Search Results: Titles starting with T from Hordern House Rare Books

A joint publication with the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales Discusses and illustrates some of the exquisite watercolours from the Lesueur Collection at the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle, Le Havre, and explores the story behind the Baudin expedition which produced these remarkable images. A4 folio, (310 x 250 mm.), 148 pages with numerous colour illustrations; hardcover with dustjacket. The 46 watercolours and drawings forming the core of Terre Napoléon are but a small part of the vast visual record of one of the most extraordinary scientific enterprises of our early colonial period - the Baudin expedition of 1800 to 1804. A voyage born of revolutionary times, these images by Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit are what remains of Napoleon's ambition to establish a new scientific empire in the Antipodes.Terre Napoléon follows on from the publication Baudin in Australian Waters (now out of print) in providing a new look at the French encounter with Nouvelle Hollande. Essays by… Read More

Amsterdam, 1662. Fine condition.. Engraved map, 460 x 560 mm., with original handcolouring; mounted. Fine early map of the East Indies showing the north-Australian discoveries of Abel Tasman. Frederick de Wit was one of the foremost map-makers in Holland, whose 'maps were distinguished by their excellent craftsmanship, exactness and beauty...' (Schilder). This map stretches from Persia in the west to China and Taiwan in the east, and shows northern "Hollandia Nova", bearing three significant place names: "Van Diemens Landt"; "Baya van Diemen" and "Vuyle hoeck" (the last a disparaging term meaning something like "rotten corner" and evidently relating to the inhospitable coastline). These were among the names given to places on the north coast of Australia by Tasman during his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company. 'Frederick de Wit, an apprentice of William Blaeu... became one of the most prominent and successful map engravers and publishers in Amsterdam following… 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. .

London: J. Hatchard, 1812. A few spots, but a good copy.. Octavo, bound without the half-title and the final leaf of advertisements in old half blue calf. First edition of Crabbe's collection of twenty-one poems revealing his rather grim sense of humour. The most well-known of these, The Frank Courtship, tells of the pure Josiah - 'A heart unspotted, and a life unblam'd' - and his courtship of the worldly Sybil 'fond of pleasure, gay and light'. .

London: John Murray, 1819. A few spots but a good copy.. Two volumes, octavo, with the half-titles and a final leaf of advertisements; in half green morocco. First edition, the last of Crabbe's works to be published during his lifetime. Although passionately opposed to sentimentality, his use of the Augustan heroic couplet has a slightly jingling tone to the modern ear. He was, however, enormously popular in the nineteenth century, and widely respected by the Romantics, including Byron who described Crabbe as 'Though nature's sternest painter yet the best'. .

France, 1820. In fine condition.. Original drawing in ink on paper, 220 x 290 mm., ms. notations in ink and pencil; in fine condition, mounted. A finely-executed nineteenth-century technical drawing showing the tryworks and various implements involved in on-board whale processing. This drawing, with its various manuscript corrections, may have been a preliminary work for a French publication on whaling. It is drawn with the usual competence and finesse associated with French maritime art of this period. The upper section of the drawing shows different types of harpoon, lance, forks, ladles and strainers, and a sail-buoy used to mark whale carcasses. The lower section of the drawing shows the "tryworks" - the on-board furnace used for rendering whale blubber into oil. The tryworks was the most distinguishing feature of a whaleship, and consisted of two cast-iron trypots set into a brick furnace. At the time when this drawing was made, French whaling activity was mainly concentrated in the Pacific,… Read More

London, 1853. Very good.. Eleven black and white lithographs: numbers 1-5 and 7-9 approx 255 x 330 mm (matted size) and 2 approx 280 x 375 mm (conforming to those prepared for "Fifteen views of Australia in 1845 by G.K.E.F.") and one view approx 250 x 325 mm titled 'King George's Sound W. Australia, Printed by R. Appel's Anastatic Press'; unbound, housed in a blue cloth solander case. George Fairholme (1822-1889), artist, explorer and squatter arrived in Sydney from Scotland in 1839 and with young Scottish friends began the long and pioneering trek into Queensland. He settled at South Toolburra on the Darling Downs staying until 1852. This was the very beginning of white settlement at Brisbane and the Darling Downs and this young squatter is remembered as "a very intelligent gentlemanly man, the most intelligent of any of the squatters" (Henry Stoubart). The eleven lithographs offered include a view of Brisbane showing the first houses to be built. Privately printed by the artist on his return to… Read More

Paris, 1807. Slight marginal browning, very good condition.. Engraved portrait, 315 x 240 mm. (plate size). A striking portrait of the Tasmanian man Grou-Agara by Petit prepared for the atlas volume of the first edition of the official account of the Baudin voyage. The two ships of the expedition had anchored in d'Entrecasteaux Channel on 13 January 1802 after two months at sea; Frank Horner has called the time that followed 'two of the most productive months the expedition was to enjoy' (The French Reconnaissance, p. 191). Their easy and friendly relations with the aboriginal tribes of the region had brought great satisfaction to the French, and they maintained a good rapport throughout their stay. Petit, in particular, was very busy with his sketch book, and his series of portraits and scenes are among the most sensitive portrayals of Tasmanian aborigines - in fact, together with the handful of portraits in the official account of Cook's third voyage, these portraits are the earliest major study… Read More

Edinburgh: Thomas Constable & Co, 1857. With repair to lower section of joint.. Octavo, numerous text illustrations; publisher's blind-stamped cloth. Published posthumously and as the melancholy Note records "Few readers of this volume, it is presumed, need to be informed that its lamented author spent a part of the last day of his life in correcting the proofs of its concluding pages." Hugh Miller (1802-1856) was a Scottish geologist with no formal training and this is his apologia for Creationism, with an attempt to balance it with scientific thought. Miller's book is organised as a series of "lectures". The first two deal with the palaeontology of plants and animals, and their succession in the Earth's geology. He then begins discussion of the "two records", Biblical and geological, in "lectures" 3 to 6. Lectures 7 & 8 deal with the "Noachian Deluge". The first deals primarily with theological issues, and the second primarily with geological. Lecture 9 and 10 contrast the two types of evidence,… Read More

Paris: Bulla, 1828. A few light spots a very good copy overall.. Handcoloured lithograph, 385 x 290 mm. Engaging Australian Aboriginal portraits and camp scene in the region of Camden, NSW, from the official voyage account of Hyacinthe de Bougainville, who toured the South Pacific between 1824 and 1826. Edmond de la Touanne, whose work formed the basis of these fine lithographic portraits, was a friend and protégé of de Bougainville and sailed on his expedition as lieutenant de vaisseau. Because of the haste with which the expedition was manned, no official artist was sent; as Bougainville remarks, no pictorial record of the expedition would have survived but for de la Touanne's sketches, which were published as lithographs in the official record of the expedition and in de la Touanne's own album. .

Australia, 1880. Pair of horns, approx 800 mm height, mounted on metal stands with fittings, slate bases with inset marble panels, brass plaques. A testamentary relic to the rich story of the Kelly gang: a striking ornamental pair of bullocks' horns. They are decorated in scrimshaw with depictions of Ned Kelly and various members of the Kelly gang, including Kate Kelly, and Ned's favourite mare 'Music', with other decorations, some floral. Both gangsters and lawmen are represented as the figures engraved on the horns include Sergeant Michael Kennedy, whom Kelly killed in the shootout at Stringybark Creek. The horns are mounted on display bases and have brass plaques inscribed "The Kelly Gang". A remarkable period piece, this memorial is redolent of a time when Kelly was as much a hero as a villain. Though no Robin Hood, his story chimed with the larrikin psyche, inviting comparison with the American Wild West and its appealing folklore. . Provenance: Christie's Melbourne, 26 March 2002, lot 165, "A… Read More

Sydney, 1882. A minor tear to lower margin, but very good.. Albumen silver print, 150 x 200mm, pencil description to reverse of the image. Remarkable photo showing the S.S. Austral after it foundered in Sydney Harbour while coaling off Kirribilli in November 1882. The striking scene shows the vessel sunk past the gunwales and listing heavily to starboard, the masts and funnels depicted starkly against the fog and calm sea. Around the wreck various smaller boats are in attendance; the perspective of the image looks south-east past Fort Denison towards Clark Island and Double Bay. The wreck provoked astonishment and curiosity among Sydney-siders, becoming a popular tourist attraction for the ferries of the harbour for some three months. A piece in the Sydney Morning Herald pondered the strangeness of a ship wrecking in such sheltered conditions, commenting that the 'Austral has not even the excuse of the sudden gust, she sank as by some evil influence, how far assisted by man's neglect remains to be… Read More

London: T. & W. Boone, 1839. A little rubbed, with map at end of volume 2 in poor condition and with obtrusive tape repairs.. Two volumes, octavo, with lithographed title-pages, large folding map (repaired) and 51 lithographed plates, a few folding or coloured, and small text illustrations; contemporary half calf with marbled boards. Thomas Livingstone Mitchell was appointed to succeed Oxley as Surveyor General of New South Wales in 1828. The first expedition described here was undertaken to establish the veracity of a story spread about the colony by escaped convict George Clarke, "The Barber", who claimed to have discovered a large river flowing to the north of Australia, known by the Aboriginal name of Kindur. This expedition investigated the Namoi, Gwydir and Barwon rivers, but failed to prove or disprove the existence of the Kindur. The second and third expeditions were both aimed at fully determining the course of the Darling River, extending on Sturt's earlier discoveries. Despite meeting… Read More

Sydney: E.H. Statham, York Street, 1835. Some mild water-staining, two reports are good clean copies, the third is chipped and lacks two pages called for in Ferguson's collation.. Three foolscap reports, with docket-titles, A collection of three reports by the Auditor General on the finances of New South Wales, full of interesting notes on expenses in the colony, printed by the prolific Sydney based printer and newspaper publisher Edwyn Henry Statham. It is increasingly unusual to see these government papers as issued, rather than bound up in contemporary or later collections. Issued separately, as here, Ferguson lists these three reports in a portmanteau entry for "Votes and Proceedings" of the New South Wales Legislative Council (2156; 4, 5, 6). The three reports are the "Abstract of the Revenue arising from Crown Lands... 1835"; "Abstract of the Revenue of the Colony of New South Wales (exclusively of the revenue arising from Crown Lands) and of its appropriation", chipped, 12 pp. and not the 14… Read More

Vienna: Jean Jacobe, 1787. In good condition, some wear to edges.. Mezzotint engraving 700 x 990 mm; a fine impression; framed. A rare and very surprising pictorial image of the Bougainville expedition: we have never seen the image before and can find no record of it. Published in Vienna, it is based on a very large painting by Francesco Casanova in the collection of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia as the caption explains ("actuellement dans la Gallerie de S.M. l'Imperatrice de la Russie, il a dix pieds de large, sur huit et demi d'haut"). Francesco Casanova (his older brother was more famous, but not for painting) trained under Francesco Guardi in Venice, worked in Paris from 1751, becoming a member of the Academy in 1763, and exhibiting at the Salon until 1783 when he moved to Vienna. Interestingly for the history of voyage art, Philip James de Loutherbourg who painted numerous Cook-related scenes and designed a number of the theatrical pieces commemorating Cook, was his pupil for a time.… Read More

Londres; et se trouve à Paris: Pissot, 1784. Paper boards a bit rubbed.. Octavo, woodcut vignette on title, early inscribed attribution 'Par Mr de Péméyea'; contemporary French quarter calf. First edition of this antiquarian utopia set in Minoan Crete, chronicling the reconciliation of all strata of society. The success of this novel by the Professeur d'éloquence at the Royal College at la Flèche led to several editions within a few years. Like so many books of the imaginary voyage tradition, this work takes Fénélon's Télémaque as its template, and has a similarly socialist distrust of private property and the evils of slavery. .

Macau, 1844. Watercolour, 215 x 290 mm; ink caption at lower right; in mount. An important original watercolour by the English artist and architect Edward Ashworth who travelled through Macau and Hong Kong in the 1840s. The T'ou T'ei Temple in Patane, Macau, situated near the Luís de Camões Garden, is among the oldest and most famous of such temples. "To ti kong Small Temple nr. Macao" T'ou T'ei (Tu Di Gong / To ti kong), the 'God of Earth', held sway over all the land. There are many temples dedicated to T'ou T'ei in Macau, a god commonly worshipped for centuries on the peninsula and neighbouring islands. Among the oldest and most famous is the T'ou T'ei Temple in Patane (Pou Tai Un), of which Guillén-Nuñez has identified this Ashworth watercolour to be a rare, early view. The Patane shrine, always significant, may take on more importance given the recent proposal by Macao officials to declare the Tou Tei temple a UNESCO World Heritage site. (Video of the annual Tou Tei festival can be seen at… Read More

London: Wilkie and Robinson, 1810. Some foxing.. Three volumes, octavo; engraved frontispiece and plates, half morocco, marbled boards, top edge gilt. Thomas Pennant born in 1726, he was a prominent ornithologist and zoologist and prolific author of the eighteenth century. His writings about natural history, topography and travel were based on his many tours of the British Isles and research into the world's animal kingdom. It was said that his writings achieved great success by always making dull scientific matters interesting. His circle of friends included Sir Joseph Banks and Captain James Cook, in 1771 he visited Banks shortly after he returned from his voyage around the world with Cook. It was at this time that Pennant came into possession of some of the specimens that Banks had bought back from the voyage and would later write about. The origins of the name Pennant Hills in the Cumberland area has long been debated, in recent times it has been argued that it was named after Thomas Pennant,… Read More

London: Robert Jennings, 1829. A fine copy in a most attractive contemporary binding.. Octavo, with 107 wood-engravings; finely bound in contemporary red morocco gilt decorated, edges fully gilt, early inked manuscript note on endpaper. First edition. The menagerie in the Tower of London had been established in the mid-thirteenth century at which time it housed a white bear which bathed and fished in the River Thames. The fortunes of the zoo waxed and waned until 1822 when the new director, Alfred Cops, arrived to find no more than 'one grizzly bear, an elephant and one or two birds'. Within six years of his appointment, he had revitalised the collection and this description of some sixty species was completed each of which was drawn from life by William Harvey, friend and favourite pupil of Thomas Bewick, the fine English engraver (as borne out in the inked manuscript note of a previous owner). The collection boasted kangaroos, "yellow" crested cockatoos and emus, all of which are depicted and… Read More

Frankfurt: Fridericus Weiss (sumptibus Rulandiorum), 1620. A few leaves of index foxed and occasional light spotting elsewhere but generally good; spine a little darkened.. Two volumes in one, folio, woodcut device on titles; contemporary sprinkled calf. Second edition (first published in 1594), revised and edited by Johann Brandis of Hildesheim, of this legal treatise on the feudal system, by the German lawyer Ludolph Schrader (1531-1589), professor and rector of the University of Frankfurt. As a legal advisor and legal advisor to the Emperors Maximilian II and Rudolf II as well as numerous other princes and several important noble families, he had political influence and became a famous lawyer of his time. . Provenance: Alexander Grant, Scottish and English parliamentarian (inscribed on title-page and dated 1697, armorial bookplate "The Honble. Allexander Grant, younger of that ilk").