Hordern House Acquisitions February 2013

HORDERN HOUSE February 2013 Baudin & Flinders

acqs@hordern.com

THE BAUDIN VOYAGE Nicolas Baudin (1754-1803) had made voyages to the Indian Ocean and the West Indies in the 1790s, and was so highly regarded that he was given command of the most well-planned French scientific expedition since La Pérouse in 1785.

In 1800 Napoleon was cementing his power in France, and saw the voyage and projects like it as the pinnacle of his authority – unsurprisingly, given that he is said to have personally wanted to sail with La Pérouse. It was because of Napoleon’s decisive influence that his and Josephine’s house at Malmaison would become one of the most famous and important repositories of Australian plants and animals in Europe.

Baudin’s two ships, the Géographe and the Naturaliste, left Le Havre on 19 October 1800. Sailing via Tenerife and sighting the Cape of Good Hope they reached Mauritius after a long six months, during which time 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, ignoring his instructions to begin charting the south coast immediately, headed for Tasmania, making the D’Entrecasteaux Channel in early January.

The two vessels began a close survey of the east coast, again becoming separated. Hamelin on the Naturaliste crossed Bass Strait and made a sur-

vey 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 a small vessel which he named the Casuarina, placing Louis de Freycinet in charge. The Casuarina, just 29 feet in length, was acquired to help make the difficult inshore surveys, and Louis’ appointment should be understood as an early notice of his skills in charting. The three vessels left Sydney together, but Baudin decided to send the Naturaliste directly back to France, and Hamelin reached Le Havre on 7 June 1803, having sailed via Mauritius.

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. Command was given to Pierre-Bernard Milius, who had been recuperating in Port Louis where he had been left by Hamelin. The decision was made to abandon the Casuarina, and the remaining crew transferred to the Géographe, which returned home on 25 March 1804, almost three-and-a-half years after they left.

PERON, François & Louis de FREYCINET. Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes…

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Five volumes; a handsome set of the complete official edition, comprising the two-volume quarto text with portrait frontispiece, the two-parts of the large quarto atlas bound as a single volume; together with the “Partie Navigation”, comprising a quarto text volume and imperial folio hydrographical atlas, all pages in the imperial atlas expertly mounted on new binder’s stubs; the set in fine untrimmed condition, the plates crisp and the colouring bright, bound in matching French quarter red morocco over marbled boards, corners pointed in vellum. Paris, Imprimerie Impériale [Royale], 1807-1816.

the full account of Baudin, with the first Australian atlas This set is in unusually fine condition, with the plates notably crisp and delicately coloured. The set is complete with the rare hydrographical supplement and imperial folio atlas, the first Australian atlas.

Historique text: 1) Text part 1, 1807. Quarto; pp: viii (including errata & blank leaf), xv, 496. Written by François Péron.

2) Text part 2, 1816. Quarto,; pp: xxxii, 471, frontispiece portrait of Péron by Lambert after Lesueur, two folding tables. Written by Louis de Freycinet.

Historique Atlas (bound in one volume): 3) Atlas part 1, 1807. Quarto, with 40 plates (two folding, 23 coloured).

4) Atlas part 2, 1811. Quarto, 3 pp. list of plates; 14 charts (two double-page).

Navigation et Géographie: 5) Text, 1815. Quarto, pp: xvi, 576, [ii].

6) Atlas, 1812. Large folio, 32 engraved charts. $110,000 Ferguson, 449, 536, 603; Hill, 1329 (Historique only); Wantrup, 78a, 79a, 80a, 81.

BORY DE SAINT-VINCENT, J.B.G.M. Voyage dans les quatres principales iles des mers d’Afrique… de la Traversée du Capitaine Baudin…

Three volumes octavo, and folio atlas; neat repairs to a few text pages and a few spots; atlas with three large folding charts and 55 plates (including two “bis” plates), some folding, and the last with contemporary hand-colouring, all the plates crisp and untrimmed; period quarter red morocco, gilt spines with green morocco labels, an attractive set. Paris, F. Buisson, 1804.

The forgotten account of the Baudin voyage Rare: the earliest published account of the Baudin voyage, detailing the dissent on board which led to the author withdrawing from the expedition, published the same year that Baudin’s Géographe returned to France.

Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (1778-1846) was appointed to the Baudin voyage as a natural history scientist: ‘He combined the burning curiosity, love of action, and catholic breadth of scientific interest that seem to have characterized many of the young French naturalists at this time…’ (Horner, The French Reconnaissance, p. 75). Bory left the vessel in Mauritius after conflict with Baudin, but nonetheless this is a lavish and important work, and its publication was both a genuine contribution to the scientific impulse of the original planners of the voyage, but also an attempt to rehabilitate Bory de Saint-Vincent’s reputation (even if it was partly at the expense of Baudin’s…).

As the track chart here shows, Bory sailed as far as Réunion (formerly Ile Bourbon) in the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius, but jumped ship with several compatriots before the expedition continued towards New Holland. He spent the ensuing two years exploring the major islands in the Indian Ocean, most particularly Réunion itself.

This work includes fine natural history plates and coastal views, and an exceptional large folding chart of Réunion itself. Most charming are the several topographical views, many after originals by Patu de Rosmond, which include coastal scenes as well as interesting depictions of the scientists of the voyage on their inland explorations. $16,000 Not in the catalogue of the Hill collection.

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MILBERT, Jacques Gérard.

Voyage pittoresque à l’Ile-de-France, au cap de BonneEspérance, et à l’île de Ténériffe…

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Two volumes octavo bound in one, with oblong folio atlas, some scattered foxing as common with French books of this date, the atlas with 45 plates and charts (5 folding); a very good set in early pale green quarter calf, spines gilt with red labels, the atlas bound to match in period style.

Paris, A. Nepveu, 1812.

Indian Ocean by a veteran “du Voyage aux Terres-Australes” The third account of the Baudin voyage, documenting the early stages on board the Géographe, but chiefly detailing life and conditions at Mauritius. As is noted on the title-page, despite abandoning the Baudin voyage before they sailed from Port Louis to New Holland, Milbert was also the director of the engravings for the official account of the “Voyage aux Terres-Australes”, giving the present work a quasi-official status.

Jacques-Gérard Milbert (1766-1840) was a French naturalist and artist who was invited to join the Baudin expedition by Bory de Saint Vincent.

Milbert was part of the mass exodus of scientists and civilians at Mauritius, although unlike most, he seems to have gone in good faith, charged with investigating the natural history of the island in the absence of the two ships: certainly he happily returned on board the ships for the return voyage to France in 1804.

Milbert’s work gives the best notice of life on the island at the time of Baudin and Flinders, and includes important charts and views, such as: “Plan du Port Napoléon” (Port Louis), one of the most detailed charts of the harbour; a “Vue des Plaines de Wilhems” (the area where Flinders passed much of his imprisonment); “Vue du Jardin des Pamplemousses” (now the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden); “Vue de l’habitation de Mr. Céré aux Pamplemousses” (the Céré family was well known to Flinders, and Céré himself was the superintendant of the Gardens); and a “Vue de la Ville du Port Napoléon prise de la Montagne du Pouce” (a magnificent depiction of Port Louis). $9850 Mendelssohn, II, p. 13.

PERON, Franรงois.

A Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere.

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Octavo, folding engraved frontispiece and another folding engraved plate (with a few marginal spots); some of the usual browning of the title-page and sections of the text, a very good copy in recent dark brown morocco, spine gilt. London, Richard Phillips, 1809.

First Baudin account in English

The only contemporary narrative of the important Baudin voyage to appear in English, produced by the prolific publisher Phillips who specialised in voyage editions for the popular market. Based on the first volume of the French official account (see no. 1), this work was largely responsible for escalating the arguments about French or English priority, and was often quoted in the contemporary newspapers.

The description of the stay in Sydney includes a wonderful account of the buildings, a visit to Government House and an excellent summary of the natural history of the colony. The work features two impressive folding plates. The first is a study of six Australian Aboriginals; the second a panorama of Sydney Cove.

From the library of renowned Australian collector Rollo Hammet, who used it to prepare a facsimile edition in 1975. $1750 Ferguson, 485; Hill, 1349 (part).

TURNBULL, John.

A Voyage Round the World, in the years 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804…

Quarto; some light spotting throughout; library-stamp (Devon & Exeter Institution) on verso of title; an excellent copy, with the half-title, in half green morocco with raised bands by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. London, A. Maxwell, 1813.

The only edition with the important account of Baudin Second and best edition of this voyage account, including a number of pieces that did not appear in the first, notably a narrative of Baudin’s voyage, and an outraged description of Flinders’ detention on Mauritius. This second edition of Turnbull’s account of his speculative trading voyage into the Pacific is so substantially revised and extended as to almost be a new work, with an additional chapter on NSW, an account of New Zealand, the destruction of the ship Boyd and a description of Fiji.

The Baudin account spans 15 pages and summarises the voyage using information passed directly from a crew member, stated to have been received ‘about seven years ago from a gentleman who returned from Europe in one of the ships, and on whose veracity I can place the most implicit confidence.’ Amongst numerous details the discovery of the Hartog plate is of special interest and portions of its inscription are printed verbatim. The warm reception of Baudin and his men in Sydney is contrasted by Turnbull with Flinders’ shabby treatment by General Decaen at Mauritius. Turnbull vents his spleen over three pages, lamenting the ‘harsh and unmanly treatment’ Flinders received. $4200 Borba de Moraes, p. 871; Ferguson, 570; ‘Hawaii One Hundred’, 16; Hill, 1728; Judd, 176; Kroepelien, 1306; O’Reilly-Reitman, 718; Wantrup, 52.

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TARDIEU, Ambroise.

Pre. Fois. Keraudren (Médecin)… [Portrait] 6

Engraved portrait, 255 x 195 mm.; very good. Paris, 1828.

Surgeon who wrote the instructions for the Baudin voyage Fine portrait of important medical researcher into cholera and scurvy, Pierre François Keraudren. Although Keraudren did not sail with Baudin, he played a formative part in the outfitting of the expedition, because in his role as a French naval surgeon he wrote the instructions to be followed on board to preserve the health of the sailors on the expedition.

It has also been suggested that Keraudren intended to sail, but was overlooked for some reason; certainly he had a good relationship with many on board, notably Lesueur, and several important Australian landfalls including both Point and Cape Keraudren in western Australia were named in his honour. In 1804, soon after the return of the vessels, he also published his important work on scurvy, Réflexions sommaires sur le scorbut, which took into account the devastation wrought by the disease on the Baudin expedition.

The portrait was engraved by Ambroise Tardieu (1788-1841), an accomplished artist who published a series of portraits of great contemporary scientists including Sir Joseph Banks, Volta and Ampere. $375

MONTAGNY, P.A. Proof one-sided strike of the medal commemorating the Baudin expedition.

Bronze proof strike of the Baudin medal, 38 mm., cleaned but otherwise very good. France, Pierre Montagny, “An 9”, that is, 1800.

Proof strike of the Baudin voyage medal A bronzed-copper one-sided proof strike of the Baudin voyage medal: Baudin’s expedition was sponsored by Napoleon and hence the medal features the First Consul’s profile portrait.

Hordern House handled a similar proof-strike of the Royal Society medal honouring Captain Cook in 2009, but this is the only such example relating to the important French voyage of Baudin of which we are aware, and is an interesting insight into the minting process. The finished medals were distributed by Baudin as both mementoes for influential supporters, but also as gifts to the native peoples encountered: at King George’s Sound in Western Australia, for example, the French placed ‘two medals and some glass beads’ on each of two Aboriginal monuments.

The medal was known to have been struck in various metals, including silver and bronze. The medal would have been prepared in a wax or plaster intaglio, then engraved directly into the steel block for the minting process. Once the block was hardened, trial stampings would have been conducted, as here. $4250 Bramsen, I, 72; Milford Haven, 174.

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BISSY, Frédéric de.

Manuscript appointment of Bissy as astronomer to the Baudin voyage.

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Single sheet of laid paper, 316 x 410 mm., folded to form two leaves; manuscript in neat secretarial hand on the first sheet, signed “Carnot” and stamped “Ministre de la Guerre”; old docket number in red crayon, excellent condition; preserved in a red cloth slipcase, neat morocco label to spine. Paris, Département de la Guerre, 1 Thermidor An 8, that is, 20 July, 1800.

Appointed to the Baudin voyage The official document appointing the astronomer Frédéric de Bissy to the Baudin voyage: such manuscripts, which represent the earliest records of the voyage, are of great rarity.

Bissy (1758-1833), in the formal language of the high Revolutionary period here referred to as “citoyen Bissy”, was one of the first of the officers to clash with Baudin, and was among scores of personnel to desert while they were at Mauritius. He had been born in London to an English mother and French father, and served in the French army for many years before being imprisoned during the Terror as a British subject. Baudin discussed Bissy’s refusal to rejoin the expedition at the Ile de France in his journal, commenting that the ‘Naturaliste’s astronomer, Citizen Bernier, joined the Géographe to replace Mr. Bissy who had remained ashore, and in hospital, either as a matter of form or until he had collected a sufficient number of pupils, for he proposes to teach drawing’ (Journal of Nicolas Baudin, p. 138).

The manuscript is signed by Lazare Carnot (1753-1823). In 1800, after a brief exile in Geneva, Carnot was appointed Minister of War by Napoleon, in which role it was his duty to oversee the outfitting of the Baudin expedition, particularly as regards appointments from the Army: Bissy, as this manuscript confirms, was a major in the 17th Division of the Army, but by virtue of this order was seconded to the Baudin expedition. The order notes that ‘à son retour de cette mission il reprendra son grade et son rang dans la ligne‘ (on the return of the expedition he will return to his original rank and position). $9500

[BAUDIN, Nicolas et al.]

Annales du muséum national d’histoire naturelle, par les professeurs de cet établissement.

9 Four volumes, quarto, in total 74 engraved plates (two folding, five with original hand-colouring), title-pages and plates with neat “Athenaeum Liverpool” stamps, later library stamp of the Aquatic Research Institute of San Francisco to renewed endpapers; some toning, but overall a handsome tall set in modern brown half calf. Paris, Levrault, 1802- 1805.

Including printed letters by Baudin and Riedle.

The first four years of publication of one of the great journals, the Annales of the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Several of the articles are among the earliest scientific notices of Australian and Pacific specimens, and this series includes 17 articles specifically relating to Baudin’s voyage.

As these articles make clear, from the very beginning the Baudin voyage was planned with the close co-operation of the scientific community, notably Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, an ardent supporter. The articles published here are some of the earliest prompted by the voyage, and are rich in incredible detail: there is, to cite one obvious example, a two-page list of the living animals brought back on board the Géographe and given to the museum, a list with Australian specimens including a red kangaroo and no fewer than five Perroquets royaux.

Pre-eminent are the three published letters from Baudin to Jussieu, each of which represents a very rare opportunity to read Baudin’s thoughts unmediated by the efforts of his highly critical editors, Péron and Freycinet.

The first letter of eight pages was written at Port Jackson and reports on the return of the Naturaliste to France loaded with specimens: Baudin is enthusiastic about the diversity of Australian flora that has been collected and speculates on the acclimatisation of the plants bound for France.

The second letter is written from Coupang in Timor and proudly discusses the success of the expedition. The third – very brief – is a sombre counterpoint: dated Ile-de-France, Baudin writes that diseases contracted on the northern coast of Australia have taken a heavy toll on the crew, and the letter is followed by an editorial footnote commenting that the public newspapers have reported Baudin’s death at Ile-de-France.

The first volume also contains a thirteen-page letter sent by Anselme Riedle, “gardener” of the Baudin expedition, who reports having collected some 270 specimens for the museum. Riedle, who died in Timor in late 1801, was one of the few members of the expedition that Baudin counted as a genuine friend: as with all of the captain’s supporters, Riedle’s input was later downplayed in the published accounts.

Otherwise, the set includes an article by Labillardière discussing the merits of New Zealand flax, and another by Péron on pyrosoma. Four entries

by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire are based on information communicated by Baudin from Australia (the wombat, possum, and two bandicoots, each illustrated). A fifth article discusses two kangaroos which the museum had earlier acquired in a swap with an English collection. $11,500

[BAUDIN] Viaje a la Isla de Puerto Rico… en el ano 1797…

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Octavo, neat library stamp to title, text a little browned; printed wrappers with some wear particularly to head of spine, very good. Puerto Rico, Instituto de Literatura Puertoriquena, 1957.

Baudin’s early career Published account with scholarly commentary of one of Baudin’s most important voyages, to the West Indies and Puerto Rico in 1797. The skill Baudin displayed in collecting scientific specimens for Paris museums on this and his earlier privateer 1792 voyage to the Indian Ocean were directly responsible for his appointment as the commander of his expedition to Australia in 1800, much as Cook’s work in Newfoundland had led to his appointment. First published in 1863, this edition with a new introduction by Fernández Méndez.

$325

GARDNER, Admiral Alan.

Signed letter to Commander Hamelin regarding the detention of Baudin’s Naturaliste at Portsmouth.

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Original manuscript on laid paper sheet measuring 198 x 264 mm., watermarked, small closed tear to one blank margin, otherwise in very good condition, folded to letter size. aboard the Prince of Wales, Spithead, 1 June, 1803.

Captain Hamelin and the Naturaliste detained in Portsmouth En route to France in late May 1803 the Naturaliste was captured by an English frigate off Le Havre. Open war had been declared between England and France on 18 May 1803, breaking the fragile Treaty of Amiens, and the Naturaliste was evidently caught up in the first alarms. The delay to the passage of the Naturaliste was of some concern, because the vessel was laden with important and perishable natural history specimens collected in Australia. In the event it was the tact and decisiveness of Sir Jo-

seph Banks which resolved the confrontation, securing the release of the vessel much as he had earlier intervened in the return of Labillardiére’s specimens from the d’Entrecasteaux voyage; Banks wrote to Hamelin to tell him the good news on 3 June 1803, two days after this letter was sent (see Dawson, The Banks Letters, p. 380).

The present letter was written to Hamelin by Admiral Gardner, then Commander-in Chief at Portsmouth. Gardner denies a request for an audience with Hamelin and issues orders for the immediate removal of British subjects from the vessel: ‘the Landsmen you brought from Port Jackson shall be removed from the Naturaliste, without delay, as I am in expectation of receiving directions relative to the detention of your ship, in the course of tomorrow’.

The “landsmen” Gardner refers to are surely the British surgeon James Thomson and his wife, who shipped aboard the Naturaliste in Port Jackson. Thomson had first come to New South Wales as surgeon of the Third Fleet transport Atlantic in early 1791. In September 1802 he approached Governor King for permission to return to England, and was taken on board the Naturaliste, where he and his wife enjoyed cordial relations with the French crew, even swapping some drawings of Sydney Aborigines with the French artist Nicolas Petit which Thomson later had published (see following item). $3200

[THOMSON, James].

‘Curious and Interesting Account of the Original Natives of New South Wales’ [extract from] The New Wonderful 12 Museum and Extraordinary Magazine.

Slim octavo, two articles totalling 10 pp. with separate pagination (815-22; [1036]-1038), two engraved portraits; very good in worn old half calf, neatly rebacked, papered boards, bookplate of Sarah Phillott. London, Alexander Hogg 1803-1804.

“Broken Bay Jack”, after Nicolas Petit, Baudin’s artist A rare printed description of the Aborigines of New South Wales, including engraved portraits of a man named Mackabarang or “Broken Bay Jack” and a woman called Killprieara.

The portraits derive from the work of Nicolas-Martin Petit, from drawings in the possession of one “Jas. Thompson”: James Thomson had first come to NSW as surgeon of the Third Fleet transport the Atlantic, and later returned to the colony as Senior Assistant to William Balmain. Remarkably, he and his wife shipped home on board the Naturaliste: Baudin himself let the Governor know about his guest’s continuing health in a letter from Port Louis: ‘Monsieur et Madame Thomson se portoient bien, et ont éprouvés pendant leur sejour tout l’agrément qu’ils pouvoient désirer‘ (HRNSW, vol. V, p. 201).

Clearly Petit had given Thomson some of his drawings en route from Port Jackson, and after his return he imparted his knowledge of the native inhabitants of New South Wales to George Riley, the author of this article, who fleshed it out with notes from some of the First Fleet books.

George Riley published mezzotint versions of the two portraits in London in 1803, and these engravings published by Alexander Hogg are clearly versions of the Riley portraits. The portrait of Mackabarang is very similar to the original Riley image, but while the portrait of Killprieara retains her prominent cicatrices on the chest and shoulders, her breasts have been prudishly covered with a draped piece of cloth. There is also a closely related sketch of “Mook aba rang” in the British Museum, which may be Petit’s original (Oc2006, Drg.319).

Also included here is a two-and-a-half page letter to the editor published in a later issue of the journal, regarding the funeral rites of New South Wales, probably based on the published account of David Collins.

Full runs of this periodical were noted by Ferguson in his own collection and that of the Mitchell Library, but it is scarce, and this slender volume with the two fine portraits represents the only significant Australian content in the New Wonderful Museum. $1950 Ferguson, 374 (full run of the journal).

PERON, François.

Mémoire sur le nouveau genre Pyrosoma.

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Quarto, hand-coloured plate and 10 pp.; some toning, but an excellent copy in modern half calf with marbled paper wrappers. Paris, An XII, that is, 1804.

One of Peron’s first scientific articles from the voyage.

Very rare offprint of one of Péron’s earliest scientific articles, based on his pioneering work on the Baudin voyage. Such offprints are recognised as the original editions since they precede any journal printing and were typically done in very limited numbers for the author to distribute.

In 1804, newly returned from the voyage, Péron was living in Paris, where he began work on the official Baudin account. He had been resigned to the fact that by sending many of his specimens home, the scientific descriptions of a great number fell to important figures like Cuvier and Jussieu. On his return, however, he pressed on to publish several essays of his own, and one of the first was this essay on “Pyrosoma”, bioluminescent organisms common to warm waters (from the Greek pyro “fire”, soma “body”). He and Lesueur had been overwhelmed and delighted with the myriad different oceanic species they had discovered during the voyage, and later commented that ‘their number and diversity afforded an inexhaustible fund of pleasure, and… philosophical enthusiasm’ (Duyker, François Péron, p. 87).

It was due to Péron’s work on jellyfish that the various mollusca and zoophytes he collected were so beautifully illustrated in the official account: the subject of the present article, the Pyrosoma atlanticum, was later figured at the upper left corner of plate 30 of the Atlas. The species is one of only a handful to be named after Péron, as it is now officially called Pyrosoma atlanticum Péron, 1804.

This article was published the same year in the Annales du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (pp. 437-46); this does confirm, however, that the present article, newly paginated, is a proper offprint rather than simply an extract from the museum journal. $3600

PERON, François.

Notice sur l’Introduction de la Vaccine au Cap de BonneEspérance; par M. Péron, naturaliste de l’expédition de 14 découvertes aux Terres Australes.

Quarto, 4 pp.; in very good condition, bound in modern marbled wrappers. Faubourg SaintGermain, De l’Imprimerie de Migneret, circa 1804.

Peron on the vaccine for small-pox.

Exceptionally rare printing of a significant letter written by François Péron while returning from the Baudin voyage, reporting on a small-pox vaccine being trialled at the Cape of Good Hope.

The letter is a tribute to the Dutch doctor, revolutionary and poet Reinier de Klerk Dibbetz, a pioneer of Jenner’s small-pox vaccine and friend of Péron’s. Péron begins with a note that the influence of the petite-vérole has been devastating throughout the world, most particularly in the European colonies in the Indies and America. Noting that the illness has been most virulent among indigenous populations, Péron explains that this has led to the practice of very scrupulous checking for evidence of the disease on board ships, with heavy penalties for captains who fail to take adequate measures to contain the infection.

The vaccine for small-pox was discovered by Edward Jenner in 1796, only a few years earlier but, as Péron notes, the need for the vaccine was

recognised to be of the greatest urgency, and for some time the officials of Mauritius and Reunion had been trialling the recently published method with some success.

However, Péron continues, while the Dutch colonies in South Africa are close to Mauritius, the new vaccine was unknown there until the arrival on 18 November “last” (that is, 1803) of the Portuguese slave-ship Belisario at Table Bay. Dibbetz, inspector-general of the hospital at the Cape of Good Hope, became aware that people on board the vessel had the disease and asked to be allowed to go on board. Distracting the attention of others on board, Dibbetz colluded with the surgeon on board to take a swab (‘un fil imprégné au virus’) from the vessel, and returned to make his own successful experiments: the Dutch Governor Janssens allowed Dibbetz the use a small island in the Bay, to continue his research.

Dibbetz’s continued success led to the formation of a hospital, to which Péron had travelled, where he greatly admired the work of the administration. Dibbetz said to Péron, at the moment of the departure of the Baudin vessels, that he would continue to inform him of the success or otherwise of his trials ‘son intéressant directeur n’avait eu que des succès, sans aucun mélange de malheur ou de revers’. Dibbetz, Péron concludes, had thanked the Portuguese doctor who had helped him with the present of a magnificent box of surgical instruments; an attention which only accords further respect to the brave efforts of the Dutchman, which Péron is anxious to record (for a note on Dibbetz more generally, and this trial, see Duyker, François Péron, p. 208).

It is not difficult to surmise how this bifolium came to be printed. Péron or one of his colleagues in Paris would have caused a small number of these pamphlets to be prepared, no doubt for their own coterie. The “Imprimerie de Migneret” was a press in Faubourg Saint-Germain, known for producing smaller pamphlets as well as fuller works. $3200

PERON, François & Charles-Alexandre LESUEUR. “Observations sur le Tablier des femmes Hottentotes.”

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Notebook, 23.5 x 19 cm., with detailed 29 pp. manuscript, neat and legible but with many corrections; in excellent original condition, blue paper wrappers, front manuscript label “Tablier des femmes Bochisman”; together with a group of 3 hand-coloured engraved plates, the plates untrimmed and with some browning, but generally very good. 1805.

An important lost archive, in Freycinet’s hand While at the Cape of Good Hope in 1803 Péron and Lesueur’s last major scientific study was of the genitals of the “Bushmen” (Khoisan) women. The labia minora of some Khoisan women were known to extend for several inches, and were a subject of intense philosophical and prurient excitement among European scientists; only a few years later Sarah Baartman, the “Hottentot Venus”, would be exhibited in London and Paris.

The present manuscript is in Louis de Freycinet’s neat hand, transcribing two long articles by Péron in a small notebook, together with a folder with three finished but unpublished plates printed by the same team and in the same style as those included in the official account of the Baudin expedition, but which were never published. What this signifies is that Freycinet had intended to publish the results as part of the extended scientific results of the Baudin account, but the plans were evidently shelved.

The main article is entitled “Expédition de Découvertes aux Terres Australes. Observations sur le Tablier des femmes Hottentotes… Par MM. F. Péron et C.A. Lesueur, Naturalistes de l’expédition de Découvertes. Lu à la séance particulière de la Classe des Sciences Phisiques et Mathématiques de l’Institut le 1er. Pluviose an 13 (21 Janvier 1805).” This article, it is noted on the title-page, was reviewed by Cuvier and Labillardière, but was not published during Péron or Lesueur’s lifetime, although they did publish a brief 3pp. note in Revue philosophique, littéraire et politique

(an XIII = 1805). In fact, it was not until 1883 that this article was published by Blanchard in the Bulletin de la Société zoologique de France (vol.

8, pp. 15-33). Blanchard’s transcription was apparently based on Péron’s original work, held in Museum d’histoire naturelle in Le Havre, and includes facsimile reproductions of the plates.

The article begins with Péron’s discussion of Reinier de Klerk Dibbetz, a Dutch doctor, revolutionary and poet resident at the Cape. He was a pioneer of Jenner’s small-pox vaccine, and was allowed to establish a small hospital which was visited by all of the savants of the Baudin expedition, and frequented by Péron and Lesueur (Dibbetz is discussed by Duyker in François Péron, p. 207-8; see also the previous item).

Péron notes that while at the Cape he had visited the hospital and been allowed to examine some of the local “Boschimans” women to ascertain the truth of the phenomena “les plus curieux” of their extended inner labia, and gives a detailed note on several of the women’s anatomy: he even allows himself the knowing comment that while he merely observed, his friend the ship’s doctor l’Haridon made particular observations (“Mon ami l’Haridon médecin de notre corvette à fait lui même des observations très particulières sur l’espèce d’organe dont cette partie, dit on, est susceptible”). A notable inclusion in Péron’s article is the “Note sur le Boschisman offert par Mr. le conseiller d’Etat [Jan Willem] Janssens à l’Imperatice Joséphine”: the Dutchman Janssens was very friendly with the French, and this direct evidence of international figures collecting for Joséphine herself forms part of the study of the history of Malmaison.

The second part of the manuscript is Freycinet’s transcription of the “Réponse de Mr. Péron aux observations critiques de Mr. Dumont sur le tablier des femmes Hotentotes” with a note that this was a reply to Dumont’s article in the Magasin encyclopédique. This second part did have a

contemporary publication, in the Journal de physique, de chimie et d’histoire naturelle (vol. LXI, 1805, pp. 210-17).

The three plates, although obviously prepared for publication since they are printed in the same fashion and style as the plates in the official account (that is, they are printed by Langlois, drawn by Lesueur, and engraved by Lambert under the direction of Milbert), were never in fact published. They are numbered in Roman numerals, as with the other plates of the first edition, but are given the numbers 80, 81 & 82 (the original atlas stopped at no. 41).

Plate LXXX “Afrique Australe. Tablier des femmes Houswânaas ou Boschimans. (Femme Adulte.) La Femme est supposée debout, le Tablier de Grandeur naturelle libre et pendant entre les Cuisses.”

Plate LXXXI “Afrique Australe. Tablier des femmes Houszwânaas ou Boschimans. (Femme Adulte.) Dans cette Figure da Femme est couchée sur le Dos, les Cuisses écartées ainsi que les deux lobes inférieurs du Tablier.”

Plate LXXXII “Afrique Australe. Tablier des femmes Houszwânaas ou Boschimans. Fig. 1. Femme Adulte couchée sur le Dos; le Tablier est renversé et épanoui sur le Mont de Venus. Fig. 2. Jeune fille assise, le Tablier de grandeur naturelle et pendant librement entre les Cuisses.”

The archive was purchased in France in the early 1970s and has been in a private collection in Australia ever since. The manuscript must have originally been in Freycinet’s collection, together with the un-issued plates, though it does not have the familiar “Archives de Laage” stamp usually seen. Freycinet was of course working on the publication of the the Baudin voyage over some two decades. It can hardly be a surprise that he finally rejected this section for publication in a book for a general audience.

$17,500

PERON, François.

Short autograph letter signed, likely to Louis de Freycinet.

Single sheet of laid paper, 18.5 x 11.5 cm., neat and legible with a bold signature; very good.

Paris, 15 Rue Copeau, between May 1804 and January, 1809.

Rare letter written and signed by Baudin voyage artist Peron

Likely written to his shipmate Louis de Freycinet, the letter is noted as having been written from Péron’s address at the Rue Copeau, Paris (now Rue Lacépède), just around the corner from the Jardin des Plantes.

Péron (1775-1810) won a scholarship to study medicine in Paris but in 1800, crossed in love, he sought refuge on the Baudin voyage, where he was appointed as a trainee zoologist. Ironically, given his loathing for Baudin, Péron was given the job of preparing the voyage account for publication after Baudin’s death. Péron’s death from tuberculosis meant that the project was continued by Louis de Freycinet.

Duyker’s wonderful biography François Péron: an impetuous life (Melbourne, 2006) is the standard work on the subject, and his bibliography lists a number of original manuscripts, notably the splendid series held in the Muséum d’histoire naturelle du Le Havre. Péron manuscripts are however almost unheard of on the market. $5500

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WALLIS, Sarah (Mrs T. Edward Bowdich).

Taxidermy, or, The Art of Collecting, Preparing, and Mounting Objects of Natural History for the use of 17 Museums and Travellers…

Octavo, 168pp., 3 plates (5 illustrations), an ink (blood?) stain and some waterstaining, a very good copy in original boards, some wear. London, Longman, Hurst, Orme, and Brown, 1821.

The Péron collections in Paris; and please get us a platypus

One of the best works of its kind: quite apart from its value as an engaging handbook of practical taxidermy of everything from monkeys to caterpillars, the work is notable for references to the Baudin scientists and the specimens they collected. Wallis’s small book went through several editions (this is the second).

Sarah Wallis married the African explorer Thomas Bowdich and lived with him in Paris from 1819 to 1822, where she was a frequent visitor to the Museum of Natural History, which is why she is able to report on the marine specimens collected by Péron, noting that they have degraded in the salt water. Wallis also refers to the Baudin expedition zoologist René Maugé, praising his skill as a taxidermist working in the field, preparing great numbers of specimens with nothing more than a ‘box of scalpels.’

Of special interest is a desiderata of species wanted by the Museum compiled for collectors across the globe. From Australia the Museum requested every type of platypus (‘a number, if possible, in spirits’) as well as pos-

sums, sugar gliders, marsupial mice, quolls, seals, fish, reptiles, molluscs and marine worms. Likewise, Eucalypts and Casuarinas are also desired.

Wallis later wrote (as “Mrs. Lee”) Adventures in Australia (1851). $4250

GIRARD, Maurice.

F. Peron Naturalist, Voyageur aux Terres Australes…

Large octavo, frontispiece portrait after Lesueur; some very light toning but very good; contemporary French quarter calf, flat spine gilt rather faded, purple marbled boards. Paris & Moulins, J.-B. Bailliere et Fils & Enaut, 1856.

Important scientific biography, with notes on natural history Uncommon first edition of this important early biography. Girard’s book was the first major work to investigate Péron’s science, and is of particular note for his comments on the enormous collection then held in the Natural History Museum in Paris. Although not published until 1856, the Girard ‘biography is noteworthy for the oral history he recorded from one individual who had known Péron personally in his youth and from the grandson of another’ (Duyker, François Péron, p. 3). $2400 Nissen , p. 517.

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BORY DE SAINT-VINCENT, J.B.G.M. Autograph letter signed.

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Five-page autograph letter, folded to letter-size 224 x 171 mm., the sixth page blank; neatly written with some original scratching-out and corrections; secured together at the left margin; in fine condition. [Paris], 28 October, 1825.

Dream of Cashmere: Bory de Saint-Vincent still scheming.

A long letter from Bory de Saint-Vincent to an unknown correspondent (“Mon cher ami”) mentioning in passing his experiences on the Baudin voyage, and his own exploration of the islands of the Indian Ocean (see catalogue no. 2), as qualifications for his involvement in a proposed project for the collection and marketing of exotic wools, and also for writing material for a contemporary French journal concentrating on the ‘nouveau monde’. From the context it seems likely that his correspondent is the editor of that journal.

There is some mention of the Americas, of Colombia especially. Bory mentions the breeding of merinos in France, talks about llamas, camels, Tibet, cashmere, among many other references to the subject, apparently soliciting a commission to write an article on the subject as well as to be the leading light in a new venture (‘I dare say I am the single person most suited to run such an enterprise, having proved myself as a voyager with Baudin and by making known the Islands of Africa’). To the extent that the scheme seems hare-brained, it should probably be read in the context of Bory de Saint-Vincent’s difficult later life in Paris and its attendant complications.

From the collection of Henri Ledoux (eccentric Parisian collector; one of his fetishes was to acquire important title-pages and jettison the rest of the books) with his distinctive small red stamp (H.L. in a heart). $4500

LESCHENAULT de la TOUR, Jean-Baptiste.

ALS to Princess de Salm-Dyck regarding his work on a Malay dictionary.

4 pp. autograph letter (the fourth page an address panel with postal stamp), signed Leschenault, 23 x 18.5 cm., neat and legible, small tear at original seal; very good. Paris, May, 1811.

Baudin voyage botanist to his most influential patron

Fine letter by the botanist and Baudin veteran Leschenault de la Tour regarding his scientific work in the years after his eventual return to France in 1807. This letter, part of a small archive of three to the same correspondent (see following items), is a notable contribution to our understanding of the career of Leschenault, and shows him working on projects that he had begun during his sojourn in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour was chief Botanist and ornithologist of the Baudin expedition to Australia. Although he remained on board the GĂŠographe during the entire Australian exploration, by the time the vessel reached Timor he was so ill that he had to be put ashore. Over the next three years he explored the botany of Java and also learned the Malay language. He returned to France in 1807, and spent the next decade working on his scientific papers, before voyaging to India in 1816.

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This letter and the two succeeding items were written to the femmes de lettres Princess Constance de Salm-Dyck (1767-1845). A friend of Dumas and Stendhal, she and her husband Joseph were also intimates ot Alexander von Humboldt. In 1809 the Salm-Dycks established a salon in Paris at the Hotel de Segur, and as the the present letters attest, Leschenault was a friend and frequent visitor.

Leschenault writes that he has received the letter she did him the honour of writing, and discusses some work being published in some anti-Napoleon newspapers; evidently the articles were quite controversial, as he refers to a “petit guerre” taking place. Leschenault goes on to complement Salm-Dyck on her book (probably her Poésies), and then continues with an account of finally seeing the first proofs of his Malay dictionary, noting that he hopes to improve it. He also wonders whether Salm-Dyck knows of the small 32 pp. attack on the geographical work of Malte-Brun that has recently been published, a work so polemical that it makes both parties look ridiculous, and which has not taken advantage of Salm-Dyck’s own thoughts on the subject of arguments in the world of letters. There is also an engimatic comment that he no longer hears anything regarding the decree relating to the Merinos; it is not clear why Leschenault is interested in the sheep, but this must seemingly refer to the famous flock at the Royal Farm at Rambouillet.

$1850

LESCHENAULT de la TOUR, Jean-Baptiste.

ALS to Princess de Salm-Dyck on Merinos, Malays and the Baudin voyage.

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4 pp. autograph letter signed Leschenault, 22 x 17.5 cm., neat and legible; very good. Paris, June, 1811.

Why won’t the French Ministry give me a Merino?

A second letter from Leschenault to the Princess de Salm-Dyck, discussing in more detail his scientific projects and giving a real insight into his social environment, not least for his joking ambition to become a profes-

sor (even though the French Ministry persist in denying him a Merino).

The letter begins with Leschenault’s gracious compliments on SalmDyck’s poetry. He goes on to indulge a taste for some enigmatic gossip about another lady, before giving a substantial account of his work on the Malay dictionary, warmly mentioning the support he has received from the famous orientalist Louis-Mathieu Langlès (in the French national archives are some letters from Langlès to Salm-Dyck regarding the project).

Leschenault mentions some help from the Parisian publisher Didot.

Leschenault also recommends some articles of his own that had appeared in the Annales of the Museum of Natural History, and the equally important Annales des Voyages (Leschenault published several articles on the scientific results of the Baudin voyage in these periodicals in 1810 and 1811, and was evidently rather pleased with them). He goes on to make another comment on his continued hope of acquiring a Merino sheep, but that he is rebuffed by the Minister in his hopes of being a shepherd, perhaps he will have to become a teacher instead… The letter ends with Leschenault boasting of the way in which he had got one of his nephews into the Marine academy in Brest at a much reduced fee – no doubt by using his current status as a famous voyager.

$2250

LESCHENAULT de la TOUR, Jean-Baptiste.

ALS to Princess de Salm-Dyck regarding his Malay dictionary and articles relating to Baudin.

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3 pp. autograph letter signed Léschenault, 24.5 x 18 cm., neat and legible; very good. Paris, October, 1811.

Chasing sheep in the wilds of France The third letter in this group from Leschenault, continuing his correspondence with the Princess. Leschenault comments at length on his travails in his continuing pursuit of some Merino sheeps, which had seen him travel into the wilds of France, where the roads and villages are more horrid than those in the Indies (a reference to his time in Timor).

The letter opens with his rather scathing assessment of a place called Murat in the Mountains of the department of Cantal (where it is foggy most of the time, and worse than anything he has seen in the Indies).

Thank goodness he was able to retreat to a pleasant chateaux run – God save him – by a Parisian woman, where he ate well and enjoyed a walk to see the waterfall at St. Priest (near St. Etienne). At the waterfall he had the leisure to be able to inspect the rocks with some care, and found them to be composed chiefly of quartz and granite, and probably with some other elements of which he is ignorant (a rather grand conceit on his behalf, as he goes on to list in even more detail the geologic formation of the region).

A significant section of the letter deals with a discussion they had obviously had about the folly of requiring dogs to protect flocks of sheep, but in his travels Leschenault has had a long conversion with a gentleman from Limousin who has shown up the error in his thinking, because of the very real – and dramatic – danger they face from wolves, and Leschenault tells an involved anecdote regarding one particular incident.

He does not know where he will travel next, but he still plans to visit several more regions on his fact-finding tour, notwithstanding the con-

stant fog and the cold très vifs. The letter concludes with his regards to her husband and daughter ClÊmentine.

Taken together, the three letters give an immediate and often humourous insight into the social expectations of one of the more important Baudin voyage scientists, and see him continuing work that can be seen to relate to his time in the Southern Hemisphere: the Malay dictionary, his articles on the science of the voyage, and his new fascination with the Merino, which has taken him far from the comforts of his beloved Paris. $1600

[MALMAISON] ISABEY, Jean-Baptiste, after.

Fine Portrait of Napoleon at Malmaison.

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Fine stipple engraving, 485 x 725 mm., trimmed close to the platemark but in very good condition, mounted. Paris, engraved by Charles Louis Lingée, à la Bibliothèque Nationale, 1804.

first separately published view showing Malmaison A striking full-length portrait of Napoleon in a characteristic stance, after the famous Isabey portrait, showing the estate at Malmaison. At the time the portrait was taken Malmaison had been newly purchased by Joséphine, who was already taking the first steps to turn it into one of the preeminent gardens of Europe. At left can be seen a hothouse (no longer standing), while the elegant two-storey chateau is figured on the right.

Although confined to the background, this is the first separately published illustration of the gardens and house of Malmaison as Joséphine would have known it, and provides an important insight into a surprisingly arcadian scene, which was soon to be home to kangaroos, emus and a host of Australian plants collected on the Baudin expedition.

The original portrait was executed at Malmaison by the famous courtpainter Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767-1855), a pupil of David, and clearly no mean diplomat, managing to enjoy the patronage of, successively, Marie-Antoinette, Napoleon & Joséphine, and Charles X. Isabey painted Napoleon at Malmaison around 1800, and is considered to be the first portrait to show him as First Consul, but also the first to show him in the now famous pose with his right hand in his waistcoat. Isabey had been allowed to watch Napoleon as he strode around the grounds deep in thought, and considered it a simple task to capture him in this pose. The image was engraved by Charles Louis Lingée (1748-1819).

Although often reproduced in different formats, this large stipple engraving is the earliest published version of the portrait. $3200

LESUEUR, Charles-Alexandre (after).

Engraved View of the Settlement at Port Jackson.

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Engraved view, 145 x 208 mm.; tipped onto early album leaf with ink ruled margins, moderate discolouration affects left hand side of the plate, otherwise very good. Paris, Arthus Bertrand, 1824.

Proof copy from the second edition Rare proof impression before letters of artist Charles-Alexandre Lesueur’s fine view of Sydney Cove, prepared for the 1824 second edition of Péron and Freycinet’s Voyage de découvertes aux Terres Australes.

Lesueur was appointed to the Baudin expedition as a gunner although his skill as an artist indicates this was an expedient manner of shipping him aboard. After the mass desertions at Mauritius on the voyage out, Lesueur and his companion Nicolas-Martin Petit took on the lion’s share of scientific and topographical illustration.

Proof states such as this one form an important record of the atlas in its final stages of production and correction. $800 First Views of Australia, 69.

THE FLINDERS VOYAGE

In one of the last letters he wrote, Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) added his name to the list of subscribers for a new edition of Robinson Crusoe.

At different times he claimed, quite plausibly, that it was reading Defoe’s great novel as a boy that convinced him to pursue a career at sea, and which led him to join the Navy in 1789. His early career saw him sale with Bligh on the second breadfruit voyage, see action at the “Glorious First of June” in 1794, and sail for Botany Bay in 1795, where he and his boon companion George Bass undertook any number of open boat voyages of exploration.

In February 1801 he was given command of HMS Investigator, with ‘instructions from the Admiralty to explore in detail, among other places, that part of the south Australian coastline, then referred to as “the Unknown Coast”, which stretched eastwards from the head of the Great Australian Bight to the Victorian border’ (ADB). In April, while preparations were afoot, he married Ann Chappell, and was planning for her to sail with him, but the influence of Sir Joseph Banks and the Admiralty meant that she was forced to remain behind.

Flinders sailed on 18 July 1801 and sighted Cape Leeuwin on 6 December, after a passage which demonstrated his ability as a navigator and his attention to the welfare of his crew. Over the next six months Flinders made a detailed survey of southwest Australia and the “Unknown Coast”, that included Spencer Gulf, Gulf St Vincent, Kangaroo Island and Encounter Bay (the last where he and Baudin had a cordial if fractured meeting).

In May 1802, the Investigator was overhauled in Port Jackson before sailing north to survey the Queensland coast and Gulf of Carpentaria.

Unfortunately, the ship was leaking badly, and was judged to be so rotten that it would scarcely survive six months at sea (and a gale would likely send it to the bottom). Disappointed, Flinders had no choice but to return to Sydney, completing a circumnavigation but unable to continue his work to his own exacting standards.

Back in Port Jackson in June 1803, Flinders made the fateful decision to press home to England with his maps and charts, sailing as a passenger on HMS Porpoise in August. Only a week out of port the Porpoise and a companion ship the Cato wrecked on an uncharted reef in the Coral Sea, over four hundred kilometres east of modern Gladstone. Flinders personally took the ship’s cutter back to Sydney to fetch help, sailing back to Wreck Reef in the Cumberland, where he made a second fateful decision, deciding to take the small schooner under his own command and return to England. Flinders’ luck was out: once again he was thwarted by an unfit vessel which needed almost constant pumping to stay afloat, and he decided to seek help at Mauritius, then the jewel of the French Navy’s possessions in the Indian Ocean. He arrived on 17 December 1803, the day after the last of Baudin’s vessels, the Géographe, had sailed.

Flinders imagined that his passport would be honoured, despite the antagonism between England and France, and the newly broken out hostilities after the failure of the Peace of Amiens, but he was sadly mistaken.

Taking advantage of certain indiscrepancies (the passport was for the Investigator not the relatively insignifcant Cumberland, for example), and discrediting the many kindnesses that had been shown to Baudin in New South Wales, the governor General De Caen was short and even abusive to Flinders, who responded with haughtiness. The great navigator would spend the next six years years on the island as a prisoner of war.

Flinders did not return to England until 23 October 1810. His health failing, he nonetheless set to work on his magnificent A Voyage to Terra Australis, which was published on 18 July 1814, a day before he died.

WESTALL, William.

Views of Australian Scenery.

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Oblong quarto; nine fine steel-engraved plates in good dark impressions, as issued in dark brown patterned wrappers, black leather titling-label noting “Price one guinea”; some of the familiar foxing endemic to Westall’s plates, corners neatly re-tipped with tissue paper, but a very good copy, preserved in a red folding box with spine label. London, G. & W. Nicoll, 1814.

official views of the Flinders voyage: large paper issue

The rare separate publication of the suite of engravings of Westall’s paintings made on the Flinders voyage.

Westall was the draughtsman on Flinders’s great circumnavigation of Australia, and his views are the earliest representations of parts of the Australian coast. The subjects are: Kangaroo Island, Malay Road, WreckReef Bank, Murray’s Islands, King George’s Sound, Port Jackson, Port Bowen, Gulf of Carpentaria and Port Lincoln. They were also used to illustrate the full publication of Flinders’s voyage, which was also published in 1814.

This is the superior large paper issue of this series; a smaller version on thinner paper was published at the same time for 15 shillings, while the present set sold for a guinea. $9500 Abbey, ‘Travel’, 567; Australian Rare Books, 74a; Ferguson 597.

COLLINS, David.

An Account of the English Colony in New South 26 Wales… [With] An Account of the English Colony…

Vol. II… [adding:] An Account of a Voyage performed

by Captain Flinders and Mr. Bass…

Two volumes, quarto, with three engraved charts and 32 engraved plates including eight in the text (five handcoloured), some foxing, insignificant tear to one folding map; a very good set in modern calf. London, T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies, 1798 &, 1802.

Two-volume edition, with the accounts of Bass and Flinders

First edition of the complete work, published as two separate volumes four years apart. The first volume, published in 1798, is scarce today. For some reason the second volume, which came out four years later, is more difficult to find; decent uniform sets of the two are hard to come by.

Collins had arrived with the First Fleet as Judge-Advocate and was Secretary to Governor Phillip. His book is a valuable account of the early settlement by an educated and observant resident of ten years, and was the last of the Australian foundation books to be published. The book is illustrated with full-page engravings prepared in London by the wellknown artist Edward Dayes from sketches done in the colony by the convict artist Thomas Watling. They are the first views to have been published of British settlements at Sydney and Parramatta.

‘The second volume is of the greatest importance, not only for its detailed chronicle of events but because of its narrative of voyages and expeditions of discovery… The journals of Bass and Flinders are of particular importance since Bass’s journal has never been recovered and … the accounts of inland expeditions recorded in the journals of John Price and Henry Hacking are singularly interesting…’ (Wantrup). $11,200 Crittenden, ‘A Bibliography of the First Fleet’, 69-70; Ferguson, 263, 350; Hill, 335 (volume I only); Wantrup, 19, 20.

ARROWSMITH, Aaron.

A Chart of Van Diemen’s Land and Bass’ Strait…

Large engraved handcoloured map, 820 x 655 mm., dissected and backed on linen, framed.

London, A. Arrowsmith, 2 March, 1822.

Latest discoveries in Bass Strait A wonderfully preserved copy of Arrowsmith’s 1822 map of Van Diemen’s Land and the islands of Bass Strait, a survey derived from the exploratory work of George Bass and Matthew Flinders and here updated with recent coastal and inland discoveries.

The first chart of Tasmania produced by the eminent London cartographer Arrowsmith was issued in June 1800 and was based upon the arduous journeys of Bass and Flinders in 1798 and 1799 respectively. Aaron Arrowsmith (1750-1823) held a position as Royal hydrographer for many years and was widely respected as a cartographer par-excellence. He enjoyed the confidence of exacting mariners including Bass and Flinders.

An explanatory note engraved in one corner of his map acknowledges their discoveries ‘Mr. G. Bass visited the North Side of the Strait, called after him, in an open whale-boat from Port Jackson in January 1797, but though suspected of being separated from New Holland, Van Diemen’s Land was not known to be a distinct Island, until its circumnavigation was accomplished in a small sloop called the Norfolk commanded by Lieut. M. Flinders, in the years 1798-9.’

Indeed, the first issue of Arrowsmith’s chart of Van Diemen’s Land was the subject of a pithy exchange between Baudin and Flinders when they met at Encounter Bay in April of 1802. This 1822 issue is enriched with a wide range of coastal and inland discoveries, including the survey work of Phillip Parker King and John Oxley. $22,000 Tooley ‘Printed Maps of Tasmania’, 90.

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ANONYMOUS. Interesting Narrative of the Loss His Majesty’s Armed 28 Vessels the Porpoise and Cato…

Duodecimo,[ii], 7-28 pp. (as issued), folding engraved frontispiece of the wreck; a nice copy in a neat recent binding of tan calf with a crimson label. London, Thomas Tegg, 1808.

Flinders on Wreck Reef: only separately-published account Very scarce London chapbook recounting the dismal wrecking off the Great Barrier Reef of the ships Porpoise and Cato in August 1803. The Investigator had been damaged, apparently beyond repair, and Flinders chose to go back to England on the Porpoise; on 17 August the ship went ashore on Wreck Reef, in open ocean about 740 miles NNE of Sydney.

Two merchant vessels were with her; one, the Cato, was wrecked a short distance away. Flinders made a camp on the reef and personally sailed back to Sydney in a ship’s cutter, returning with rescue vessels.

‘The authorship is attributed in the text to one “Mr Fitz-Daniel”, who is stated to have been the officer of the watch when the Porpoise struck, and the officer who accompanied Flinders in the cutter. There was no such person. The account is plagiarized from that in the Sydney Gazette, with additions supplied by the fancy of the compiler.’ (Ferguson). Authenticity apart, the text is well written and has much detail that did not appear in the Gazette, including “Observations on the natural productions, and the manners of the natives of New South Wales”. The publisher, Thomas Tegg, was a prolific publisher of chapbooks in London; his son later emigrated to become a significant early Sydney printer. $4850 Australian Rare Books, 69; Ferguson, 474.

[LONGITUDE] EARNSHAW, Thomas.

Longitude. An Appeal to the Public: Stating Mr. Thomas 29 Earnshaw’s Claim to the Original Invention of the improvements in his timekeepers…

Octavo, half-title, early owner’s name to title-page, bookplate and leather spine-label for the Marquess of Headfort, errata slip and additional manuscript erratum, some scattered foxing quite heavy on a handful of pages; an attractive copy in original half-calf, bumped. London, Printed for the author, 1808.

Printing a letter written on HMS Investigator

One of the most important publications relating to longitude, written

by John Arnold’s great competitor, and the man who ‘ushered in the age of the truly modern chronometer’ (Sobel, Longitude). One of Earnshaw’s greatest achievements was supplying two timekeepers to Flinders, who also took two of Arnold’s chronometers with him on Investigator: of the four, only one of Earnshaw’s clocks, “E520”, was still working by the end of the voyage, leading Flinders to refer to it as ‘this excellent timekeeper’ in his account. E520 is now held in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

Earnshaw (1749-1829) had a distinguished career but one marked by bouts of penury that saw him locked up in debtor’s prison. His great success was the use of a spring rather than pivot escapement, which didn’t need oil. This device was at the essence of his fight with Arnold, who was accused of peeking inside one of Earnshaw’s finished watches and then rushing to patent the design. Earnshaw had one decisive factor going for

him: Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal, liked him. In 1803 Maskelyne declared the new Earnshaw watches the best trialled at the Royal Observatory, and in 1805 awarded the watchmaker £3,000, the same amount being given to Arnold’s son (the father had died in 1799). This was the last straw for Earnshaw, and led to the publication of his book, his vindication (it is interesting that if it were not for scientific argy-bargy almost none of the great longitude books would have been printed).

Personal and sometimes bitter, this is not a technical treatise, rather Earnshaw glories in the details of his career and its successes. He is particularly proud of having the imprimatur of William Bligh, who had been asked to trial chronometers on the Providence during the second breadfruit voyage, and who not only singled Earnshaw for special praise, but actually bought one, sending a note (printed here twice!) to the watchmaker confirming his purchase of “no. 1503”. Otherwise, the book is full of stories about the machinations of the Board of Longitude, featuring luminaries such as Thomas Mudge and Maskelyne himself, as well as polite attacks on Sir Joseph Banks and out-and-out vitriol against Alexander Dalrymple, both of whom preferred Arnold. The appendices feature the results of some of the important trials.

In a long list of supporters, Earnshaw here mentions ‘Mr. Crosby (i.e.

Crosley) of the Providence and Investigator, ships on discoveries…’. A letter from Crosley regarding the Investigator is printed here on pp. 226-9, as well as another, dated Port Jackson 1795, which Crosley wrote while serving on board Providence, which had been sent out to rendezvous with Vancouver (pp. 229-30). The extracts from Earnshaw’s correspondence also includes two letters by William Kent of the Buffalo, who ordered a chronometer to be sent to him in Port Jackson, care of Governor Hunter.

Printed for the author in evidently very small numbers, this copy not only has the errata slip but also a manuscript erratum, no doubt written by the author. The Museum of Victoria has a copy of the 1986 reprint, but the book itself is very scarce. There is a copy in the Powerhouse Museum, and another in the National Library, although this latter is reported as missing the first 24 pages. $8850

[ISLE DE FRANCE] PRIOR, James.

Narrative of a Voyage in the Indian Seas, in the Nisus 30 Frigate…During the years 1810 and 1811.

Octavo, folding frontispiece map and three other plans and plates; recent half calf with gilt spine lettering, very good. London, Richard Phillips, circa 1819.

From Mauritius to India via the North West Cape

Uncommon: a rather interesting voyage to India via the Indian Ocean and Java by James Prior, an officer aboard the Nisus. One of the rare pre1829 accounts to record a visit to the northwest coast of Australia, as is illustrated by the important folding map with the track of the voyage.

The book is particularly interesting for Prior’s account of the fall of Mauritius in late 1810, just months after Flinders was finally released from his imprisonment. There is an excellent chart of Port Louis and also a detailed sounding chart of Port Louis to the eastward of Cannoner’s point and a table of engraved text titled “Plan of the Landing of the British Army in Mapou Bay, Isle de France”, with details of the numbers of men per vessel, their regiment, and deployment upon landing.

Prior’s book is also significant for his passing references to the West Australian coast: ‘approaching New Holland on the 6th of August, in the morning, land was discovered in the vicinity of the north-west Cape, the most prominent part of the coast. As we neared it the eye anxiously ranged over the widely-extended surface, in order to fix on some inviting spot where might be traced the habitations of men; but nothing of this kind could be distinguished’. $1250 Hill, 1394; not in Ferguson; not listed in Perry and Prescott’s A Guide to Maps of Australia in Books’.

[FLINDERS] The Naval Chronicle, vol. I to vol. XL. 31

40 volumes, large octavo, a complete run of about 20,000 pp. in total, 416 copper-engraved portraits and views (four folding and two coloured), 88 maps and charts (eight folding), and over 60 wood engraved vignettes after drawings by artists such as Pocock, all plates bound at the start of each volume, very clean and fresh; a handsome run in strictly original paper boards, spines with paper labels completed in manuscript, some bumps and edge wear, generally in quite remarkable condition. London, Joyce Gold, 1799-1818.

Rare complete run of this indispensable journal Very rare: the full twenty-year run of this important Georgian naval journal, complete with all of the plates and charts, in remarkable original condition.

In modern times famous as a source of inspiration for C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian, the Naval Chronicle was published from 1799-1818, a period coincidentally of moment in Australian exploration, particularly as regards the work of Matthew Flinders, for whom the journal is of central significance, publishing his first biography, the first engraved portrait, the first major account of the wreck of the Porpoise and Cato, as well as several letters from Flinders regarding hydrography and navigation. The Naval Chronicle also publishes, to cite a few examples, the first biographies of First Fleet officers Arthur Phillip, John Hunter, and John Shortland, as well as Commander of the Guardian Edward Riou, a good early (1803) memoir of Captain Cook himself, the veteran of Cook’s second voyage Alexander Hood, future Governor Charles Brisbane, the hydrographers Alexander Dalrymple and James Horsburgh, and the commander of the Calcutta James Hingston Tuckey.

A separate catalogue is available.

$48,000

[PURDIE, Robert] “Narrative of the Wreck of HMS Porpoise” [Part I, in:] 32 The Naval Chronicle for 1806…Volume the Sixteenth.

Octavo, frontispiece and 12 plates (including five mezzotint portraits and five aquatint maritime scenes); sporadic water-staining affecting the top edge, otherwise very good in handsome contemporary tree calf (joints showing a little wear), gilt decorated flat spine with crimson morocco label. London, Joyce Gold, 1806.

Wreck of the Porpoise & Cato, by an eyewitness

published in 1807.

Single volume of the important Georgian journal the Naval Chronicle for the latter half of 1806, publishing the first half of a 35-page description of the 1803 wreck of the Porpoise and Cato upon the Great Barrier Reef, one of only a handful of contemporary publications relating to the two wrecks. Most remarkably, this is a first-hand account of the wreck written by “one of the crew”, and it has now been shown that it was in fact written by Surgeon’s Mate of the Investigator Robert Purdie (a critical edition of the complete narrative by Purdie will be published by Hordern House shortly). This part of Purdie’s account includes the full account of the Porpoise and Cato wrecks; the second half of his account, telling of the return voyage to England on the Rolla, was

The present volume also includes a fine view of Coupang in Timor after one of William Westall’s original sketches. Westall had returned to England in 1805, and prepared a series of engravings for the official account of the voyage of the Investigator. $825

[FLINDERS] Captain Matthew Flinders R.N. Oval mezzotint portrait measuring 90 x 75 mm. with engraved caption and engraver’s details (within plate marked sheet measuring 228 x 142 mm.), fine. London, Joyce Gold, 30th September, 1814.

The famous Naval Chronicle portrait The classic portrait of Matthew Flinders published in London little over three months after his decease.

The portrait was engraved to accompany the obituary titled ‘Biographical memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N.’ in the Naval Chronicle, and is based upon the famous cameo by an unknown artist now held in the Mitchell Library. In addition to the obituary with this portrait, the Naval Chronicle published several pieces relating to Flinders’ career, including an account of the 1803 wreck of the Porpoise and Cato upon the Great Barrier Reef, and a later article of 1817 detailing Flinder’s observations on magnetic compass variations.

The obituary praises Flinders’ in glowing terms, lamenting his decease following the publication of the monumental A Voyage to Terra Australis: ‘At the precise period when this hardy and persevering mariner had just made good his title to be enrolled among those worthies of his profession…has he been cut off from amongst us in the prime of life, from maladies, originating from sufferings that consecrate his memory of that as a martyr to the cause of his country and of science.’ $950 Nan Kivell, p.113, 247.

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ANONYMOUS COMPILER. Voyages autour du Monde. Notes extraites de divers 34 ouvrages etrangers & traductions [Voyages around the world. Notes extracted from various works, in foreign language or translation].

Octavo, manuscript in ink on about 140 pages, in English and French; original binding of mottled sheep, heavily rubbed at spine, preserved in a folding cloth box. ?France, circa 1810- 1820.

Au fait with Flinders but not Baudin A remarkable manuscript compilation of voyage articles, assembled by an unknown writer towards the start of the nineteenth century, and of great interest for its material on Australia and the Pacific.

The manuscript is written by the same hand throughout in French and English, and appears to have been added to at different times over the years. It has been put together by someone with a strong interest – probably professional – in navigating Australian, Pacific and Asian waters. Although it is anonymous, the work nonetheless provides an insight into navigation at the turn of the nineteenth century, and shows a familiarity with the accounts of Bougainville, Krusenstern, Kotzebue and Horsburgh.

The manuscript includes a particularly interesting section of Australian interest as no less than fifteen pages discuss the anchorages and weather of Port Jackson, the coast of New South Wales, and the route eastward to Cape Horn, a section which appears to be based on personal experience

and local knowledge. The author notes that Port Jackson is ‘one of the best and safest harbours in the world, and a stranger may go into it with ease’. In this section he shows himself to be au fait with the work of John Hunter and, especially regarding currents in Australian waters, Matthew Flinders. There is even a note about a flood of the Hawkesbury that destroyed many small holdings ‘a few years ago’ (although the river flooded so routinely that this cannot be firmly dated).

Amongst much of interest there are extensive notes on Timor, the China Sea, and the Straits of Sonda, and the author is knowledgeable about the Antarctic islands such as Campbell (here said to have been discovered ‘about 8 years ago’ by Captain Walker), Auckland (discovered by Bristow), and the Bounty. The work concludes with the beginnings of an abridgement of Kotzebue’s voyage in the Rurik and a note on the west coast of Africa from Gibraltar to Cape Frio.

Another section on Cape Town relies on personal impressions: ‘I have known the south-easters blow so strong that a ship could not bring up under Penguin Island, but was driven to sea till the violence of the wind abated’ he writes at one point; at another, that ‘After working from Dassen Island, in January, 1798, to the entrance of Table Bay, we observed in the morning that it was calm under the high land in the S. Channel’.

An intriguing reference in a section discussing the typhoons of the China Sea notes that ‘Capt. Krusenstern, the Russian circum-navigator, informed me that the mercury fell below the graduated scale of 27 inches in his marine barometer, during the progress of a ty-foong, when near the Japan islands…’. This is one of the sections that is clearly dated, as the author comments that during ‘these last seven years’ several British ships have been dismasted and foundered as a result of typhoons (including HMS Neptune, Elphinston, Ocean and True Briton; these vessels sank between 1809 and 1812). $7500

EDEN, Sir George (Chairman).

Report from the Select Committee on Transportation.

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Folio, 118 pp. (comprising title page and report totalling 14pp., followed by minutes of evidence and appendices), a fine copy, discreet library stamp to title-page. London, July 1812.

Transportation, with testimony of Flinders, Bligh and Hunter A rare report examining transportation to NSW, printing testimonials by Matthew Flinders and William Bligh. Flinders had only returned to London in 1810 and was called before Eden’s Committee as an Australian expert.

This is one of the rare occasions on which he makes it into print.

Chaired by Sir George Eden, the Select Committee on Transportation was charged with examining the convict system. A considerable appendix contains 14 individual testimonials including former Governors Hunter and Bligh, Flinders, Alexander McLeay, First Fleet chaplain Richard Johnson and the ‘Scottish Martyr’ Maurice Margarot.

Flinders’ testimony covers the period 1795 up until 1804, and details geography, agriculture, soil fertility and rainfall, the prosperity of settlements in Van Diemen’s Land, and other matters. Asked by the committee what lay beyond the Blue Mountains, Flinders replied ‘it appeared to me exceedingly mountainous, and not practicable for agricultural purposes; I found the soil very good, so far as I went myself, but I did not penetrate much into the mountains; it was indeed the finest country I ever saw.’ Throughout, his name is misspelt ‘Captain Matthew Flinder’.

‘This book is the only published document illustrating Macquarie’s earliest years and is essential to a Macquarie collection or any collection devoted to the earliest years of Australia’ (Wantrup, p.109). $2600 Australian Rare Books, 38; Ferguson, 543.

[FLINDERS OBITUARY] Nottingham Journal for Saturday July 30, 1814.

Broadside newspaper, 4 pp., each measuring 528 x 390 mm., complete as issued, tax stamp, fine. Nottingham, 30 July, 1814.

“From His Superior Ability his loss to the Public is Very Great”

Beautifully preserved 1814 issue of the newspaper Nottingham Journal containing an obituary notice for Matthew Flinders. Nottingham is forty miles as the crow flies from Donington, Lincolnshire, where Flinders was born, and thus the Nottingham Journal is effectively his hometown paper.

Flinders is recorded alongside the obituary of popular writer Charles Dibdin; we learn of the decease ‘On the 19th inst. at his house in Fitzroy street, London, in the 40th year of his age, Capt. Flinders, of the Royal Navy, the Circumnavigator, who sailed from England, in the Investigator, on a voyage of discovery’.

Short and punchy, the obituary describes his detention at Mauritius with due contempt for Napoleonic France: ‘notwithstanding his passports, he was unjustly detained a prisoner, by order of the Usurper of France, and kept there in cruel captivity for seven years’. The editor of the Nottingham Journal was not insensitive to the cruel fact that Flinders died one day after A Voyage to Terra Australis was officially published – ‘the publication of which interesting work he only just survived.’ $800

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[SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION] [WAKEFIELD, Edward Gibbon] 37 South Australia. Outline of the plan of a proposed colony to be founded on the south coast of Australia…

Octavo, 80pp., three folding maps with original outline handcolouring, a fine copy polished tan half calf by Aquarius. London, Ridgway and Sons, 1834.

With the recollections of veterans of the Flinders voyage Rare: ‘the establishment of the South Australian Association proposed’ (Ferguson). Remarkably, this edition includes detailed accounts by the veterans of the Flinders voyage William Westall and John Aken, whose personal recollections are used to assert that Flinders himself had approved of the idea of a settlement on the southern coast.

Although unsigned, the book would certainly have been written under the auspices of Wakefield, who was the driving force behind the South Australian Association, which had been formed in 1834 for the establishment of a free settler colony. This edition includes significant additional material concerning prospects for Kangaroo Island, including the testimonies of Aken and Westall. A further description is provided by ‘Chevalier Dillon, late a Captain in the Hon. East India Company’s Service’. It was Peter Dillon who, in 1826, had discovered the fate of the La Pérouse expedition; some years previously he traded in Australian waters and recounts a voyage of 1815 to procure salt from Kangaroo Island.

This copy includes three maps, a collation which matches that of the copy in the Goldsmiths-Kress catalogue. However, Ferguson lists only two maps for this book, as with the Nan Kivell copy held by the National Library, and the 1962 facsimile only included two maps. $3000 Ferguson, 2516.

[WESTALL] [STEPHENS, John] The Land of Promise… South Australia…by One Who Is Going…

38 Octavo, folding frontispiece map, table and plan of Adelaide, and four engraved plates; a few spots affect the cloth yet fine overall. London, Smith, Elder and Co. 1839.

With a Westall view: a superb copy

An early immigrant’s guide to South Australia featuring an engraved plate after William Westall’s famous study of Aboriginal nomads.

In total The Land of Promise contains four handsome engraved plates, including two derived from the work of Captain William Light. The plate after Westall is titled “Port Lincoln” and is based closely on the original engraving in Flinders’ Voyage to Terra Australis.

Of additional interest to collectors of both Flinders and South Australian material generally is the “View of Encounter Bay with the Fisheries” after a sketch by Captain Pearson, the location so named after the famous meeting between Flinders and Baudin, showing the whaling huts and facilities clustered along the beach while three large ships (presumably whalers) seek shelter in the bay itself. $1450 Ferguson, 2850.

KIRBY, William.

Two Linnaean Society essays [with French:] “Centurie 39 d’Insectes, contenant plusieurs genres nouveaux…”

Two non-matching volumes: the English extract quarto, pp. 375-482, 3 hand-coloured plates, a few spots, in simple early light blue paper wrappers with manuscript title to front; the French small octavo, 4 hand-coloured plates, rather toned in places and some spotting, contemporary blue half roan, a few scuffs. London, 1818 & & Paris, chez Lequien Fils, 1834.

With insects collected by Robert Brown on Investigator

Two essays by Kirby from the Transactions of the Linnaean Society with a total of 51 Australian insects described (19 illustrated on the accompanying hand-coloured plates by Curtis); the majority of the Australian insects were collected by either Alexander Macleay or Robert Brown.

The first essay is entitled ‘A Century of Insects, including several new Genera described from his Cabinet’ (pp. 375-455) and includes 18 species of beetles from Australia (6 illustrated). Most of the other insects come from the Americas, particularly Brazil. The second essay is Kirby’s ‘A Description of several new Species of Insects collected in New Holland by Robert Brown…’ (pp. 456-482). Brown asked Kirby to work on the insects because his time was taken up with his botanical studies, and Kirby here describes 33 Australian insects (13 illustrated).

Sold together with the uncommon separately-published French edition of Kirby’s essay, Centurie d’Insectes… (1834), with new plates by Dupréel and preface by Lequien (bookseller’s note: 100 copies printed). $1900

FLINDERS, Matthew.

North West Side of the Gulf of Carpentaria by M. Flinders Commr. of H.M. Investigator 1803.

Engraved map measuring 668 x 469 mm., linen backed, a few spots and a little flecking at the periphery, otherwise very good condition. London, G and W.Nicol, 1814.

Flinders in the Gulf of Carpentaria Original engraved chart published for the atlas volume of Flinders’ masterpiece A Voyage to Terra Australis.

Charting this region was particularly difficult for Flinders and his officers; beset by scurvy in the tropical heat they soon discovered the timbers of the Investigator to be rotten and the vessel barely seaworthy.

This map is one of sixteen published for the atlas, and is clearly identified as its first state by the publisher’s details ‘G. & W. Nicol, Jany. 1st 1814’ engraved to the lower margin.

Noted for their accuracy and utility, Flinders’ charts were republished and updated by the Admiralty and remained in use for well over a century. Accordingly, examples of the first issue are increasingly uncommon, and it is probable that this unfolded copy backed on linen was used at sea. $2250 Australian Rare Books, pp. 140-144.

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FLINDERS, Matthew.

Chart of Terra Australis by M.Flinders Commr. of 41 H.M.Sloop Investigator 1799-1803. East Coast, Sheet III. Large engraved map 645 x 933 mm., backed on linen and folded at centre, some browning and offsetting with wear to extremities and slight loss at the central fold. London, Nicol, 1814.

The Queensland coast, and Wreck Reef

Engraved chart from Flinders’ survey detailing part of the eastern seaboard of Australia, including Hervey and Keppel Bays and the lower reaches of the Great Barrier Reef. This chart is also notable because at upper right it shows the dangerous waters of Wreck Reef, where Flinders was briefly stranded after the wreck of the Porpoise and Cato in 1803.

As with the preceding map of Carpentaria, this chart is an example of the first state prepared for A Voyage to Terra Australis, and has only a single central fold, suggesting it has not been taken from one of the smaller format atlases. This copy, backed on old linen, appears to have been used at sea in the early nineteenth-century – a few feint pencil markings, including one clearly dated ‘17th September 1827’, and the vestiges of a voyage track can be discerned. $2950

BAUER, Ferdinand.

Illustrationes florae Novae Hollandiae sive Icones Generum quae in Prodromo Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen descripsit Robertus Brown.

Very large folio, 624 x 490mm, with a series of 15 engraved plates after Bauer, in two states, sepia and bound, or hand-coloured (by Karen Lightfoot or Helen Wellard) and unbound; number XV, in fine condition in the original cloth-backed marbled boards, the coloured plates loose within window mounts, all contained within a single very large green morocco-backed solander box, by Aquarius. London, Alecto Historical Editions, 1989.

From an edition of 35 One of just 35 numbered copies (this copy number XV): Bauer’s wonderful botany of the Flinders voyage, with the plates in two states – uncoloured (sepia) and coloured.

This is an exceptional modern publication, highly limited, which makes use of the original copperengraved plates to recreate Bauer’s extraordinary, rare and beautiful work on the botany of Australia.

This is the only printing to have been done from the original plates since their first use of them for the original 1813 edition.

‘The 15 plates which make up this publication were stipple-engraved on copper by Bauer between 1806 and 1813 after his watercolours drawn from nature on Captain Matthew Flinders’ circumnavigation of Australia in HMS Investigator 1801-1803…’. These new impressions, the first to be taken from the original copperplates since Bauer’s 1813 edition, were printed a la poupée and hand-finished in watercolour.

The original printing of Bauer’s work in 1813 is exceptionally rare today.

42

“Probably less than 50 copies… were issued” (Great Flower Books, 1990).

Both Stafleu and Great Flower Books note that Ferdinand Bauer engraved the plates himself; according to Bauer’s elder brother, the amount of work involved was too much for Ferdinand and he was forced to suspend the project after only three parts were published as he could not find competent engravers to complete the work.

Bauer’s first published work was the famous series of engravings that he made for Sibthorp’s great Flora Graeca, described by Joseph Hooker as “the greatest botanical work that has ever appeared” (On the Flora of Australia, 1859). His talent soon caught the attention of Sir Joseph Banks who was involved in the preparations for Matthew Flinders’s voyage in the Investigator, which was to make the first circumnavigation of Australia. Ferdinand was invited to be the expedition’s artist, whilst the botanist on this momentous expedition was Robert Brown.

In 1801 Bauer was employed on the coastal survey of New Holland carried out under the command of Captain Flinders. In 1803, after the Investigator was condemned as unseaworthy, Flinders left for England to obtain another ship to complete the expedition. Bauer and Brown, however, continued their travels in Australia. They were an ideal team, Brown describing the collected specimens and Bauer sketching and painting them.

Bauer continued, collecting and sketching on Norfolk Island and in New South Wales, while Brown went south to Van Diemen’s Land. They finally returned to England in 1805 with several thousand botanical specimens and many hundreds of sketches of plants. $19,500 Sitwell and Blunt, ‘Great Flower Books’, p. 49 (noting the original 1806-13 edition).

WESTALL, William.

View of Port Jackson, taken from the South Head.

43

Engraved view, 160 x 227 mm., mounted, some discolouring. London, G and W. Nicol, 1814.

Sydney Harbour after Westall

William Westall was “landscape artist and figure draughtsman” on the Investigator. Engravings of his paintings were used to illustrate the publication of the voyage in 1814, but were also published as an issue of the plates alone in the same year (see list no. 25).

$1200

[FLINDERS] PURDIE, Robert.

Manuscript power-of-attorney written and signed by Purdie, former Surgeon’s Mate on the Investigator, while serving in Sierra Leone.

44

Manuscript of three pages (two leaves measuring 322 x 205 mm.), laid paper watermarked 1812, with paper seal; folded to docket size, a little rubbed and browned yet good condition overall. Freetown, Sierra Leone, 12 April, 1814.

The later career of the Surgeon’s Mate of HMS Investigator A veteran of HMS Investigator in later life: a power of attorney written and signed by Robert Purdie, who was appointed in 1801 as Surgeon’s Mate with Flinders, and who remained on board for the entire expedi-

tion. The manuscript, written in 1814 and witnessed by the Governor Charles W. Maxwell, represents a rare opportunity to glimpse a few details of his controversial later life and career. Of course, any manuscript material relating to any of Flinders’ crew is most uncommon.

Purdie (1780-1815) was a native of Calder, Midlothian in Scotland. Although a relatively young medical officer for such an arduous voyage, he served with some distinction, and Flinders named Purdie Islands (off the South Australian coast near Ceduna) for him in 1802, not far from Point Bell (Flinders obviously had his crew very much in mind at the time, because the latter point was named for the senior Surgeon, Hugh Bell).

Purdie was one of those who wrecked on board the Porpoise in 1803, remained with the survivors until they were picked up by the Rolla, and returned to England. He must be the surgeon of that name who served on the Argo from July 1806 (at the latest), in which service he sailed to Africa and the West Indies, and next appears in Sierra Leone as secretary to the British colony under Governor Maxwell, a role which saw him caught up in criticism over the treatment of captured slaves. Purdie died en route home from Sierra Leone in 1815.

Significantly, Purdie has recently been proved to be the author of a long account of the wreck of the Porpoise and life in NSW, originally published in the Georgian journal the Naval Chronicle in 1806 & 1807.

Purdie’s narrative is in fact the earliest full account of an Investigator officer and the only published account of life on the reef, marking it out as an important contribution to the history of Flinders’ expedition. Hordern House will soon issue a limited edition of the text, with notes and an introduction. Contact us for more details or to reserve a copy. $3400

GROSE, Lieutenant Governor Major Francis.

Land Grant to Obadiah Ikin of thirty acres in Lane Cove, 45 later transferred to Henry Hacking.

Folio, manuscript in ink on paper, 440 x 365 mm., with original paper seal, official stamps and annotations including cancellation stamp dated 1940, detailed manuscript notes to the reverse; good, some water staining but the important signatures still clear, wear to old folds repaired with india paper in several places. Sydney, 3 October, 1794.

“Mark” of Hacking, First Fleeter and colleague of Flinders A particularly interesting land grant from the first years of settlement, signed by Francis Grose (acting governor for two years following Phillip’s departure), witnessed by John White, William Paterson, and Edward Laing, and inscribed by David Collins as Governor’s Secretary.

Ikin later sold the land to Henry Hacking, surely one of the most experienced of the early Sydney hands, serving on the First Fleet (Sirius), returning to Sydney on another early convict vessel in 1792 (Royal Admiral), as well as serving as first mate on the Lady Nelson, companion vessel to the Investigator on its survey of the Queensland Coast. At different times he also served as harbour pilot in both Port Jackson and Hobart, as well as making any number of inland expeditions to the Blue Mountains and as far south as Port Hacking, named for him by Matthew Flinders. Here, Hacking has witnessed the transaction with his mark.

The grant records the awarding of thirty acres to Obadiah Ikin at Lane Cove, to be known as “Ikin’s Farm.” Ikin was from Shropshire, and came to Australia as a corporal in the New South Wales Corps on board the Surprise in 1790. After a tour of duty on Norfolk Island and promotion to sergeant, he was back in Sydney by late 1794 and was promptly awarded

this grant, on the site of the present day Lane Cove shopping centre.

Soon after he was also granted a town block, which probably prompted Ikin to sell the land to Henry Hacking, who had an accompanying plot.

Ikin settled south of Penrith, and died sometime around 1812.

The grant is signed by Grose and witnessed by three important figures in colonial Sydney, the surgeon and author John White; second-incommand of the NSW Corps, William Paterson; and the surgeon’s mate Edward Laing, who had arrived on the Pitt in 1792. The final signature is that of David Collins, the longest serving of any of the major First Fleet officers, then acting as secretary to Grose.

This land grant also has the further history of the plot written to the back of the document. Ikin sold the land for £6.6 to Henry Hacking on 13 August 1795 (witnessed William Sutton and Duncan Campbell, and also signed Obadiah Ikin); Hacking, in turn, sold it for £19 to James Wilshire and William Bennett on 16 September 1803 (witnessed John North and signed Henry Hacking “his mark”). $8850 Ryan, ‘Land Grants’ , p. 26, no. 198.

[FRANKLIN] STOTHARD (engraver).

Sir John Franklin, R.N. 46

Portrait medal, white metal, 28 mm., very good. London, Royal Polytechnic, after 1841.

Midshipman on HMS Investigator

Rare portrait medal of Sir John Franklin, who in his youth served as midshipman aboard the Investigator from 1801 to 1803.

Franklin (1786-1847) entered the navy at the age of 14 and was selected as a midshipman for the Investigator voyage by Flinders, his uncle by marriage. Franklin was, by contemporary accounts, an intelligent and high spirited youth who acquired a taste for the danger and exhilaration of exploration during his time with Flinders.

Franklin was wrecked in the Porpoise and Cato catastrophe alongside other Investigator veterans including Flinders, Westall and Purdie. Many years later Franklin served as lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen’s land at a difficult time in the history of convict transportation, nonetheless he is remembered as a humane and able administrator.

This medal was issued by the Royal Polytechnic, the famed institution which opened in London in 1838. $1850 British Historical Medals, 2101.

[FLINDERS] MAGUIRE, T.H. Portrait of Robert Brown.

Lithograph, 243 x 290 mm., in fine condition. Ipswich, n.p. but 1850.

Naturalist of the Investigator Fine and rare separately-issued portrait of the botanist Robert Brown (1773-1858), naturalist on Flinders’s Investigator voyage.

A friendship with Jonas Dryander, librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, led to Brown’s appointment as naturalist to accompany Matthew Flinders on his expedition. ‘Before joining the Investigator Brown studied the Australian and other plants in Bank’s collections, and the voyage undoubtedly helped him to develop the powers of acute observation and intense application which gained him the dominant position he held in the scientific world in the first half of the nineteenth century…’ (ADB).

Brown’s major work on Australian plants was his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Dieman published in 1810. He also contributed to Flinders’s major publication A Voyage to Terra Australis.

This is a rare portrait, recorded by Nan Kivell from a copy in his own collection (now in the National Library of Australia). $4250 Nan Kivell & Spence, p. 46.

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UNKNOWN ARTIST. Miniature portrait on ivory of Elizabeth Flinders.

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Fine portrait miniature, 70 x 55 mm., painted on ivory backed with card, slip of paper with in the excellent original black-lacquered timber frame measuring 120 x 85 mm., ornate bronze suspension loop. [Lincolnshire], circa 1830.

Matthew Flinders’ beloved step-mother A lovely miniature portrait of Elizabeth Flinders, the much-loved stepmother of Matthew. No other portrait of Elizabeth is recorded, making this a charming addition to the history of Flinders’ immediate family, not least because a series of his warm letters to Elizabeth is extant.

Matthew Flinders was the son of Matthew senior and his first wife Susannah Ward. Susannah died in March 1783 when Matthew was still only a boy of nine years old, and his father remarried Elizabeth less than a year later, on 2 December 1783.

Born Elizabeth Weeks (or Weekes) in 1752, the couple are known to have had three children, two of whom survived: Hannah (1789-1847) and Henrietta (1791-1838). Matthew Flinders senior died in 1802: news of his death affected his son very greatly, and one of the more moving of his letters is written to Elizabeth from Port Jackson, 10 June 1803. Addressed to “my dearest mother”, the letter writes of his pain and sadness on hearing the news, but also continues in the hope “I beg of you dear mother to look upon me with affection and as one who means to contribute everything in his power to your happiness. Independent of my dear father last wish [evidently of a continuing relationship], I am of myself desirous that the best understanding and correspondence should subsist between us; for I love and reverence you and hope to be considered by you as the most anxious and affectionate of your friends whose heart and

purse will ever be ready for your service…” (Brunton ed., Personal Letters, p. 95). Matthew remained in close epistolary contact with her for the rest of his life.

The miniature has a sheet of paper attached to the back, written in a nineteenth-century hand setting out the provenance unequivocally: “Mrs. Flinders. Second wife of Matthew Flinders, Surgeon, of Donington, Lincolnshire. Formerly Miss Weeks and later Mrs. Ellis. She was the mother of Hannah Dodd, my grandmother, & died at Donington in 1841 aged 90. EA.” Until recently the portrait was still in the possession of a distant family relation. $15,500

[FLINDERS] MONTGOMERY, James.

The Pelican Island, and other Poems.

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Duodecimo, a lovely uncut copy in papered boards with original gilt lettered cloth backstrip, as issued (moderately rubbed with a little wear to extremities). London, Longman, et al. 1828.

Flinders gets his poet Long and curious poem directly inspired by Flinders’ descriptive of Kangaroo Island. Flinders inspired very few poets, making this one of only a handful of works to derive directly from his voyage.

Montgomery was a popular poet and freely acknowledges his debt to Flinders in the preface of this book: ‘Captain Flinders was particularly struck with the appearance of one of these islands, on the surface of which were scattered the relics of a great number of trees, prostrated by some tremendous storm, or, as he conjectured, self-ignited by the friction of dead branches in a strong wind. This fact…suggested the catastrophe described at the close of the third Canto of the Poem.’ $850 Ferguson, 1207.

HERVEY, Thomas Kibble.

The Poetical Sketch-Book, including a third edition of Australia.

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Duodecimo, with a steel-engraved decorative title-page, a very good copy in in contemporary green morocco, all edges gilt, bound without half-title or final leaf of advertisements. London, Edward Bull, 1829.

Flinders & Baudin both get a poet Am anthology including “Australia”, a lengthy idyllic poem inspired by great voyage accounts including those of Flinders and Baudin. This is the third edition, after the first of 1824.

Hervey (1799-1859) begins “Australia” with an introduction of eight pages, effectively a potted history of Pacific marine exploration that re-

veals the author’s penchant for voyage literature; footnotes include specific references to the Baudin account and others. He quotes the naturalist Péron on fragrant Evodia blossoms, and also on the height and majesty of tall primeval eucalypt forests. Overlooked by Morris Miller, Hervey’s poem reflects Britain’s aspiration for Australia as a wild land holding the promise of great civilisation in generations to come. $325 Ferguson, 1268.

[FLINDERS] SCOTT, Ernest.

The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N. Thick octavo, frontispiece, maps and plates; some scattered foxing otherwise a most handsome copy in black half calf with raised bands and gilt lettering. Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1914.

Handsome copy of the great biography of Matthew Flinders Detailed and scholarly biography of the great mariner and master cartographer Matthew Flinders by Sir Ernest Scott, a pioneering scholar of Australian history. Numerous plates and charts enliven the text. $600

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FLINDERS, Matthew.

Matthew Flinders’ Narrative of his Voyage in the Schooner Francis…

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Folio, with a map and wood-engravings by John Buckland Wright; a fine copy, uncut in the original full green morocco gilt by Sangorski, slipcase. London, Golden Cockerel Press, 1946.

De luxe issue The scarce de luxe issue, one of only one hundred numbered copies in full morocco. This important first publication of the manuscript in the State Library of Victoria gives Flinders’ account of his 1788 voyage in the Francis that led to his exploration of Bass Strait, and to the discovery of the Illawarra coal seams by Bass. $4500 Hill, 615.

BRUNTON, Paul (editor).

Personal Letters from an extraordinary life.

Octavo, 272 pp., 19 colour illustrations; bound in burgundy cloth with colour illustrated boards and a silk book ribbon. Sydney, Hordern House for the State Library of NSW, 2002.

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Flinders’ correspondence, introduced by Paul Brunton A selection of over one hundred of Flinders’ letters which document his life’s great achievements. A highlight is the letter to Sir Joseph Banks, volunteering for the task of completing the discovery of New Holland.

Also published here for the first time is a recently-discovered letter from Flinders to George Bass. $138

BROWN, Anthony J. & Gillian DOOLEY (eds).

Matthew Flinders Private Journal. From 17 December 1803 at Isle of France to 10 July 1814 at London.

Large octavo, 12 plates and two folding maps; one of the unbound boxed sets prepared for collectors, with the unbound sheets preserved in a large format box. Adelaide, The Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 2005.

The revealing private journal: Limited, Boxed & Unbound Limited edition, unbound boxed set of the private journal of Matthew Flinders, published by the State Library of South Australia from the original papers held in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. Flinders kept the diary from the very day he was taken ashore by the French at Mauritius, and continues until his death in 1814.

$775

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