Hordern House Rare Books

HORDERN HOUSE

April 2014 [email protected] [AMPHITRITE SHIPWRECK] Small archive of manuscripts and printed material relat- 1 ing to the wreck of the Amphitrite, from the papers of William Hamilton, British Consul at Boulogne. Well preserved collection of eight printed and manuscript items, various sizes (see note). various locations, 1834 & 1835. British consul investigated over the loss of the convict ship Amphitrite Significant small archive of contemporary material relating to the loss of the convict transport Amphitrite, a disaster that claimed the lives of 133 convicts and crew: the ship was “the first convict ship proper to be lost on the outward passage to Australia… which went ashore on the French coast with heavy loss of life during a fierce gale in 1833” (Bateson, The Convict Ships).

This archive of eight documents relates to the investigation of William Hamil- ton, British consul at Boulogne-sur-Mer following allegations of his gross incompetence by British residents present at the tragedy. The Amphitrite sailed on 25 August 1833 with 106 convict women and 12 of their children. The vessel grounded near Boulogne on 30 August, and all of the passengers could have been taken off relatively easily by a French pilot boat, but the captain and surgeon agreed that it was an unnecessary risk to land the prisoners, and refused any assistance. Another local sailor even swam out to the ship to warn them about the treacherous current in the area and offered to take a line ashore, but this too was refused. As a result, when the flood-tide began, the Amphitrite was doomed; only three sailors made it to the shore. Given the appalling loss of life could have been prevented, consul William Hamilton became the focus of public outrage. A letter from John Wilks, a Brit- ish resident of Boulogne (and printed in the Parliamentary report included in this collection) laid the blame with him: ‘One hundred and thirty-three British lives have been sacrificed off the harbour of Boulogne, and every one might have been saved if proper steps had been taken.’ The eight items offered concern the ensuing investigation of the wreck by Captain Chads, RN. Included is a contemporary manuscript notice requesting information from English officers present at Boulogne on the fateful night of the tragedy, the Parliamentary report of June 1834 “Copies of Orders given to Captain Chads… which relate to the Inquiry which took place in consequence of the Loss of the “Amphitrite” convict ship…”, printing correspondence from Captain Chads and others witnesses, and two letters to Hamilton from friends regarding his exoneration from charges of incompetence. Also included is a proof copy of a contemporary newspaper article on the disaster with manuscript corrections (ultimately printed in the London Standard for17 September 1833, and proof therefore that it was written with the knowing support of Hamilton), and two documents relating to Hamilton’s acceptance into the Société générale des Naufrages, a French organisation devoted to relief of shipwreck victims. The sheer futility of the tragedy (combined with the sad fact that all the drowned convicts were female) had a tremendous impact on the British public. This was the first outbound transport to be lost although within two years two more vessels, the George III and the Neva had also sunk with significant loss of life. This archive gives a good sense of the urgency with which the investigation into consul Hamilton was conducted, and the deep distress experienced by all involved in the tragedy. Bateson, ‘The Convict Ships’, pp. 246-8. $2950 [BANKS] CARY, John. Cary’s New and Accurate Plan of London and Westmin- 2 ster… With an alphabetical list of upwards of 500 of the most considerable Streets… Folding engraved map measuring 822 x 1510 mm., with contemporary handcolouring; 36 sections mounted on linen (as issued) complete with original publisher’s slipcase, printed titling label; fine condition. London, John Cary, cor- rected to 1 January, 1819. Banks’s London (illustrated over & Detail on cover) Superb large map of London and surrounding countryside printed at the culmi- nation of the Georgian era proper (and, for that matter, just a year before the death of Sir Joseph Banks). This map is from the workshop of John Cary (1755-1835) an innovative figure in modern English cartography. Cary championed accuracy over decoration: ‘he was a member of the new class of map-maker, concentrating upon geographical excellence rather than on decoration, although aesthetically his maps are pleasing by their very plainness, and for that reason would be preferred by many collectors to their more elaborate predecessors’ (Lister). Cary constantly reworked maps he offered for sale, this London plan being no exception. His first London plan was published in 1787 with an almost identical title to the example offered here, and was reissued over the following decades as the city itself experienced significant expansion. Tooley states ‘John Cary was one of the most prolific, and by many considered to be the finest, of English map-makers.’ Impressive in scope and detail, this map captures the city on the verge of enor- mous change. Here we see the metropolis surrounded by fields and commons – soon to be engulfed by urban expansion and industrial development. Details include the East and West India docks and Blackwall shipyards, including arti- ficial reservoirs engraved ‘West India Docks 30 Acres capable of accommodat- ing from 200 to 300 W. Indiamen’. The cramped squalor of the old city centre contrasts with new suburbs under construction for the prosperous leisured classes (including Camden Town, Pentonville and Islington). Likewise, we see Hyde and Regent’s parks demarcated on the edge of the city. The new Lords Cricket Ground and St. John’s Wood tavern is marked on the map, both adjacent to the ‘Asylum for orphaned children of the Clergy’ on New Road. Lister How to Identify Old Maps and Globes, p.43; Tooley ‘Maps and Map-Makers’, p.57. $3500 [BOTANY BAY] BARRINGTON, George. Three issues of ‘The Glasgow Advertiser and Evening Intelligencer’ relating to affairs in New South Wales. 3 Quarto, three issues, 8 pp. each, in good condition, bound together in modern half calf. Glasgow, 14 September-14 December, 1789. Contemporary newspaper accounts Three complete issues of The Glasgow Ad- vertiser from 1789, each of which contains interesting content relating to the early set- tlement of New South Wales. Of primary interest is a lengthy description of two columns of the trial of the ‘gentleman pickpocket’ George Barrington, a high-profile affair that attracted widespread public interest. Barrington later became a prominent figure in the colony, and served as a constable when pardoned in 1796 (11-14 December 1789). Another issue of the advertiser describes the imminent departure of first chaplain Rich- ard Johnson who has clarified the issue of marriage in New South Wales with a council of Anglican Bishops. The good Reverend was informed that he could not marry himself (being the only person entitled to perform the rite in the entire colony) and accordingly took the precaution of getting married prior to departure (6-9 November 1789). Finally, a perplexing entry reports the discovery of a Australian plant with vola- tile properties: ‘Amongst the few curiosities hitherto imported from Botany Bay, is a leaf of very uncommon properties; the most extraordinary is that when dried, even without being pulverised, it goes off on the application of a match, with an explosion somewhat in the manner of gunpowder; the air is afterwards agree- ably perfumed. Experiments are now making, to try what force it may possess, compared to other materials of explosion’ (11-14 September 1789). $925

[BRICAIRE DE LA DIXMERIE, Nicolas] Le Sauvage de Taïti aux Français; avec un Envoi au Phi- 4 losophe ami des Sauvages. Octavo, bound with two other works (see below); in fine condition in contemporary marbled calf, lightly rubbed, flat spine ornamented in gilt with four alternat- ing crimson and green labels. “Londres” [in fact Paris], chez Le Jay, 1770. A letter from Aotourou: one of the earliest books on Tahiti Rare first edition of an important and very early work relating to Tahiti in a most attractive contemporary volume. This enlightenment satire takes the form of a letter from Aotourou, the Tahitian who returned to Paris with Bougainville. There was much criticism of Bougainville on this point – Diderot particularly upbraided him for having “torn” the native from his environment – but Ao- tourou was a sensation, and apparently fascinated by the French capital. Bougainville himself paid to kit out a ship when Aotourou expressed a wish to return home, but the Tahitian was killed en voyage by an outbreak of small pox. La Dixmerie was personally involved with Aotourou, and helped introduce him to Parisian high society. He remained virulently opposed to the popular notion of the noble savage, just as he sided with Diderot in argu- ing that it was a violence to have brought Aotourou to France. In this fictional letter, Aotourou satirically compares the mores of Paris society with those of Nouvelle-Cythère. The description of Tahiti is based on the Lettre de Monsieur de Commerson, the naturalist on the voyage, which was first published in 1769. Published the next year, la Dixmerie’s imaginative work is, as Du Rietz comments, “one of the earliest books relating to Tahiti”. Not until the 1779 publication of Taitbout’s Essai sur l’Isle d’Otahiti was there a separately-published factually-based work on Tahiti. The work has a particularly complicated collation, dealt with at length by Du Rietz in the Kroepelien catalogue. Our copy does not have the initial and final blank leaves that he describes, but is otherwise perfect, with the title-page giving the phony London imprint (another issue had a phony Tahitian imprint). Here it is bound with copies of Louis de Boissy, Les filles femmes, et les femmes filles, ou le monde changé… (Paris, 1751; first edition of a tale in which Love proves resentful of Marriage) and Charles Duclos, Acajou et Zirphile, Conte (Paris, 1761; first published 1744; with two engravings originally made for the Comte de Tessin’s Faunillane ou l’Infante jaune – when that work was abandoned Duclos composed this story around the engravings). Kroepelien, 126; O’Reilly-Reitman, 9274. $2250

British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Two paired broadsides titled “Gordon and Eyre” denouncing former Jamaican governor John Edward Eyre. Two sheets measuring 690 x 1080 mm. each; neatly folded, both sheets well preserved, unmarked and quite fine. Birmingham, E.C. Osborne, printer, no 5 date but 1866. Dramatic attack on JE Eyre A spectacular broadside on two large sheets, denouncing the conduct of former Australian explorer John Edward Eyre, in his role as governor of Jamaica during the civil unrest of 1865. Eyre is remembered as an intrepid explorer of the Australian interior, reveal- ing vast grazing lands in New South Wales and South Australia. Eyre departed Australia in 1844, and after a period as Lieutenant Governor of New Zealand he accepted the position of Governor of Jamaica in 1861. Eyre took up the position at a time of significant unrest. The 1838 emancipation decree had had the unwanted effect of causing widespread social displacement and acute poverty amongst the former slave population of Jamaica, and in Octo- ber 1865 there was a serious riot at Morant Bay. Eyre interpreted the events as a precursor to outright rebellion and declared martial law. Brutal reprisals against the former slave population followed – with floggings, wholesale destruction of dwellings and over 600 executions. Prior to the riots Eyre had clashed with George William Gordon, a member of the legislature of African descent. In the aftermath Eyre charged Gordon with instigating civil unrest and had him summarily tried and executed. Gordon was widely respected in Jamaica, and “Eyre was relieved of his governorship and recalled to England, where he became the centre of intellectual warfare between the Jamaica Committee supported by J. S. Mill, Thomas Huxley, Thomas Hughes, Herbert Spencer and others and the Eyre Defence Committee supported by Carlyle, Charles Kingsley, Tennyson, Ruskin and others. Proceedings were brought against Eyre three times, but each time dismissed; Eyre’s interpretation of martial law has become a celebrated case in legal history” (ADB online). This broadside, so large it had to be printed on two sheets, denounced Eyre for his defamation of Gordon following the execution, and staunchly defends the deceased man’s moral integrity. Gordon’s reputation was supported by prominent Jamaican citizens including missionaries, ministers, lawyers and politicians, the more important of whom have added their names. The scale and intensity of the controversy reflect the groundswell in changing attitudes to race and colonial government in English middle-class society. Ironi- cally, Eyre was appointed protector of the Aborigines while stationed at Moo- rundie on the River Murray, and enjoyed a reputation for moderation during this time. Furthermore, when Eyre departed returned to England from Australia in 1844, he took two Aboriginal boys under his care to be educated at his own expense. $4950 BUIST, Robert. The American Flower Garden Directory containing 6 Practical Directions of the Culture of Plants… Octavo, very good in original green cloth (a bit spotted). Philadelphia, Carey & Hart, 1839. Exotic plants in 1830s Philadelphia Uncommon North American horticultural handbook, with information on growing exotic species including Australian trees and flowers. Before 1850 these small handbooks represent the most important – in many cases the only – oppor- tunity to study the network of scientists and nursery- men who were importing and selling Australian plants around the globe. Although much had already been done in England and France, by this date the new world was really only just beginning the process of cultivating Australian plants. Much of the guide is devoted to hothouse cultiva- tion, so that exotics can be maintained through the cold American winter. Entries treat several Australian genera, including acacias, banksias, and eucalyptus. Of the banksias we learn ‘there are about thirty-two species, all curious in flower, and handsome and various in foliage…this genus is named in honour of Sir Joseph Banks, a distinguished promoter of the study of natural history’. Short entry on the eucalypts notes their useful gums and resins, yet from a gar- dener’s perspective they require little assistance and ‘ought not to be too much fostered, as it would in some degree retard their growth. They are of a very hardy nature…’. $525 [CANT AND SLANG] GOADBY, Robert (attributed). The life and adventures of Bamfylde-Moore Carew, com- monly called the King of the Beggars… and a dictionary 7 of the cant language… Duodecimo, portrait frontispiece, 203 pp. (final blank), early ownership name on title, portrait a little offset, some browning (as common); an excellent copy in full contemporary sheep, neatly rebacked to style, original red morocco label. London, Thomas Martin, 1788. The slang of the First Fleeters: millclappers, muttonmongers & moabites A scarce edition of this famous best- seller and classic of rogue literature. Printed in the fateful year 1788, this edition is one of those which included a Cant Dictionary, an attractive inclusion in a work of this date, as it gives an important picture of the slang in currency at the time of the First Fleet, with picturesque terms such as “captain queernab”, “bracket face”, “rabbit sucker” and “hop merchant”. The purported author, sometimes known as the “Devonshire stroller and dog stealer”, was said to have been born in 1693 and transported to America as a young man. Carew describes his adventures in Virginia, and farther north where, according to Howes, “he operated confidence schemes among colonial suckers.” The book was a publishing triumph over the course of many years, and the 1780s saw a particular enthusiasm for the work, no doubt because of contemporary interest in convicts and transportation. The present example was published by Thomas Martin (London, apparently based in Cheapside), a small-time printer and stationer who also issued a cheap edition of Paradise Lost. One of the few bibliographers to notice the book is Sabin, who includes a handful of different editions including one from 1789, but does not notice this edition, which is uncommon. A copy is known at the National Library of Australia and another at Barr Smith in Adelaide. $1000 [DAMPIER & PHILLIP] Universal Magazine Of Knowledge and Pleasure. 8 Complete issue of this magazine in remarkable original condition, stitch-sewn as issued; in the original printed blue wrappers, fraying at the edges (as expected). London, December, 1789. The popular fascination with Botany Bay in 1789

Rare issue of this important 1789 journal, with evidence of the renewed interest in Australia and the Pacific, most notably the fine portrait engraving of William Dampier, but also with notice of Governor Phillip and Omai. The issue begins with “Memoirs of the Life and Voyages of Captain William Dampier”, with a fine engraving after the famous portrait of Dampier holding his book, originally painted from life by Thomas Murray: published portraits of Dampier are certainly uncommon. An accompanying short biography is printed over 7 pages (but was so long it had to be concluded in the supplement volume for the year, not present here). This issue also includes a one-page “Anecdotes of Arthur Phillip” taken directly from his voyage account (which was an exactly contemporary publication, officially announced in the press on 3 December 1789). The “anecdotes” are immediately succeeded in the text by a one-page “Sequel to the Adventures of Omai”, printing the account of Omai after his return to Tahiti on Cook’s third voyage, also taken from Phillip’s account and the voyage of the First Fleet ship Lady Penrhyn, which sailed for Port Jackson to China via Tahiti, having been thwarted in the original plan of visiting the northwest coast of America. Although copies of early magazines such as this one are not unknown for sale, it is most unusual to see one in such fine original condition. $925 DAVIS, Joseph Barnard. Thesaurus Craniorum. Catalogue of the skulls of the various races of man, in the collection of Joseph Barnard 9 Davis. With illustrations. Octavo, two lithographic plates, illustrated, signed presentation to title-page; a very good copy in the original green cloth, a few bumps and wrinkles. Else fine. London, Printed for the subscribers, 1867. Author’s presentation copy Presentation copy of this uncommon work, list- ing the skulls in the collection of the physician and craniologist Joseph Barnard Davis (1801- 1881). The work was presented by the author to Thomas Inman Esq., MD, presumably the man of that name who worked at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary and who published widely on medical research and mythology. This 1867 publication provides a catalogue of the Davis collection which is of great significance, not least because the skulls were later given to the Royal College of Surgeons and mostly lost as part of the bombing in 1941. The catalogue lists 24 mainland Australians and 12 Tasmanians (pp. 258-72). Davis’ first purchases (nos. 15 & 16) were of two skulls of the “Adelaide Tribe”, bought in 1848 of Matthew Moorhouse of South Australia, and which were quickly followed by 13 & 14, two further Adelaide Tribe skulls, all four “curiously prepared as vessels for carrying water” (vi). Other skulls were variously collected by C.P. Layard, W. Tolson, Major Morrison, George Rolfe, A. Watson, James Moorhouse, L.N. Fowler, Professor Reinwardt, Surgeon Goodwin RN, Dr. Grieg, and George A. Robinson, while a further two (nos. 1122 & 1123) were “purchased of the Commissioners for New South Wales Department of the International Exhibition of 1862.” Two named men are also recorded, “Malgoey Bob” of NSW, “a well-known character of the colony” (no. 900), and “Carbon Will” of Moreton Bay, the man supposed to have killed Commandant Patrick Logan in 1830 (no. 1021). Even more remarkably, the last section of the catalogue is an overview of 140 (!) skulls of men and women from the Sandwich Islands, the great majority of the skulls presented by W.L. Green Esq., of Honolulu. $2500 [FEDERATION] Official programme of functions and displays to cel- 10 ebrate the Opening of the First Parliament of the Com- monwealth of Australia… Quarto, 48 pp., maps and photo-plates throughout, fine in original illustrated wrappers. Melbourne, for the Committee, 1901. Yacht races in Albert Park A beautifully preserved memento of the grand occasion. The text of the programme details a range of exciting events including Yacht Races at Albert Park, fireworks, an aquatic display, choral and orches- tral concerts. Images include an artist’s impression of the fireworks, the Royal steam yacht Ophir, a special review at Flemington Race Course and a won- derful vista of Ballarat decked out in anticipation of the Royal couple. Amidst a wealth of other information, this programme lists senators and members of parliament and includes grand portrait plates of our first Prime Minister Edmund Barton and other Australian ministers. Two maps are included. The first shows the route of the procession following the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall York at St. Kilda pier; while the second charts the path of grand the procession preceding the opening of parliament Interestingly, the programme reproduces as photolithographs several official invites sent to guests. $225 [FLY VOYAGE] SHADWELL, Captain Charles F.A. Notes on the Management of Chronometers and the Measurement of Meridian Distances. 11 Octavo, xvi, 228 pp., including appendices and tables; joints and extremities a bit rubbed, otherwise fine. London, J.D. Potter, 1861. The chronometers of HMS Fly, by an officer on board New edition, revised and considerably expanded. The work includes important statistical tables from the north Australian survey conducted by HMS Fly under the command of Francis Blackwood between 1842-1846: the author, Shadwell, served on the Australian Station on Fly, which is why many of the concrete exam- ples he uses here derive from that voyage, but he also consulted all manner of other sources, among which the appendix to the Beagle voyage was clearly uppermost. The accuracy of the bearings obtained during the Fly survey were clearly considered first rate for inclusion in this book. Indeed, modern charts of the Barrier Reef and Coral Sea still bear some of Blackwood’s sailing directions. The voyage of the Fly heralded a new era of exactitude for the publication of Admiralty charts, and Ingleton comments that ‘the expedition was noteworthy for being the first to be despatched to Australia on a purely surveying mission’. Furthermore, scientific information gleaned during the voyage was most informative in an era when the formation of coral reefs attracted the curiosity of brilliant naturalists such as Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. The preface states this edition has been expanded by some 70 pages, and includes vital information derived from the Recherches Chronométriques published by the Ministry of the Marine in Paris. Ingleton, ‘Charting a Continent’, pp. 61-66. $925 JANSSEN, Jacob (attributed). Part of Sydney & St. James’ Church from the square 12 called the Race Course. Original watercolour, 125 x 85mm, in lovely original condition, mounted and framed. Sydney, 1844. Hyde Park and surrounds in 1844 Delicate and charming watercolour of the Race Course area of Hyde Park. Drawn with an exactness of detail and accuracy of perspective the painting is attributed to the highly regarded artist, Jacob Janssen (1779-1856). Janssen arrived in Sydney in 1840, and within the year the Sydney Gazette had commended ‘several beautiful specimens of landscape painting in watercolours’. His beautiful and characteristic work has been described as displaying “an exactness of detail and accuracy of perspective suggestive of a training in architectural draughtsmanship” (DAAO), which is certainly in keeping with the style and date of the present work. The race course shown in the foreground of the painting was part of the 56 acres gazetted as a common by Governor Macquarie who named it after Hyde Park in London. Beyond the Race Course can be seen St James’ Church, at that time the principal church in the city, Hyde Park Barracks, the Supreme Court buildings as well as many of Sydney’s grand buildings in the vicinity of Elizabeth and Macquarie Streets. Although sometimes derided (Louisa Anne Meredith called it “a park utterly destitute of trees… merely a large piece of brown ground fenced in”), most were very fond of the park at the edge of the city. By 1846, shortly after this painting was done, it is recorded that Sydney had a population of over 38,000 and the city was spread over 2000 acres, confirming that this generous exercise and recreation zone in the very heart of the city was an act of vision by Lachlan Macquarie 30 years earlier. This exquisite and fine work has both name and date inscribed in pencil on the verso. $6850

[LONGITUDE] Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland. A Collection of Statutes Relating to the Admiralty, Navy, Ships of War, and Incidental Matters… 13 Thick quarto, with woodblock frontispiece ornament; sporadic moderate water- staining, touch of marginal worming affects the final gatherings; yet a very good copy overall in handsome contemporary speckled calf, spine with raised bands and original gilt lettered morocco labels. London, Mark Baskett, 1768. A sailor’s vade mecum of the Cook era Handsome compendium of naval and marine law covering a fascinating array of subjects including the longitude prize, mutiny, the South Sea Company, the North West passage and punishments for foul mouthed and blasphemous sailors. Relatively compact editions such as this one were published for ready reference by officers at sea. Printed in the same year as Cook’s departure on the Endeavour, this book provides real insights into life at sea in both the navy and merchant marine. Subjects include piracy, insurance fraud, smugglers, the plague and quarantine of ships in port, press gangs, the Articles of War, generous rewards offered by the King for important geographical discoveries, and much more. Of particular interest are five Acts relating to the longitude prize totalling 33 pages. The first Act of 1753 renders the original prize offered by Queen Anne ‘more effectual’ and names John Harrison as the recipient of some £1,250 (indeed, Harrison’s chronometer is the specific subject of three of the Acts in this book). The pivotal 1764 Act for the Encouragement of John Harrison, to publish and make known his Invention of a Machine or Watch, for the Discovery of Longitude at Sea is printed in full. This is the act which specified further rewards be paid to Har- rison in due increments: ‘the utility of the invention of the said John Harrison has been proved in a late voyage to Jamaica under the directions of the commissioners of longitude…did thereupon make an order for the payment of the sum of two thousand five hundred pounds …’ Of great significance is the protection awarded to the skilled horologist by this Act – it effectively freezed further payment of the longitude prize to any rival watchmaker until the merits of Harri- son’s chronometer be ascertained (within four years of the passing of the Act). The final longitude Act in this collection (Geo. III Cap. 20) regards the respec- tive merits of competing methods, asserting the claim of Harrison to further prize monies alongside regulations for the publication of nautical almanacks and lunar ephemerides. $3450 [LONGITUDE] ROSSEL, Paul-Édouard. Signed autograph letter to Louis Marie Bajot concerning 14 the lunar method for calculating longitude. Manuscript letter measuring 231 x 186 mm. (bifolium sheet, letter comprising first page with three blank pages), dated and signed by Rossel, slightly chipped but fine. 15 June, 1819. A d’Entrecasteaux veteran on longitude Original manuscript letter by Paul-Édouard Rossel, astronomer of the d’Entrecasteaux expedition, concerning the unreliability of reckoning longitude by lunar observation. In this letter Rossel replies to Louis Marie Bajot, inspector-general of the library of the Ministry of the Marine and editor of the Annales Maritimes et Coloniales. Bajot has requested that Rossel, widely respected for his expertise in astronomy and navigation, review some articles on the lunar method. Rossel writes the method was unsatisfactory and should be abandoned since the difficulty of ac- curately measuring the height of the moon is too great and liable to “grandes erreurs“. Rossel joined the Recherche at the age of 26, one of three vessels under the command of Bruni d’Entrecasueaux dispatched in 1791 to solve the mystery of La Pérouse. The d’Entrecausteaux expedition was remarkable for its talented scientific members, including the naturalist Jacques Labillardière, hydrogra- pher Charles-François Beautemps-Beaupré and astronomer Ambroise Pierson. Although differences in social origin and political allegiance proved a source of ongoing tension amongst the officers, overall the scientists worked co-operative- ly. The practical application of astronomy to navigation was an important one for these men, and during their stay in Tasmania Rossel constructed a temporary observatory for this purpose. Some years later, Rossel assumed responsibility for editing the official voyage account which was published in 1808. In that narrative of the voyage the subject of longitude is treated in detail, forming a valuable explanatory text on the limitations of astronomical and lunar methods: “Rossel devoted the whole of the second volume of the official Voyage to an exposition of the methods used by himself and others in taking and correcting astronomical observations made during the voyage, together with detailed tables setting out the resulting calculations of latitude and longitude. By this means, he hoped, readers would be able to judge for themselves the probable accuracy of these estimates, especially those of longitude. Like Beautemps-Beaupré’s appendix to the first volume, this became a kind of instructional treatise on the subject” (Horner Looking for La Pérouse p.41). Furthermore, in preparing material for the press Rossel cross-referenced the results with observations taken at Greenwich and supplied by the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne. The intention was to produce longitude bearings more accurate than those of Captain Cook, who remained a benchmark of naviga- tional accuracy. This letter reflects Rossel’s experience reconciling the sciences of astronomy and navigation, and the high regard accorded by his peers. By this stage the use of marine chronometers was gaining widespread acceptance for longitude calcula- tion as the lunar method became obsolete. $2400 LONGITUDE, Board of. The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris, for 15 the Year 1818. Octavo, very good in original polished calf, faithfully rebacked. London, John Murray, 1815. Rare Phillip Parker King-era almanac A fundamental inclusion in the shipboard library of any Admiralty-sponsored voyage. The Almanac was used for reckoning the longitude at sea by the lunar method, and it continued use is proof that the invention of the chronometer, whilst revolutionary, did not immediately supersede other techniques: indeed the rarity with which any copies survive is ample testament to the hard use to which the almanacs were put. The Nautical Almanac was the brainchild of Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskely- ne, who in the 1760s started publishing the volumes for the use of mariners: Cook famously had any number with him on his voyages. It was Board of Longi- tude practice to publish them as far in advance as practicable, precisely because of the rigours of long voyages of exploration. The present copy, for example, gives the data for the year 1818 but was actually published in 1815 (these are intriguing dates: it was of course at the end of the Napoleonic Wars that Britain began to look again to distant seas, and the 1818 edition would have been a fundamental inclusion in King’s library on board the Mermaid, for example). Of interest to the publishing history of the Board of Longitude is a short catalogue of twenty books relating to navigation noted as being sold by John Murray from his Albemarle street bookshop. The list makes mouth-watering reading now, proving that extreme rarities such as the Principles of John Harrison’s Watch (1767), and the three astronomical works relating to Cook’s voyages published chiefly under the authorship of William Wales in 1777, 1782 and 1788. Harrison was for 5 shillings (!), the others for one or two guineas. $885 LONGITUDES, Bureau des. Connaissance des tems, al’usage des Astronomes et des Navigateurs pour l’an X… 16 Octavo, folding world map and two folding tables, some spotting; an attractive copy in contemporary marbled calf, gilt, red spine label. Paris, l’Imprimerie de la République, Fructidor, An VII, that is circa August, 1799. French longitude tables for 1802/1803 A handsome copy of this rare work by the French Bureau des Longitudes, for use by naval officers for the year 1802 and 1803. The volume includes a handsome map of the world showing the track of a solar eclipse that occurred in August of that year. Much like the British equivalent (see previous) these French tables were being published far in advance of the year under review, in this case published in August 1799 but describing the calendar for the late 1802/early 1803 (that is, year 10 of the French Republican Calendar). This of course relates to the use of the tables on long voyages of exploration particularly, and given how hard the French Ministry of the Marine was working to outfit the 1800-1804 Baudin voyage (the most famous example being their publishing of direct copies of the Matthew Flinders map of Bass Strait), it is no stretch to suggest that the planned expedition was one of the reasons this work was issued, especially as this is a truly global work with the tables of differences in observed meridians stretching all the way to the Pacific and Nouvelle Hollande. $925 [MANLY] MANLY, N.S.W. 17 Original watercolour of Manly Pier. Watercolour, pen and ink on paper, 475 x 620 mm.; mounted and framed in an early timber frame. Sydney, 1894. Fin de siècle Manly A most attractive and arresting view of nineteenth-century life on Manly’s famous foreshore. The unknown artist has almost certainly painted “on the spot”, and we are treated to a large-scale charming and naïve depiction of activities on the pier, including people queuing to enter the “Royal Camera Obscura” and to board the ferry Maramarra. There are seated fishermen at the pier’s far end, whilst several dogs, all wearing named collars, frolic on the promenade. At sea in the distance is the ferry Brighton, in operation between 1883 and 1916. The wharf to the upper left and the lamp post are factual, as both have been documented in period photographs. This watercolour is filled with character observations from patches in the trousers on the man at lower right, to the details of the rather dapper brown-check-suited gentleman at left finding himself too close to a mischievously contorted cat. $9500 McDONALD, Ann. Original manuscript letter from a female immigrant arrived in Sydney, to her family in Glasgow. 18 Four page ALS on wove paper, folded to letter-size 200 x 256 mm., fragments of original red wax seal, postal marks; chipped with small loss where originally opened, very good. Sydney, 10 May 1834. A Scots emigrant delighted with Sydney, but homesick Informative letter from a female Scottish emigrant to her siblings in Glasgow, describing the passage to Australia and her first month in Sydney Town. This uncommonly detailed letter gives a real insight into life in the colony under Governor Bourke, and is notable as written by a woman passenger. Ann McDonald and her husband James shipped aboard the Eldon of 393 tons, carrying merchan- dise and passengers from Glasgow to Hobart and Sydney. The grammar and style of Ann’s letter might indicate her education was limited, and like so many emigrants of the era hoped to improve her prospects in NSW. The letter begins with a description of a terrifying storm in the Indian Ocean which reduced many on board to prayer, and at one point threw McDonald herself to the floor of her cabin. Sailing via Hobart (where two of the passengers were married), upon arriving in Sydney, Ann was reunited with her mother, father and brother John who met her on the deck of the Eldon where “all cryed for joy” before proceeding to the shop of her other émigré brother William. Ann delights in the prosperity of her family, and is thrilled that James – her husband – will work in William’s shop with an income of £50 per year. To her evident pleasure, William showered fine gifts upon his sister, including a muslin print, ribbons and a set of expensive combs. Ann informs them that an acquaintance is to sail in three weeks carrying further letters, and that she intends to collect some shells to send along too. But while Sydney Town clearly offers Ann an escape from poverty, she is homesick and comments at one point, “when I am Asleep… I am never in Sydney’. $1175 [MGM] Mutiny on the Bounty Glass Cinema Advertising Slide. 19 Glass slide, 83 x 100 mm., coloured transfer; very good in the original card mount. New York, National Studios, no date but 1935. A Thousand Hours of Hell For One Moment of Love! A fantastic reminder that while scholars and historians have argued for centu- ries about the true motives of the Bounty mutiny, that no such doubts troubled the producers at MGM when they released their seminal film starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable in 1935. These coloured glass slides are fragile and thus rare survivals. They were used in cinemas as advertising slides for coming attractions, and this particular one, with its prominent positioning of the Tahitian woman with just a bare silhouette of the boat in the background, is a reminder of precisely just how “exotic” the Pacific setting was thought to be. The tagline for the movie posters was just as explicit: “A Thousand Hours of Hell For One Moment of Love!” The woman depicted may be based on the Hawaiian-born actor Mamo Clark, who played Gable’s love-interest in the film. $925 [MITCHELL] MARMOCCHI, F.C. Raccolta di Viaggi dalla Scoperta… Octavo, 18 volumes (bound in 17), with 159 plates and maps (five handcoloured), occasional modest foxing, a few plates browned, yet a fine set in later nineteenth-century red half morocco with ornate gilt spines. Prato, Fratelli Giachetti, 1840-1845. From Christopher Columbus to Sir Thomas Mitchell A handsome set of voyage accounts uniformly bound in rich gilt morocco, including an Italian translation of Sir Thomas Mitchell’s Three Expeditions Into the 20 Interior of Eastern Australia, originally published in London 1838, and here titled Viaggi nell’interno dell’Australia o Nuova Olanda. Mitchell’s narrative is a curious inclusion in this collection, and includes a frontispiece and twelve plates directly derived from the 1838 London edition. The scope of this collected edition is impressive, encompassing the period from Columbus’ discovery of the New World to the mid-nineteenth century. An eclectic range of authors is included, both famous and obscure, including Cortes, Burckhardt and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. Of additional interest is an abridged version of the Pacific travels of the French diplomat and traveller Lafond de Lurcy (1802-76), titled Viaggio nella Polinesia e nelle isole circonvicine dell’Australia and with five plates aftr Jacques Arago, including a portrait of Queen Pomare, a Tahitian burial and romantic idyll, a landscape in the Marquesas and a costume study of women on Guam. Lafond made three major Pacific voyages, and on his third, in 1830, visited Australia, as well as New Zealand, Tonga and Samoa. Ferguson, addenda 3847b; Forbes, ‘Hawaiian National Bibliography’, 1495. $3200 [MONGOLIA & CHINA] FRITSCHE, Hermann. “Resultate aus Astronomischen und Magnetischen Beo- 21 bachtungen… von St. Petersburg… nach Peking in den Jahren 1867 und 1868” [in] Meteorologicheskii Sbornik [Russian series title]… Band I. Large quarto, complete with a single chromolithographic plate of cloud formations, four engraved plates of scientific instruments, three large folding tables and set of blank meteorological observation slips bound in (comprising 16 smaller leaves); an excellent copy in contemporary decorated full green calf, moiré endpapers, all edges gilt. Saint Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1870. Overland from Saint Petersburg to Peking Rare Russian printing of an overland journey from Saint Petersburg to Peking. Russia maintained a meteorological service in China from 1841, as part of the Russian Orthodox Mission based in Peking. In 1849 the service was expanded and moved to the grounds of the Russian Embassy, although the recording of scientific data remained intermittent for many years. In 1867 the service came under the supervision of the Acad- emy of Science in St. Petersburg, who dispatched Dr. Hermann Fritsche to Peking as the new direc- tor. Fritsche (1839-1913) travelled extensively in the first years of his appointment, and the article offered here records his journey from St. Peters- burg to Peking, traversing the vast steppe country of northern China and Mongolia in the process. The article documents his work in determining geographical, astronomical and magnetic points en route (including observations of Kyakhta, Urga and Kalgan). Fritsche’s article is published here the first annual volume of the the meteorological journal Meteorologicheskii Sbornik, published under the direction of the Swiss physicist Heinrich von Wild (1833-1902). Under Wild’s supervision a modern meteorological system was introduced throughout the Russian Empire and beyond. Printed in both in Russian and German, Meteorologicheskii Sbornik was published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Saint Petersburg between 1870-1894. $1850 NATHAN, Isaac. An Essay on the History and Theory of Music… Large quarto, including 40 leaves of engraved musical scores continuously pagi- 22 nated with the text; old pencil marginalia, a little foxing and neat marginal repair of three leaves; a good copy in mid-nineteenth century black half with gilt letter- ing, slightly rubbed. London, Whittaker, 1823. Music and poetry by Byron’s old collaborator A treatise on the art of singing and the philosophy of music, including a history of Jewish meoldies, by Isaac Nathan, fondly remembered as the ‘father of Australian music’. By most accounts a witty and vivacious character, Nathan was a scholar of Aboriginal music, composer of the first opera written in Australia, and a prominent figure in Sydney social circles. Throughout his life, Nathan forged links between Jewish music and mainstream European culture. In this respect he is best remembered for his collabo- ration with Lord Byron on the Hebrew Melodies of 1815. Nathan composed the scores for Byron’s verse (including the enduring She Walks in Beauty), a resounding success for decades to follow. Following Byron’s self-imposed exile and early death, Nathan continued to work as a singing instructor and composer. Nathan struggled with gambling debts throughout the late 1830s and finally sought a fresh start in Australia in 1841. He burst upon the parochial Sydney scene and quickly established a reputation as a singing teacher, composer, and vibrant conversationalist. Nathan was the first to record and memorialize the Aboriginal music and in 1847 composed Don Juan of Austria, the first opera written and produced in Australia. This copy is from the library of the Australian bibliophile and publisher Walter Stone, with his bookplate. An original early twentieth century photograph of Isaac Nathan’s engraved tombstone is pasted to the front endpaper. Nathan died tragically in 1864, the first fatality of a horse-drawn tram in Sydney. The Austra- lian Dictionary of Biography records he was buried in Camperdown cemetery. Sendrey, Bibliography of Jewish Music, 2061. $3850 [OMAI] BROWN, Mather (after). Mrs. Martyr The Inchantress in the Pantomime of Omai. 23 Mezzotint portrait 260 x 195 mm., trimmed very close to the plate mark, rubbed especially to the deeper blacks; very good. London, John Dean, 26 May, 1786. Witness to Cook’s apotheosis Most uncommon portrait of the actress Margaret Martyr at the time of her triumph as Oberea in the famous 1785 pantomime Omai, or, a Trip round the World, with designs by Loutherbourg based closely on the imagery of Cook’s voyages (Loutherbourg was in fact helped in this regard by Cook’s artist John Webber personally). The pantomime of Omai was the earliest major work to relate so directly to Cook, and is now most famous for its final scene, the “apotheosis” of Captain Cook, showing him being raised to the clouds from the sands of Keale- kakua Bay by Britannia and a herald. The pantomime was written by John O’Keeffe and first performed at Christmas 1785. In the libretto, Omai is the heir to the throne of Tahiti, and is set to marry “Londina”, the daughter of Britannia, but is forced to escape the clutches of rivals seeking to prevent the marriage. Their tour takes in several places visited by Cook, notably Kamchatka, the Antarctic, New Zealand, Tonga and Hawaii. The pantomime was a smash hit, seen by everyone from Sir Joshua Reynolds to Fanny Burney, with a Royal Command performance thrown in, and was revived the following year. The picture depicts Mrs Martyr, a stalwart of the London stage, described as the “Inchantress in the Pantomime of Omai”. The so-called “Inchantress” is of course Oberea, depicted by O’Keeffe as a sort of pan-Polyne- sian priestess and magician, and an avowed enemy of Omai (she tries to aid his pursuers and to sever the relationship with Londina by pursuing him to Tahiti and casting various hocus-pocus spells). Martyr (born Margaret Thornton, d. 1808), had her first advertised performance on the stage in 1779, although she had already been singing at Vauxhall. For two decades she was a fixture at Covent Gardens, where her “black-haired, black-eyed beauty and clear soprano made her an immediate popular success in merry maids and tuneful minxes, the piquant and the pert…” (see a long note in Highfill et al, Biographical Dictionary of Actors, vol. X, pp. 118-123). Mather Brown (1761-1831) was a Massachusetts-born portraitist who spent most of his working life in England, starting his career in London, but ultimately working in Bath, Bristol and Liverpool. $2200

O’NEIL, Luke. Rare handbill advertising the sale of plaster and bronze 24 casts of skulls. Printed handbill, 11 x 14 cm., untrimmed; very good. [Edinburgh], circa 1820. Skulls in stucco: 3 shillings Uncommon handbill or advertisement for the firm of Luke O’Neil, announcing that the Edinburgh-based statuary company “respectfully begs leave to intimate to the public, that he supplies correct casts of the human head, indicating the situation of the organs of the different faculties”.

This is an intriguing insight into the development of popular phrenology, not least because O’Neil later offered casts of the skulls of at least three different Australian Aborigines, most significantly that of Carnambaygal, who in 1816 was ambushed and killed by a detachment of the 46th Reg. under the command of Major James Wallis, his head ultimately being sent to Edinburgh. $850 ROBERTS, John. Lengthy ALS to the Reverend Algernon Wells in London 25 on the feuding among Adelaide churchmen. Detailed 6-page letter, 255 x 205 mm., address panel to final leaf intact, neatly written on paper watermarked “Wilmot” 1843; very good, sent to London by ship letter. Maesbury House, near Adelaide, 22 September, 1845. “A Missionary with a grand carriage – how incompatible…” A subtantial letter – around 1500 words in length – giving a detailed and in- sightful account of very early conditions in the relatively new colony of South Australia, dwelling particularly on a controversy then raging among key members of the South Australian Congregational Church. Such a vituperative account of religion in early South Australia is most interesting, especially given that Roberts himself was a contentious figure, accused of being an “avowed slanderer” in an anonymous article published in the South Australian on 25 March 1845, and personally responsible for a long-running war of words in the Adelaide newspapers. Both Roberts, and his detested rival Rev- erend Thomas Quinton Stow, went on to have long careers in South Australia, and both became old settlers of note.

The letter is addressed to Algernon Wells, the first secretary of the CMS, and a man reputed to have been instrumental in promoting the work of the Society in the newer colonies, notably South Australia and New Zealand (see Carey, God’s Empire). At the time of writing Roberts had been in South Australia for over two years, and evidently felt that he could be silent no more, particularly as regards what he saw as the wasteful indulgence of the incumbent, Reverend Stow: “A Missionary with a grand carriage – how incompatible; a Missionary with a farm – how inconsistent; a Missionary with flocks and herds – how incongruous.” Roberts refers to a great number of supporting witnesses (foremost Mr & Mrs Howard who are returning to England on the Taglioni, and Mr and Mrs Allan who also return on the Sans Pareille), in his contention that the facts as presented to the Committee are not accurate, and particularly to defend himself and the Mission from the libellous assertions of one Mr Mills that the South Australian Mission was being financially profligate. Roberts goes into a detailed rebuttal of some of the wilder accusations being made by Mills and his supporters. Most of all he is at pains to live up to his feeling that “foreign aid in such a Community as ours is an evil and not a benefit.” Although the role of Mills clearly upset Roberts, it is the local man Stow who aggrieves him, “with his grand carriage – Gig and Horses, Farm & herds”: his interest, asserts Roberts, is more with his sheep than his flock. $2400 SOUTHERN CROSS. Auxiliary Screw Missionary Steamer “Southern Cross” 26 No. 100. Four design documents for the “Southern Cross”, including a detailed and finely hand-coloured plan of the vessel with elevation and views of both decks, 72 x 117 cm, thick paper laid down; line plan of the hull, 64.5 x 199 cm, thick paper laid down; mid-ship section, 35 x 53 cm, waxed silk; blue-print of mid-ship section, 52 x 37 cm, roughly torn along bottom edge, pencil note at upper right saying that this is a copy of the amended blueprint submitted to Lloyds; all four a little dusted at edges and clearly having been rolled for many years, some pencil shelf markings to versos, very good. London?, circa 1855. Designing the Southern Cross An important suite of plans and documents relating to the construction of the Southern Cross, a 70-ton schooner purpose-built for the Melanesian Mission of the Anglican Church and the Church of the Province of Melanesia. This was the first vessel of this name to be built for the Mission, and a succession of vessels of the same name would follow (the current Southern Cross – the ninth – is still in service). The Melanesian Mission was founded in 1849 by then Bishop of New Zealand, George Augustus Selwyn (1809-1878) to evangelise the south-west Pacific (that is, chiefly, the Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz, and the Northern New Hebrides Islands). It formally became part of the Australian Board of Missions in 1850, and it was under the aegis of this group that Selwyn visited London in 1854. His efforts meant that Charlotte Mary Yonge donated funds from the sale of her novel The Heir of Redclyffe (1854) to pay for the construction of this bespoke mission vessel. The Southern Cross, as the vessel would be aptly named, became the link between the remote parts of the vast diocese, used by Selwyn and others for their regular circuits, and otherwise fulfilling the many training and logistical tasks required. The early days of the Mission are chiefly known through the memoir of the Reverend Ashwell, Journal of a Voyage to the Loyalty, New Hebrides, and Banks’s Island, in the Melanesian Mission Schooner the Southern Cross, with an Ac- count of the Wreck of that Vessel (Auckland, 1860). As the title confirms, this first Southern Cross was lost in 1860, and Ashwell gave a vivid account of her wreck. On 17 June 1860, off the “Poor Knights” (near Whangarei), the vessel was over- taken by a gale, and in heavy winds ran aground. A heavy surf crashed over the vessel forcing the crew to take to the rigging, and the ship’s boats were washed away, but at the break of day they were relieved to discover that they were in the reasonably protected bay at Ngunguru, and shore-lines got the entire crew safely to land. A contemporary view of the wreck was published but, significantly, visual material relating to the vessel is very scarce, making this documentation an important, perhaps unique, record of its design and construction. The chief archive of the mission is held at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Underlining the Mission’s important role in the region, small collections of material relating to the Mission are held in some Australian collections, however, such a substantial set of documents relating to their first Southern Cross is not otherwise known. $5400 THRELKELD, Lancelot Edward. Important ALS from Lake Macquarie, describing his 27 work on the Aboriginal languages of the region. Two-page foolscap letter on bifolium, 322 x 200 mm., address panel with postal stamps of Sydney and ship letters, laid paper watermarked “Slade” 1822; very good and legible. Lake Macquarie, 20 October, 1829. Reverend Threlkeld on translating the gospel of Luke A rare and rather important example of a letter sent from Lake Macquarie by Threlkeld to his superiors in the London Missionary Society. Threlkeld joined the London Missionary Society and in 1816 sailed with his family to the South Seas, working with John Williams at Raiatea. In 1824 he arrived in Sydney, where his proposal to establish an Aboriginal mission was supported by Governor Brisbane. The mission was established the following year at Reid’s Mistake on Lake Macquarie with a 10,000-acre parcel of land. The exces- sive expenditure of the mission incurred the wrath of Rev. Samuel Marsden who successfully sought Threlkeld’s dismissal and the abandonment of the mission in 1828. However, the following year Governor Darling personally intervened with a new grant at Ebenezer on the opposite side of Lake Macquarie, and Threlkeld spent the following ten years as a government-paid missionary in the region. He became fluent in the local dialect, under the tutelage of the local elder Biraban, and acted as interpreter for Aborigines on trial in Sydney. Threlkeld’s work on the Aboriginal language was highly praised, most notably his ground-breaking Sydney-printed work Specimens of a Dialect (1827). The present letter is important because it discusses Threlkeld’s literary work ex- plicitly. It is addressed to Hankey, treasurer of the LMS, and begins with notice of his expenditure (£125 for six months allowance). The lengthy postscript is the most interesting part, giving an insight into the harsh conditions, his work on translation, and his attempts to keep his rather complicated financial arrange- ments straight. “I am very sorry to say that Mrs Threlkeld has been seriously afflicted with remit- tant fever, at present she is but partially recovering from its extreme weakening effects. We would acknowledge the goodness of God, in sparing, and trust he will restore her in health to our numerous family and myself. I am proceeding (though very slowly, from many causes, but principally from the wandering hab- its of the natives) in their language, having proceeded as far as the 14th Chapr. of Luke in the first rough translation of his Gospel. A circular will, it is most probable, not be forwarded until the completion of St. Luke. You will recol- lect perhaps some four years back I sent you a bill for 45£ payable to you from Mr John Goss, the which was not paid, but my friend Mr Burd of Oakhampton informs me that the money was paying into his hands by instalments and would be completed by the time you receive this, when Mr Burd would pay it to you to any account – the money, as I formerly stated, is not in any way concerned with the funds of the Society passing through my hands, it being presents received years ago. I mention this to remove any disagreeable impression that might otherwise justly arise on the subject – you will oblige me if you will be good enough to pay that money 45£ to my aged mother who will apply to you for it – or should, on her behalf a gentleman & relation Thoms. Shepherd Esqr. of the Banking house of Dennison and Co. apply on her behalf, his receipt shall be sufficient. I trust no apology is necessary for thus troubling you, in not a Mission- ary business, although I know your time is too valuable to be intruded on with trifles. Should Mr Burd not have sent the money be pleased to write to him on the Subject.” $3850