Aurora Australis.

Antarctica: Published at the winter quarters of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907, during the winter months of April. May, June, July, 1908.

Quarto, with colour lithograph title and eleven etched or lithograph plates by George Marston, two of them tipped in, with about ten additional blank leaves(including endleaves); bound as issued, the uncut separate leaves tied with green silk into the leather inner hinges of the binding of bevelled packing boards from teh expedition's stores, "BISCUI" stencilled on recto of the back cover and "BRITISH AN / EXPEDITI" at top of inner front cover with "1683" below), joints and one inner hinge very carefully restored.

"The ne plus ultra of the Antarctic bibliography for its manner of production, rarity, charisma, and association with one of the greatest of all Antarctic expeditions"

This extraordinary, celebrated artefact is one of the most redolent of books of adventure and exploration. Printed during the long Antarctic winter of 1908, using candles to keep the printing ink from freezing, illustrated with etchings by George Marston, publishing articles by Edgeworth David, and Shackleton himself among others, and bound in scavenged materials from the expedition's stores and leather from the horses' harnesses, some 75 copies seem to survive today in various states of completeness or condition.

This extraordinary, celebrated artefact is one of the most redolent of books of adventure and exploration. Printed during the long Antarctic winter of 1908, using candles to keep the printing ink from freezing, illustrated with etchings by George Marston, publishing articles by Edgeworth David, and Shackleton himself among others, and bound in scavenged materials from the expedition's stores and leather from the horses' harnesses, some 75 copies seem to survive today in various states of completeness or condition.

Scott's Discovery expedition of 1901-03 had included a simple printing press, enabling them to produce, in a single copy per issue, their paper The South Polar Times. Five years later, Shackleton set out to produce an actual book, in some quantity, during 1908. Its creation and production would have been a welcome distraction in the gruelling winter months. The printing and binding were carried out in a small hut at the expedition's base, Cape Royds on Ross Island.

Although there was essentially a standard plan, pages were not numbered and there are usually slight differences between copies. This example has a number of blank leaves not specifically described in Rosove's collation, since there was so much variation in these; a few leaves are bound in a slightly different, but sensible, order to the standard collation, and this copy does not include the redundant titling leaf that survived in a handful of copies for the "Giant Tick" plate that was not in fact used. Two of Marston's plates are tipped to blank leaves rather than printed on full-sized blanks. These are all standard variations.

According to Murray and Marston's Antarctic Days, at most 100 copies were produced; Rosove noted in 2001 that "approximately sixty-five copies have been accounted for to date". An exceptionally full study by Robert Stephenson has identified a probable 75 copies (www.antarctic-circle.org/aurora.details.htm, where this particular copy is described at #256).

An excellent, complete, and clean copy, it has a marvellous association, having been presented by John K. Davis to Herbert Dyce Murphy. Davis was chief officer of the Nimrod during the 1908–1909 expedition; subsequently he captained the Aurora and was second-in-command of Mawson's Australasian Antarctic expedition of 1911–1914. Murphy had been turned down for the earlier expedition supposedly because Shackleton judged him too effeminate, a rather remarkable judgement given his success as a member of Mawson's subsequent expedition, when he was to have commanded a third base, but when it was decided not to man that base he was given the important position of running the stores on the Main Base. Murphy Bay, discovered in 1912, was named for him by Mawson. His subsequent biography is quite a tale of derring-do. Davis has inscribed the book to him, on "Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911" letterhead "for his Antarctic Library with the grateful thanks of the donor for the assistance given to him during a busy period in history of the above expedition".

A famous rarity with "legendary status as the ne plus ultra of the Antarctic bibliography for its manner of production, rarity, charisma, and association with one of the greatest of all Antarctic expeditions" (Rosove).

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Provenance: John K. Davis, with presentation inscription on Mawson expedition letterhead dated 1911 to Herbert Dyce Murphy; Christie's London (27 September 1996, lot 161: £27,600); private collection (Australia).

Rosove, 304.A1.b; Spence, 1095; Taurus, 60.

Condition Report: Joints and one inner hinge very neatly repaired in London (as arranged by John Maggs in the 1990s); apart from the minimal fillets to the joints and restoration to one hinge the book is as created in the Antarctic winter of 1908. A few leaves slightly loosening at one of the three stitching points, which is known to happen in most copies since the stitching only gathers the loose leaves through simple holes on the paper.

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Condition Report