A good complete set of the great French voyage of the Napoleonic period, the ambitious voyage to the "terres Australes" under Baudin, chronicled by its participants Louis de Freycinet (later to command his own voyage) and the scientist François Péron. Rare in any sense, sets of the voyage are more commonly seen with only the narrative account, but this is the much rarer full work, complete with an extra volume of text and the magnificent folio atlas of Australian maps.

A good complete set of the great French voyage of the Napoleonic period, the ambitious voyage to the "terres Australes" under Baudin, chronicled by its participants Louis de Freycinet (later to command his own voyage) and the scientist François Péron. Rare in any sense, sets of the voyage are more commonly seen with only the narrative account, but this is the much rarer full work, complete with an extra volume of text and the magnificent folio atlas of Australian maps.

Sent out in 1800, in the first year of Napoleon's consulate, Baudin's own ship only returned to France in March of 1804, just two months before the Senate's proclamation of Napoleon as Emperor. Live specimens from the "terres Australes" went directly to Joséphine and Napoleon's château at Malmaison on the outskirts of Paris, where kangaroos, emus and black swans would make their unlikely home in the imperial parkland under young gum and wattle trees brought back by the explorers. The vignette on the title-page of this voyage account memorialises this extraordinary scene and has since become one of the most famous images of the entire era.

Indeed, the whole suite of images, mostly after drawings made on the spot by the expedition's two most important artists Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit, are among the most beautiful ever published, especially in their depiction of indigenous Australians, including striking portraits of men and women from the east coast of Tasmania and from around the settlement in Sydney. Petit's portraits are recognised as some of the most important such works ever committed to paper.

Baudin's instructions had included specific orders to complete the cartographic survey of the Australian coast, the atlas including the justly famous charting of Tasmania and Bass Strait from observations made in 1802-3, great and detailed stretches of the western Australian coast, as well as the long stretch of the south-east that they christened the "Terre Napoléon," this last famously encompassing much of modern Victoria right through to Encounter Bay, the anchorage where they parleyed with Matthew Flinders on his own Investigator voyage. With Flinders's subsequent imprisonment by the French in Mauritius, Baudin's great Hydrographical Atlas – as present in this set – therefore appeared in 1812, two years before the publication of Flinders' narrative and chart. It is thus the first full Australian atlas.

The official account of the Baudin voyage appeared over ten years, in two quite distinct sections. This is the full set with both sections together in matching bindings: the official narrative of the voyage (usually seen on its own and sometimes referred to as the "general reader's edition"), published between 1807 and 1816 as two volumes of text and a small folio atlas in two parts (including some charting, chiefly of specific ports, and the famous views and portraits of native peoples). The second part, which was quite separately published and actually distributed by a different bookseller, published between 1812 and 1815, is the much rarer Hydrography of the voyage with its large-scale coastal mapping of Australia appearing as an imperial folio atlas accompanied by the volume of text.

Baudin's two ships, the Géographe and the Naturaliste, left Le Havre on 19 October 1800 and reached Mauritius six months later, but shipboard quarrels and illness caused a mass defection of scientists and sailors. Having rejigged his crew, Baudin set sail for New Holland, sighting Cape Leeuwin on 27 May and anchoring in Geographe Bay three days later. He sailed north and examined Rottnest Island and Swan River, but the two ships became separated on 11 June. The Géographe finally anchored at Shark Bay on 27 June, but had left by the time the Naturaliste arrived. The latter vessel stayed on in Shark Bay to make an extensive survey – including the discovery of the Vlamingh plate – while Baudin and the Géographe worked along the difficult coast past the North West Cape. The two ships ultimately arrived in Timor in August and September; tropical diseases were already causing deaths among the crew.

In November they sailed south for Cape Leeuwin where Baudin headed for Tasmania, making the D'Entrecasteaux Channel in early January. Hamelin on the Naturaliste crossed Bass Strait and made a survey of Western Port before running for Port Jackson. Meanwhile Baudin began his survey of "Terre Napoleon", meeting Matthew Flinders at Encounter Bay in April. Worn out, Baudin turned for Sydney, but chose to again round the southern tip of Tasmania, meaning that he did not arrive off Port Jackson until 17 June, his crew severely weakened by scurvy.

Hamelin had actually already headed out to search for Baudin in Bass Strait, but the combination of a storm and poor provisions saw him back in Sydney a few days later, and the two ships stayed in Sydney until November. Warmly and hospitably entertained by Governor King, the French spent their time recuperating and making sense of their collections.

In Sydney Baudin purchased the small Casuarina, placing the relatively young officer Louis de Freycinet in charge. The Géographe and the Casuarina made close surveys of King Island, Kangaroo Island and the Gulf of St Vincent ("Golfe Joséphine"), before continuing to King George's Sound in western Australia, whence they returned to Shark Bay and the northwest before finally reaching Timor on 7 May 1803. They made a quick return visit to the northwest coast of Australia – their third – and reached Mauritius in July, where Baudin died on 19 September.