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LRP / November 2017 Catalogue no. 3 Science, Voyages & History [1] [BLIGH] SHILLIBEER, John. Ontmoetingen op eene reis met het schip Briton, naar het eiland Pitcairn… Published: Dordrecht: Blusse en Van Braam, 1819. Collation: octavo, [vii], 180 pp., in contemporary tan half calf, sprinkled paper boards, green spine label. Condition: some foxing, the spine a little chipped and evidence that a lower label has been removed at some point, but generally a very attractive copy indeed. Very rare Dutch edition: no copy in Australia or NZ First Dutch edition of Shillibeer’s swashbuckling tale of sailing in the Pacific, including his widely-read account of meeting the last of the Bounty survivors on Pitcairn Island. Even apart from it’s Bligh interest, Shillibeer’s book is an important account from an intriguing era in Pacific exploration. Shillibeer’s book was originally published in Taunton (Somerset) in 1817 and again in London later the same year. This Dutch edition is very scarce indeed, and I can find records relating to only two confirmed sales: the first a rather worn copy at Sotheby’s in 1964, at the sale of the library of Senor Alberto Dodero of Buenos Aires (US$22.40); and a second copy, noted as in fair condition, at the small Dutch auction house Bubb-Kupyer in 2004 (EUR 420). $1250 References: Borba de Moraes, p. 797; Ferguson, 767; Sabin, 80845. [2] BLUMENBACH, Johann Friedrich. Ioanni Fr. Blumenbach… Viro Illustri Germaniae Decori diem semisecularem Physiophili Germanici laete gratulantur… Published: Berolini, Litteris Starckianis, 19 September 1825. Description: octavo, engraved frontispiece, 131 pp. Condition: very good, some very light foxing to the frontispiece, neat repair to gutter- edge of title-page, neat blue modern buckram, labels on spine. Blumenbach & three skulls from his collection Uncommon: first edition, listing European portraits in Blumenbach’s collection at Göttingen. Blumenbach had become fascinated with the study of comparative anatomy in the 1780s, and pressed colleagues including Sir Joseph Banks to arrange for the skulls of different peoples to be sent to him in Germany: most famously, this included the skull of a man from Tahiti brought back by William Bligh as well as those of two Australian men from the Sydney basin. This is therefore an intriguing addendum to Blumenbach’s lifelong project of col- lecting information on the heads of the peoples of the world through any pos- sible source: as this work confirms, Blumenbach made a study of the depiction of the heads of many of the most famous names in Europe through a collection of medals and engraved portraits. Blumenbach had collected pictures of all manner of famous names, from Da Vinci to the English scientist John Ray, but it is also interesting to see that he had also made a small collection of portraits of several of his more important correspondents, including George Thomas Baron d’Asch, Sir Joseph Banks (he had an example of the 1816 medal struck by W. Wyon), Petrus Camper, Benjamin Franklin, the British surgeon John Hunter and Daniel Solander. In this light it is particularly interesting to observe his inclusion of the frontispiece which depicts both sides of a medal struck in Blumenbach’s honour the same year. The medal shows the head of the German scientist on the obverse, but is most remarkable for the reverse, surely unique of its kind, a striking depiction of three skulls from his collection. The skulls featured are those of a “Caucasian” between an “Ethiopian” and a “Mongolian”. $375 References: Fishburn, ‘The Field of Golgotha’, Meanjin (2017). [3] [COOK, CAPTAIN James et al.]. A New, Authentic Collection of Captain Cook’s Voyages round the World, undertaken By Order of his present Majesty, for making new discoveries, &c. &c… Written by several principal Officers, and other Gentlemen who sailed in the various Ships. Published: Sheffield, Printed by J. Brunt, in King-Street, near the Market-Place, 1786. Description: octavo (called by the original publisher “Large Octavo”), with an unsigned portrait frontispiece of Cook in his naval uniform, 576 pp., in recent brown quarter calf over brown buckram. Condition: very good, the pages with some browning and thumbing, especially notice- able on the blanks and preliminaries. Rare Cook’s voyages, for the “Middling Class” in 1786 Sheffield-published edition of the complete voyages of Cook, explicitly de- scribed as published for the “middling Class of People”. The frontispiece engraving is an interesting but rather crude copy of the Nathaniel Dance portrait of Cook. This is one of the earliest collection editions of the voyages of Captain Cook, and like other such works seems to be really quite rare. Forbes described two copies, one in the Alexander Turnbull Library and a second in the British Library, but one is also listed in Australia, in the Petherick collection of the National Li- brary of Australia. The note for the copy in the Petherick collection confirms that the work is not in the Cook bibliographies of Beddie nor Sir Maurice Holmes, and notes: “The descriptions of the first and second voyages are taken from ‘A new, authentic, and complete collection of voyages round the world’, published under the direction of George William Anderson in 1784-[86].” Forbes has written about the book originally being published in 24 weekly parts, each of 24 pages, in 1786 (each part said to have cost 2 ½ pence). The original prospectus for the book, also quoted by Forbes, noted that it was to be printed on “superfine Paper” and with a “beautiful new Letter, cast on purpose by Fry and Sons”. This was the Bristol-based company of Joseph Fry (1728-1787), who was said to have been inspired to experiment with printing after the success of John Baskerville of Birmingham. In his prospectus the publisher Brunt also talked about what he saw as the importance of his edition, which he seemed to think lay chiefly in his decision to make the entire work about Cook, and not let the book be “swelled into a large Volume of other Navigators, which have been published many year ago…”. These, the prospectus claimed, are “generally abounding with tedious and uninteresting Details” which also make the books more expensive and out of the reach of the “middling Class of People.” Provenance: early owner signatures for “John Pickering Sheffield” and “E. Han- cock 1800.” $2400 References: not in the standard Cook bibliographies of Beddie nor Holmes; Forbes, Hawaiian National Bibliography, no. 110. [4] [4] [DEPT. OF FINE ARTS & ANTIQUITIES, LAND FORCES GREECE]. The Monuments of Greece. Vol. I Athens & Attica [with] Vol. II. The Peloponnese [with] Vol. III. Central & Northern Greece. Published: Greece, Department of Fine Arts & Antiquities, no date but 1945. Description: three square-octavo booklets, line illustrations and some maps, original card wrappers. Condition: excellent. Complete set of these rare booklets A very rare full set of booklets produced at the end of the Second World War to provide an introduction to the classical history of Greece. The works combine an up-to-the-minute travel guide to some of the most famous sites in Greece with notes on more recent history and the impact of the war. In this sense they are the precursors to the work being undertaken to protect cultural sites, most famously under- taken by the Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives units. All of the volumes were prepared under the auspices of the Central Mediterranean Force. Headquarters, Land Forces Greece. Depart- ment of Fine Arts and Antiquities. There are simple line drawings throughout, although perhaps the more important inclusions are a number of sketch maps which show both antiquities and modern sites. The three volumes as follows: Vol. I Athens & Attica (51 pp.) Vol. II The Peloponnese (41 pp.) Vol. III Central & Northern Greece (52 pp.) None of the three booklets are not dated, but the date of 1945 is taken from the catalogue note for the set in the Imperial War Museum (UK). $150 References: IWM (online); Work of Art in Greece: The Greek Islands and the Dodeca- nese, Losses and Survivals in the War (HMSO, 1946). [5] HALL, Thomas. Rare entry token for the Hall museum, depicting ‘The Kanguroo, The Armadillo, The Rhinoceros.’ Creation: London, 1795. Object: Bronze token, 30 mm. diameter. Condition: very good, and an unusually crisp strike, the beading on the obverse slightly clipped, the lettering on the reverse a little rubbed in the centre. Kangaroos in Finsbury Square in 1795 An uncommonly good example of this remarkable token for the London taxi- dermist and showman Thomas Hall, advertising the very early display of a “Kanguroo” at his museum on City Road, near Finsbury Square. On the obverse the medal illustrates the three most remarkable animals in Hall’s museum, the kangaroo, armadillo and rhinoceros. The kangaroo was the most famous animal brought back by Captain Cook, not least because of the painting executed by Thomas Stubbs, which was later used as the basis for an engraving in the account of Cook’s first voyage (1773). By the time of the First Fleet the kangaroo had become one of the most obvious desid- erata for collectors, so much so that Governor Phillip was informed that one of the kangaroos sent home had been valued at the incredible sum of £500 (lead- ing Phillip to indignantly deny to Sir Joseph Banks that he was in league with a showman). As Christopher Plumb has discussed in great detail, the real kangaroo-mania started when the first live kangaroo was displayed at the Lyceum in 1791, and although by 1795 quite a number were known to have been taken to England, Hall’s display was an exceptionally early example of a museum showman exhibit- ing a specimen.

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