now Bendigo) to Count Otto von Bismarck.
Jacques Etienne Arago (1790-1855) sailed as artist on Louis de Freycinet’s 1817 voyage around the world on the Uranie, and on his return devoted the rest of his life to writing about the voyage, and writing for the theatre. His account of the voyage here featured is very different to the huge official narrative, giving a highly readable and very personal, whimsical and humorous description of events and people. As he noted in the English version (Narrative of a Voyage, 1823) he set out to avoid the conventional forms of the voyage narrative and to ignore the ‘eternal repetition of winds, currents, longitude and lattitude’. By the time this version of his book reached the public, its remarkable author and artist had lost his sight: hence the new title used for the work of Souvenirs d’un aveugle. The lovely handcolouring in this edition means that Arago’s wonderful depictions of the Pacific are given full rein. Here they are present in the rare hand-coloured form. Seldom seen on the market, this should be ranked as one of the rarest and most prized Pacific or Australian colour-plate books.
A sumptuous publication admired as much for its technical virtuosity as its beauty. It is a piece of photo-reportage unmatched by any other work of this time and place. The photographs all date from the 1884 expedition of the Australian Squadron, when Commodore Erskine proclaimed a British protectorate over the south coast of New Guinea. Although unattributed at the time, all the images were taken by the staff of the New South Wales Government Printing Office. The album is principally intended as a visual record, and bears testament to the importance of the Hood Lagoon in British and Australian ambitions. Through the positioning of images of the official ceremonies alongside topographical views of the surrounding areas, the photographs themselves become a true part of the narrative: and perhaps the first photographic images of the meeting between Imperial forces and Hood Bay chiefs.
A selection of books spanning 90 years of Russian voyages of exploration, from the 1780s ending in 1872 with an rare private letter from the great explorer Lütke to the Russian privy counsellor von Adelung. The official account of the Lütke voyage, one of the rarest and most beautiful of all illustrated Pacific voyage publications is also featured. As well, Choris's magnificent colour plate book of the Pacific, together with accounts of the Krusenstern's circumnavigation, and early visits by Timkovski to China and Golovnin to Japan.
A light-hearted selection of kangaroo games and alphabets, celebrating one of our favourite marsupials. The first section is devoted to alphabet primers featuring the letter “K for Kangaroo”, and comprises both printed material and a complete set of French nineteenth-century children’s alphabet blocks. The second section is broader in scope, encompassing a range of educational books, games and puzzles. The final part of this list presents seven beautiful kangaroo plates, including delicately shaded lithographs and two prints derived from early colonial days (namely James Wallis and George Stubbs).