Tableau des découvertes du Capne. Cook & de La Pérouse; Tableau des Principaux Peuples de l'Amerique; Tableau des Principaux Peuples de l'Afrique; Tableau des Principaux Peuples del'Asie; Tabeleau des Principaux Peuples de l'Europe.

Paris, [c. 1795]. . Five superb engravings with original handcolouring, 440 x 530 mm (sheet size).
Born in Montreal in 1757, Grasset de Saint-Sauveur studied in Paris from 1764 before following in the footsteps of his father and brother by joining the diplomatic corps. He is better known however for his depictions of the costumes and habits of peoples from around the world, indeed Prof. Bernard Smith refers to him as 'the finest of the costume encyclopaedists of the late eighteenth century' (European Vision and the South Pacific, p113).

The first of this set of five engravings shows the islanders of the Pacific, as known from the voyages of both Cook and Lapérouse whose two vessels disappeared in the Pacific in 1788, their fate unknown for nearly 40 years until Capt. Dillon discovered remains at Vanikoro. Saint Sauveur was captivated like many of his contemporaries by the discoveries in the Pacific and he includes in this print people from across the breadth of the ocean, from the Northwest coast of America, as far North as Alaska, to Easter Island, and further to Hawai'i, Tahiti and Ulietea (now Raiatea) in the Society Islands.


Beddie, 557; cf. Forbes I, 271 & 281.