Rare books from Hordern House Rare Books

Sydney: Thomas Richards, Government Printer, 1885. Slight rubbing to binding, in handsome & original condition; interior lightly foxed in places; map with repaired tear; images all bright and crisp.. Large square folio, with a folding map, three coloured lithograph plates, 33 original silver albumen photographs (283 x 212 mm) mounted on card with printed captions and borders, and two superb panoramas, one of them double-page (240 x 553 mm) and the other on four sheets (242 x 1053 mm); original dark blue grained morocco binding, bevelled edges, spine banded and sides with multiple borders in gilt, front cover lettered in gilt, all edges gilded. This rare and sumptuous album, published in very small numbers and illustrated with actual photographs, has been called the first example of Australian photo-journalism: 'the most magnificent example of an Australian work in this genre, the high point in relation to which all other examples can be considered' (Holden). It is most impressive as an ethnographic… Read More

1859. In fine original condition in a fine original frame. Light restoration by David Stein (full restoration report is available).. Signed and inscribed 'no 2 Admiral/ Sir G.F. Seymour *.*.*./ John Lucas.' (on reverse); oil on canvas, unlined 1428 x 1118 mm. A magnificent Pacific painting: the superb large portrait of Admiral Sir George Seymour as commander-in-chief at Portsmouth. This imposing full-length portrait depicts George Francis Seymour, not long after he had served as commander-in-chief of the Pacific Station, at one of the high-points of his career, as commander-in-chief at Portsmouth, with his flagship HMS Victory resting at anchor behind him and proudly wearing his naval uniform and all the regalia of his rank. "An intelligent and resourceful officer, successful in all his commands" (ODNB), Seymour had first shipped as a 10-year-old in 1797 under the command of Edward Riou, who had himself served with Cook on the third voyage and been captain of the Guardian when it wrecked en route… Read More

Brescia: Boninus de Boninis, 1483. Closed marginal tear to gutter of ai, closed marginal tear to lower margin aii, aiv-aviii with neat marginal annotations in an early hand in Greek and Latin.. Small folio (302 x 198mm), 191 leaves (initial blank leaf discarded), with seven diagrams and a world map within the text; capital spaces blank; a fine, large copy in handsome Regency russia leather, sides richly tooled in gilt and blind with anthemion and scroll motifs, spine lettered in gilt and stamped in blind and gilt in compartments, all edges gilt, with lavender endpapers, by S. Ridge, of Grantham, with his ticket; Syston Park bookplates (see below). A superb copy of this great and rare book, from the library at Syston Park, with the first appearance in print of the famous Macrobian world map, the most influential of all pre-Renaissance views of the world, including an antipodean, southern continent. Printed in Brescia, in the first decade of printing there, this strikingly handsome production is the… Read More

Paris: Paris Philip-Dionysius Pieres (part-titles add: sold by Louis-Nicolas Prevost, Paris; Peter Elmsley, London; and Rudolph Gräffer, Vienna and Leipzig), 1791. Text and full-page plates printed on unwatermarked laid paper; paper of the 2 double-page plates watermarked: "IHS = DFC"; tissue guards watermarked: "J Watt & Co Patent Copying", the paper especially made for James Watt's famous copying machine, patented in 1780. [2], VI, 1-20, [2], [1] "VIII", 21-40, [2], [1], "X", 41-62, [2] "XI-XII", 63-102, [2], "XIII"-"XIV", 103-110, "109 bis" - "110 bis", 111-112, 111-112 bis, 113-118, 117 bis-118 bis, 119-120, 119 bis-120 bis, 121-134, [2], "XV-XVI", 135-184 pp.. 6 parts in 1 volume, folio, (510 x 355 mm); with a general title-page, six part-titles (each with one or two woodcut vignettes) and 91 engraved plates (two double-page): 54 after Pierre Joseph Redouté, 26 after Freret, two after Prevost, two after Fossier, two after Jossigny, one after Aubriet, one after Sowerby, two after Bruguière… Read More

London: Benjamin Motte, at the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleet-street, 1726. A fine copy. Four parts in two volumes, octavo; portrait of Gulliver by John Sturt engraved by Robert Sheppard and six engraved plates, five of them maps, by H. Moll; 19th-century polished calf gilt, spine gilt between raised bands, green lettering pieces, triple fillet border on sides, marbled endpapers with gilt dentelle borders, gilt edges; binding by Francis Bedford with his stamp. First edition, first issue (Teerink "A"), with the portrait in second state as is more usual. This is a fine copy of one of the greatest of all works of English (and travel) literature. From its first publication the success of Gulliver was immediate and sustained, its influence enormous. Gove knew of over one hundred eighteenth century editions and there have been countless since. Although it had its famous detractors (notably Samuel Johnson's famously dismissive 'When once you have thought of the big men and little men, it is very easy to do… Read More

London: J. and W. Cary, Strand, 1821 (terrestrial); G. & J. Cary, 86 St James's Street, 1816. Light crack at top of terrestrial globe (as is common) and another barely visible crack at centre neatly made good; the pair of globes in excellent overall condition with good original colour showing some occasional age browning.. Pair of 12-inch table globes (305 mm diameter; overall diameter 430 mm and height overall 635 mm); each made up from twelve sets of gores; complete with graduated brass meridian circles and hourly dials; within wooden baluster brackets, each with calendar and zodiac markings, on original mahogany stands with turned mahogany columns and tripod cabriole legs, original compasses mounted at bases. A most attractive matched pair of original Regency period table globes, terrestrial and celestial, made by the leading London cartographic firm. The Cary family of cartographers and globe makers produced some of the greatest globes of the late Georgian era. The firm was started in London in… 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

Sydney: Absalom West, 1812. A very good impression laid down on Japanese tissue.. Engraving; paper size approx. 310 mm. x 450 mm.; printed lower right below image in black ink, 'Engraved by W. Presston [sic]'; printed lower left below image in black ink, 'Drawn by J. Eyre'; printed lower centre below image in black ink, 'Published Novr 30th 1812 by A. West Sydney'; printed, lower centre below image in black ink, 'BOTANY BAY HARBOUR, In New South Wales with a View of the HEADS./ taken from cooks Point/ Dedicated to his Excellency Lachlan Macquarie, Esq. Governor of New South Wales. &c. &c. &c.'; printed upper left above image in black ink, 'No.1'; mounted and expertly framed. This beautiful and very rare early Sydney view is the first separately published engraving to have been both drawn and engraved entirely in the colony. It is number one in the remarkable series of Sydney Views published by Absalom West from 1812 and was created after an original drawing by the colonial artist John Eyre and… Read More

London: Printed by W. Bulmer... and published by G. and W. Nicol, 1814. Text volumes: the two frontispieces and other plates with edge-staining from oxidisation of paper. Atlas volume: a few folds repaired, a couple of the maps with some spotting.. Two text volumes, quarto, with nine engraved plates, in large paper format with generous margins and a few edges uncut; and folio atlas with sixteen large charts either folding or double-page, two double-page folding plates of coastal views and ten folded botanical plates; the text volumes in old half maroon grained calf, the atlas in old half calf. One of the most famous Australian rare books, the full account of the first circumnavigation of Australia. The two extensive text volumes and the accompanying volume of charts of the coastline represent the magnificent achievement that was Flinders's voyage in the Investigator, the full-scale expedition to discover and explore the entire coastline of Australia (the name that Flinders himself preferred and… Read More

London: Printed for T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, in the Strand, 1771. A fine copy. Quarto; a fine copy in a Sangorski-style binding of half green morocco, spine panelled in gilt between raised bands. First edition of the earliest published account of Cook's first voyage to the Pacific: the rare first issue, with the leaf of dedication to 'The Right Honourable Lords of the Admiralty, and to Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander' inserted by the publishers to add authenticity. This was the first of a series of so-called "surreptitious accounts" of Cook's various voyages to appear in print: the Admiralty found it practically impossible to enforce their ruling that no unofficial publications should pre-empt the official and lengthier accounts of the voyages, naturally much slower in the press. In this case, however, legal action was taken against the publisher for using an unauthorised dedication, forcing removal of the leaf during publication. 'It is accordingly of the greatest rarity, and copies of the book… Read More

London: for John Dunton, 1693. Some margins cut a little close, small stain on the title-page.. Duodecimo, with the three advertisement leaves at the end; small paper flaw to pp. 177-8; a very attractive copy in full speckled calf, spine ornately gilt, sides panelled in gilt. The very rare and valuable first English edition of this remarkable imaginary voyage, in which Jacques Sadeur makes his way to the southern land and discovers in western Australia an idealised society of large-bodied hermaphrodites who live in harmony with one another. This English language printing of 1693 contains the very first usage of the words 'Australia' and 'Australian' in print. Ordinarily Matthew Flinders is credited as having been the first published author of the name 'Australia', as it appears in his Voyage to Terra Australis. However, Foigny's fantastic story predates this by more than a century. First published in French in Switzerland in 1676 (where it was promptly banned by church authorities), the book was… Read More

London: J. Souter, 1825. A very fine copy. Oblong folio, pictorial lithographed title and 48 coloured aquatint views and one lithographed illustration after drawings by Joseph Lycett, with descriptive text, two folding maps; half red calf, marbled end papers and all edges gilt. A specially desirable copy of the great Australian colourplate book, the most important collection of antipodean landscapes and a landmark in the development of Australian illustrated books. Image one, "North View of Sydney, New South Wales" is found here in two states; the usual aquatint illustration and the very rare lithographed version. Lycett, a competent lithographer produced only two Australian images in lithography; one of Sydney and one of Hobart. It was originally planned that all the illustrations in "Views..." would be hand coloured lithographs, but as the prints when taken from the stone soon lost definition the publishers turned to aquatints, "in order that the accurate and highly finished drawings by Mr.… Read More

Sydney, 1845. Bright condition, sealed repaired tear in sky.. Original watercolour and pencil with gum arabic on paper, 310 x 500 mm; signed lower right C. Martens; in handsome nineteenth century frame; gold slip. A superb Sydney Harbour scene, sweeping from Elizabeth Bay House in the middle-ground around to the lower north shore, showcasing Martens's remarkable talent at capturing the shimmering waters and the intense light of the city. Martens has chosen his viewpoint, the ridge at Darling Point looking back across Elizabeth Bay towards the city, with great care, giving full rein to his skill as a landscape artist while also allowing him to devote his typical care to the foliage in the foreground: his informal scientific training meant that he was one of the few colonial artists to really master the distinctive look of the Australian Bush, and he took unusual care to be botanically accurate. More, in the present picture he has purposefully set out to minimise the built landscape by positioning the… Read More

London: G. and W. Nicol, 1830. In very attractive condition, the text volumes with much less offsetting from the plates than usual; atlas in fine state.. Two volumes quarto, and atlas folio; the text volumes on large paper and the atlas in the preferred elephant folio size with the botanical plates unfolded; nine plates in the text; the atlas with 16 charts (nine folding), two plates (on four double-page sheets) of coastal views, and ten large botanical plates; text in handsome contemporary half crimson morocco bindings with brown moiré cloth sides, atlas in contemporary quarter red morocco and marbled sides, spine lettered in gilt. A superb set, evidently acquired by George Wyndham (later Lord Egremont) in 1836, with the splendid and large atlas volume containing updated maps appropriate to that date. Showing details of coastal exploration carried out by P.P. King and others in the two decades since original publication, this represents the detailed knowledge of the Australian coastline current at… Read More

London: Cadell & Davies, 1804. Some small browning and foxing. One folding plate backed with modern paper.. Quarto, with nine engraved plates and maps, seven folding; a very good complete copy in contemporary calf, well rebacked, lettered in gilt. First edition of this famous Pacific rarity and one of the centrepieces of a Pacific voyage collection: Broughton's account of his lengthy Pacific voyage is filled with descriptions of the Northwest Coast, Hawaii and New South Wales. It is a difficult book to find: the Kroepelien collection, for example, had only the German and French versions of the work while Lada-Mocarski describes it as 'Extremely rare... the information contained in it is of prime importance'. In 1795 Broughton was despatched in Bligh's old ship Providence to rendezvous with Vancouver on the Northwest Coast. He sailed to Nootka Sound via Rio de Janeiro, Australia, Tahiti and the Hawaiian Islands; however Vancouver had returned to England some months earlier so he headed down the coast… Read More