Search Results: Authors starting with R from Hordern House Rare Books

London: Richard Phillips, 1822. Very good.. Octavo, 116 pp., later cloth. An interesting anonymous account (the Preface is signed "J.R. Supercargo") of an early journey through China from Macao to Canton on board the English vessel Friendship, Captain Ross. The book also includes several separate articles of interest including an official edict on the banning of opium and Milne's description of Chinese printing. This was published as part of Sir Richard Phillips' New Voyages and Travels (London, 1820-23), and like the other titles in the series was also available separately. .

Amsterdam: Jean Frederic Bernard, 1741. Joints of first volume just starting but a very attractive set.. Three quarto volumes, with two frontispieces, two engraved decorative titles, and 16 plates (of which three are folding), contemporary binding of polished calf, flat spines gilt with complex ornaments in panels. Beautifully printed with an impressive array of engraved plates, this is widely considered the most desirable eighteenth-century edition of Rabelais. It is notable for its learned commentary by the scholar Jacob Duchat, and for the inclusion of letters and other material related to the life of the master satirist. This lavish enlightenment production contains sixteen plates including three folding studies of Rabelais' family estate of La Déviniere at Indre-et-Loire (namely, a birds-eye view of the estate with its walled vineyard, Rabelais' chamber, and the domestic courtyard). As the title-page boasts, many of the engravings are from the Amsterdam workshop of Bernard Picart (1673-1738),… Read More

France, probably Paris, 1850. Generally in very good original condition, a few pages with marginal water damage.. A small archive of manuscripts comprising: (1) a detailed illustrated South Seas catalogue on six large wove paper bifolia, 292 x 384 mm., in pencil, folded in half; (2) a similarly-sized illustrated but less-annotated South American catalogue on eight large wove paper bifolia, 301 x 404 mm., in pencil, folded in half; (3) a simple catalogue handlist on seven large sheets of wove paper, 360 x 230 mm., completed in ink with some pencil corrections, the sheets folded in half on the vertical axis; (4) a numbered catalogue of South Seas artefacts on two bifolia 312 x 400 mm., central fold; (5) some working papers, including one sheet numbered in pencil, 304 x 210 mm.; a 5-pp. handlist in pencil on two bifolia, 285 x 197 mm.; and a 2-pp. list in pencil, 315 x 205 mm., almost entirely struck through. An exceptional and valuable archive of manuscripts relating to one of the most historically… Read More

France, probably Paris, 1850. Some spotting and foxing but very good indeed.. 35 pp. autograph manuscript in ink, loose sheets of wove paper measuring 227 x 180 mm, numbered at top left, together with an additional 22 pp. in the same hand, being a working draft of the major manuscript; both corrected throughout in ink and pencil; modern quarter calf bookform box. A major unpublished Pacific manuscript, perhaps the most detailed analysis and most passionate argument for establishing a French penal colony in the Pacific of any of the early French voyager-writers, especially significant as it was written by the private secretary of the great circumnavigator Dupetit-Thouars, one of the mainstays of French ambitions in the entire region. A half century and more after the first stages of the Botany Bay experiment, the British vision still tantalisingly in front of the French, Radiguet presents one of the most thoughtful analyses of the prospects for what he calls "a free Botany Bay". Maximilien-René… Read More

Sydney: E.P. Ramsay, 1888. Extremities rubbed, a fair copy. Octavo with folding map; release stamps from N.S.W. Public Libraries, contemporary maroon half morocco. Dr. Ramsay was a prominent naturalist, specialising in ornithology, who wrote a great many papers, many of which were to do with preserving natural history specimens. .

[Sydney or Scotland]: 21 August, 1829. Old folds.. Three-page ALS in a neat but unfinished hand, 228 x 185 mm., original red wax seal, stamp for the Sydney post office but not otherwise marked, very good. A charming and rather rare example of a woman writing from Sydney in the 1820s. The letter was written to Janet Ranken, the wife of the important Bathurst pastoralist and settler George, one of the first to take up land in the region. On George Ranken see a long entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and the 1916 memoir The Rankens of Bathurst. The only mystery about the letter is whether it was written in Scotland (where it is probably likely that Mrs Hutchison was still living) or Sydney (the sealed letter has only one postal stamp, for Sydney): was Janet Ranken's mother also an immigrant to New South Wales? The letter was written to her daughter Janet "Jenny" Ranken Hutchison, who had then been living in Bathurst for several years, having married the pastoralist George Ranken in May… Read More

London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company, 1880. Blank margins neatly trimmed,else fine.. Carte de visite measuring 94 x 60 mm, Fine carte de visite portrait of Professor Thomas Huxley, one of the pre-eminent naturalists of Victorian England who championed the evolutionary theory propounded by Charles Darwin throughout his professional career. Huxley is also an important figure in Australian natural history as he accompanied the government biologist John Macgillivray aboard the Rattlesnake scientific survey of 1846-50. This expedition, under the command of Captain Owen Stanley, travelled north along the coast of north Queensland and through the Barrier Reef before exploring coastal New Guinea and the Louisiade archipelago. During his time in Australian waters Huxley speculated on concepts related to biology and evolution, so much so that he became a staunch advocate and defender of Darwin upon returning to Britain. .

London J. Reynolds & Sons 174 Strand nd, 1875. Hand coloured lithograph, 430 x 690mm; mounted and framed. A large nineteenth century lithograph showing full length portraits of people from Oceania and America. To the left of the lithograph are depicted examples of "typical" Oceanic inhabitants - Malay, Sandwich Islands, Marquesas Islander, New Zealander, North and South Australia, whilst to the right are Papuan, Patagonian, Araucanian, Chippeway and Cherokee. An interest in ethnography took a central place in the lives of educated Europeans as science and world history were not yet too esoteric and specialised for the average person to understand. Maritime discovery was enthusiastically followed by both the French and English nations and the savants of both countries had a keen intellectual curiosity in the ethnography of the newly-discovered countries. Published in London, this image was designed by Ernst George Ravenstein (1834-1913) a German- English geographer and cartographer. Born in Main,… Read More

[Sydney]: S. Sedgefield (signed as lithographer), 1870. Very good.. Tinted lithograph, 192 x 340 mm., mounted. A charming separately issued lithograph showing Bear Island before it was joined to the mainland at La Perouse, Sydney and prior to the construction of a fort built in the 1880s to ward off the perceived threat of an attack on Sydney by Russian forces. The fort still stands today and is connected to the mainland by the original wooden bridge. Although Raworth uses the name Bear Island on this lithograph, it is generally called Bare Island, as described in Cook's journal in 1770. William Henry Raworth (c.1820-1905), who arrived in Sydney from England around 1867, produced several engravings of the Sydney area, as well as landscapes in watercolour. He was involved in a number of exhibitions including the second Annual Art Exhibition at the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1873. At this time one of his pictures sold for the substantial amount of 42 pounds to the Art Gallery of New South… Read More

[Sydney]: S. Sedgefield (signed as lithographer), 1870. Tinted lithograph, 192 x 340 mm., mounted. An unusual and separately issued view of Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. This view, looking up from the Harbour, shows Darling Point populated by only a few stately villas. In the background can be seen the spire of St Mark's Church while in the foreground is a fisherman examining his catch on the present day site of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. William Henry Raworth (c.1820-1905), who arrived in Sydney from England around 1867, produced several engravings of the Sydney area, as well as landscapes in watercolour. He was involved in a number of exhibitions including the second Annual Art Exhibition at the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1873. At this time one of his pictures sold for the substantial amount of 42 pounds to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. His work has both intimacy and serenity, and his Sydney lithographs are quite scarce. .

London: Cadell and Davies, 1809. Three volumes, octavo, aquatint frontispiece portrait; fine in contemporary sprinkled calf, spines simply ruled in gilt, red morocco lettering pieces and circular green volume labels. Fourth edition, corrected, in a restrained contemporary binding: the works of Sir Joseph Reynolds, the most influential of eighteenth-century English painters. This attractive set includes the famous Discourses of Reynolds: 'a classic of our language ... a model of art criticism' (Cambridge History of English Literature). Also included is Mason's translation of du Fresnoy's 'Art of Painting' with Reynolds's commentary, and a life of Reynolds by Edmond Malone. .

[London: John Boydell, 1780. Margins and lower imprint line trimmed; very good.. Mezzotint engraving, 625 x 380 mm.; handsomely framed. One of the most romantic images of the eighteenth-century Pacific. This fine full-length portrait, based on the original painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was engraved by the Austrian artist Johann Jacobe (1733-1797, his name sometimes anglicised to John Jacobe). It has since become one of the most justly famous images of early Pacific exploration, and recognised as the idealised expression of Rousseau's conception of the noble savage. Omai (more properly "Mai") arrived in England in 1774 on the Adventure, commanded by Captain Furneaux. Introduced at court by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, Omai's natural grace and enthusiasm captivated London society, and he was held to be the epitome of the noble South Sea islander. Interestingly, Cook's initial impression of Omai was not particularly favourable, but he warmed to him, and Omai became a favourite with the crew… Read More

London: T. Longman et al., 1796. A fine set.. Seven volumes, small octavo; each volume with an engraved frontispiece showing a scene from the narrative; contemporary half roan, marbled paper sides, flat spines lettered in gilt. A very attractive set. First printed in 1753, Richardson's novel set out to create a perfect gentleman to counter-balance such characters as the caddish Mr. B- of Richardson's Pamela and the unheroic males in Fielding's Tom Jones. Jane Austen and George Eliot both thought highly of the book, and Ruskin ranked it with Don Quixote, though others have found Charles Grandison impossibly perfect and consequently uninteresting. This attractive set is a copy of the eighth edition, showing that the novel could still captivate the public some forty years after its first appearance. . Provenance: From the library of the Marquess Conyngham at Slane Castle, Ireland, with his bookplates and his signature at the top of each title page.

London: Printed for S. Richardson, 1754. Seven volumes, small octavo, single leaf publisher's advertisement in volume IV, marginal tear with slight loss to one page of volume III and two pages in volume VI, some pages becoming loose (see volume IV), early owner's inscription to each title-page ("Jurin"), occasional eighteenth-century marginalia; overall an attractive set in contemporary full calf, banded spines with double green and red labels, some wear including chipping to some of the labels, and chipping to head and tail of spines, a little shaken. First editions: a handsome set, the third and last of Richardson's great epistolary novels, in striking contemporary condition. Considered a companion to the earlier Clarissa, here Richardson gave a portrait of a good man, to balance some of the portraits of bounders and cads that had graced his earlier novels. Richardson's patience - and vanity - had been tried by the publishing success of Fielding's Tom Jones, and he took some time to complete the… Read More

Paris: Didot Fréres, 1836. Engraving, 135 x 220 mm.; very good condition. Charming engraved plate depicting an Australian indigenous tomb, complete with carved trees and unusually formed earthen walls. Although the image is somewhat incongruous as a depiction of an Australian Aboriginal tomb, it does include dendroglyphs on two of the trees pictured. The plate is taken directly from Domeny de Rienzi's Océanie ou Cinquième partie du monde, revue géographique et ethnographique de la Malaisie, de la Micronésie, de la Polynésie et de Mélanésie (Paris 1836). This book condensed and clarified information and images from the great French voyages of the first decades of the nineteenth-century including Freycinet, Duperrey and Dumont d'Urville. .

Paris: Didot Fréres, 1836. Engraving, 135 x 220 mm.; very good condition. Charming engraved plate depicting sailors filling casks at New Ireland, Papua, from Domeny de Rienzi's Océanie ou Cinquième partie du monde, revue géographique et ethnographique de la Malaisie, de la Micronésie, de la Polynésie et de Mélanésie (Paris 1836). This book condensed and clarified information and images from the great French voyages of the first decades of the nineteenth-century including Freycinet, Duperrey and Dumont d'Urville. .

London: Seeley, Service, 1925. Head and tail of spine very slightly chipped.. Octavo, black and white photographic plates, text illustrations and two maps (one folding); a good copy in the original decorated cloth, gilt. Edward Baxter Riley (1868-1929) was placed in charge of the London Missionary Society's Fly River Mission on Daru Island in 1901, after Scottish-born missionary James Chalmers was killed by men from Goarbari Island while trying to expand the Mission's territory. Originally trained as a pharmacist, Riley became an expert on Papuan languages, contributing a lengthy vocabulary to A grammar of the Kiwai Language, Fly Delta, Papua, 1832 (published posthumously). The eminent anthropologist A.C. Haddon in Reports on the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, vol. 1. (1935) noted Baxter Riley's "valuable contribution" to the "ethnography of the Kiwai" represented by the present work. .

1896. Faded to left edge. Albumen silver photograph 84 x 69 mm. contemporary manuscript inscription on the obverse, very good. Original field-work photograph of the "Danaeia Erippus" (actually Danaus, the "Southern Monarch") taken at the Hawkesbury River in 1896 and a compelling image of butterflies, caterpillars and a chrysalis perched on a cotton plant. The scene appears to be staged and the obverse inscription reads, '(Use magnifying glass,) For Clifford...caterpillars, chrysalis, butterfly.' Taken with a dramatically shallow depth of field, the image has an impressive range of tones typical of the albumen silver print technology which was reaching its height towards the end of the twentieth century. .

London: Parker, 23 January, 1836. Fine.. Quarto, pp. [25]-32, disbound. The article is reprinted from the Western Australian of January 1835. It describes the skill of two indigenous trackers - "Migo" and "Molly-Dobbin" who found a lost child after a long and frustrating search through 22 miles of dunes and thick scrub. The trackers persevere when hope is perishing, and are delighted 'beyond all conception' when the boy is finally found. This heartening account was widely reprinted at the time, including in Irwin's State and Position of Western Australia (London 1835). .

Sydney: Gibbs, Shallard, 1879. Fine.. Octavo, portrait frontispiece; prize binding blue calf, gilt. Finely bound copy. .