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

London: Edward Orme, 1813. Quarto, 10 coloured aquatints; modern half calf, spine gilt-titled. A very good copy of the first issue of this important Australian plate book. This was the first work to be published on the Australian Aborigines. Clark dedicated his work to the recently deposed William Bligh, with the unusually affectionate comment that it 'may assist in keeping alive the recollection of a distant spot, where your exertions for your country, and for the benefit of mankind, have been so eminently displayed'. The identity of the artist of the drawings originally sent from New South Wales, or "The Author" as he is described on the title-page of this edition, has never been established with certainty. The images - "Smoking out the Opossum", "Hunting the Kangaroo", "Throwing the Spear", "Climbing Trees", "Fishing" (two plates), "The Dance", "Warriors of New South Wales", "Trial", and "Spearing Birds" - have a general air of authenticity that strongly suggests a resident artist, albeit one with… Read More

Sydney: Turner & Henderson, 1880. In remarkable original condition.. Duodecimo, pp. 22, [ii]; original wrappers, preserved in a folding cloth box. The rare catalogue of the Society's inaugural exhibition held at the Garden Palace which had been purpose-built for the Sydney International Exhibition in 1879. An impressive two hundred and twenty oils, watercolours and drawings were hung: Mrs. Alfred Williams' painting Ophelia, the most expensive at £75, was highly praised by the Bulletin art critic at the time. Her identification as Mrs. Florence E. Williams gives more understanding of the high price as she had exhibited under that version of her name at the Royal Academy since her teens before coming to Australia. Her inclusion was significant for, as Joan Kerr has noted, "Florence's paintings seem unique for Australia at the time when domestic genre paintings are almost unknown." Florence was a founding member of the Art Society and had been a friend and pupil of (and much influenced by) Millais.… Read More

London: George Newnes, 1901. Very minor wear generally a fine copy.. Octavo, with photogravure portrait frontispiece, three coloured maps (folding), 18 plates and numerous photographic illustrations; an excellent copy in the original red cloth variant binding. The second issue of the first edition, issued in the same year, and identified by its red cloth binding. This was the leader and organiser's account of the Antarctic cruise of the Southern Cross, the first expedition to winter on the Antarctic continent. The Norwegian-born Borchgrevink migrated to Australia aged 24 years. He was a member of Henrik Bull's Norwegian expedition on the Antarctic, which completed the first confirmed landing on the Antarctic continental mainland in 1895. On his return, Borchgrevink began planning for an expedition to reach both the Magnetic and South Poles. He travelled to England to raise sponsorship and eventually convinced the publisher Sir George Newnes to back the project, with his purchase and refit of the… Read More

London: Edward Lacey, 1850. Extremities worn and some stains to wrappers, but good. Octavo, handcoloured plates; in original wrappers with engraved vignette. A rare and charming natural history primer for children. This is number six of the Zoological Gallery, and illustrates twenty-four species of fish and amphibious animals. A spouting whale appears as the frontispiece. .

London: John Murray, 1898. Two volumes, with 15 full-page plates, nine maps (four folding) and numerous illustrations in the text; in the original decorated cloth. An important book on late-nineteenth-century Thailand. Smyth spent some years in Thailand as director of the Department of Mines, and his well-illustrated account of the country, then under the rule of King Chulalongkorn, describes the prosperous last years free of colonial controls. 'Thailand presented a singular contrast to the rest of Southeast Asia in the late nineteenth century. Thai leaders followed policies that revealed a remarkable capacity to gain the greatest benefit from the new and intrusive element of European power' (Osborne, Southeast Asia). Within only a few years Thailand was to lose part of its country to French colonial aspirations, and in 1909 it lost four Malay states to the British. .

London: Richard Bentley, 1862. Two volumes, octavo; in a fine contemporary binding of salmon-pink calf, spines ornately gilt in compartments between rasied bands, double labels, marbled endpapers and edges, by Zaehnsdorf with his stamp. Jessop gives an account of an adventurous tourist's travels in Australia in the late 1850s and early 1860s ('A detailed description of the South Eastern part of Australia, including station properties, social conditions, travel, aborigines, etc.' according to Ferguson). Importantly Jessup records (vol. 2, pp. 233-50) meeting two men at Wilpena 'on their way back to Adelaide, with the results of a private exploration.... The leader, or scout, was named Giles, who was engaged by Mole, a man of more energy than money, to assist him in opening up some new part ... [They] finally left the known country at Angipena, and entered upon the unknown in the direction of north-west ... They were absent about a month from Angipena, and altogether, going and coming, passed over… Read More

London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1845. Good, small repair to spine. Small quarto, illustrated with over 1900 woodcuts; an attractive copy in contemporary red half roan, marbled boards and endpapers. A remarkable work, a concise introduction to exotic plant species introduced to England until the early 1840s, with specific notice of plants from all parts of Australia including the new Swan River settlement. Benjamin Maund (1790-1864) botanist and horticulturist, started out as apprentice to Thomas Griffiths a printer and bookseller in Ludlow. In 1815 he bought his own business and moved to the High Street, where he prospered, combining his work as a printer and publisher with his passion for plants; at the rear of the business he had a large garden and was able to experiment with seeds and plants obtained from around the world. Illustrated with 1917 delightful small woodcuts illustrating each of the plants described, this work was based on earlier notes which appeared in Maund's journal The Botanic Garden,… Read More

London: Religious Tract Society, 1863. Octavo, eight colour plates, very good in old gilt ruled morocco, joints rubbed. This attractive literary selection is illustrated with eight colour plates showcasing English, Japanese, Indian, Syrian, Australian, North and South American and African flowers: each plate is accompanied by text explaining the species. The Australian flower plate features the five species. We learn that 'Here forests of magnificent gum trees tower to an extraordinary height, while the surface of the ground is often clothed with dense and impervious underwood, and the whole is festooned with creepers from the size of the slender convolvus to that of the cable of the largest man-of-war.' .

Hobart, 1870. Both images in excellent condition, blank rear face flecked.. Stereoscope, card mount measuring 175 x 83mm. Rare stereoscopic photograph of the Royal Navy "Flying Squadron" on their visit to the Derwent River in January 1870. The Flying Squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral Hornby, was a travelling display of British naval supremacy which visited Sydney and Melbourne before arriving in Hobart on 2 January 1870. Although unarmed, the fleet played a role in asserting British naval power in the farther corners of the empire. This remarkable stereogram, captured from Government House overlooking the Derwent River, depicts five of the fleet vessels at anchor. This image is attributable to Hobart-based commercial photographer, grocer and entrepreneur Samuel Clifford (1827-1890). Clifford arrived in Tasmania from London in 1848 and quickly established himself as an industrious photographer and associate of innovative Hobart based stereographer Thomas J. Nevin. Clearly, Clifford was well… Read More

London: Edward Orme, 1814. Joints and extremities rubbed, the original binding quite sound and attractive.. Quarto, 160 pages letterpress without pagination, 100 handcoloured aquatints with the 1813 New South Wales supplement bound at rear (this comprising separate title-page, dedication leaf, 10 handcoloured aquatints and 14 letterpress pages); a fine copy of the early issue with watermarks dated 1811 in a handsome contemporary binding of half green russia, spine in compartments with gilt lettering and ornament. One of the outstanding aquatint books of the early nineteenth century, including the remarkable supplementary suite of ten plates depicting Aboriginal life and customs. This is an early bissue (with watermarks dated 1811) of the first edition of Foreign Field Sports, a collection of 100 hunting scenes from cultures across the globe, including Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. This complete edition includes the 'Field Sports, &c. &c. Of the Native Inhabitants of New South… Read More

London: British Museum, 1968. Folio, 36 plates (some in colour); a very good copy in the original cloth, dustjacket decorated in gilt. First edition of this lavish work, reproducing fishes drawn on Cook's voyages by Webber, Parkinson, Forster and others. The drawings are reproduced by collotype, and all but three are full size. A beautiful large format book in its own right, this work is also of considerable value for the study of Australian and Pacific ichthyology. .

Sydney: various, 1840. Four original engravings all approx 10.5 x 17 cm in handsome gilt frames. Four engraved views representative of Macquarie era Sydney, the work of distinguished Sydney engraver, painter and teacher John Black Carmichael (c.1803-1857), Sydney printer James Maclehose, and a view of St. James's Church by colonial artist John Skinner Prout (1805-1876). Carmichael is also notable for having been one of the earliest free emigrant artists to pursue a lifelong professional career in New South Wales. (DAAO online). The views are: Irrawang Vineyard & Pottery. One of the earliest depictions of an Australian vineyard. Lord's Mill Botany Bay. Simeon Lord (1771-1840) established his watermill at Botany Bay, New South Wales, to provide the power for the manufacture of shoes, hats, harness and textiles. The watermill was still operating in 1855. Mill Pond and Engine Pond remain as reminders of Lord's industry. St. James's Church, Court Houses, Sydney. An engraved advertisement on attractive… Read More

Nykoping: Johann P. Hammarin, 1795. Some moderate foxing; yet a very good uncut copy. Octavo, 96 pp., early ownership notation and stamp to title-page, old plain grey wrappers. Scarce Swedish edition derived from Georg Forster's translation of the Surville voyage account. Son of esteemed naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster, Georg accompanied his father on the second voyage of Captain James Cook to the Pacific and so established his reputation as an eminent naturalist and philosopher. Georg Forster had long experience translating scientific works, and his travels in the Pacific with Cook placed him in good stead as a translator of Surville. Indeed, Surville was in New Zealand waters at the same time as Captain Cook on his first voyage, although the two expeditions did not sight each other (it is speculated the two navigators sailed within 40 kilometres of each other in mid-December 1769). Kroepelien notes this is a 'Swedish version, anonymously translated and somewhat abridged by Carl Fr. Landell, of… Read More

France, 1770. Paper a little weak at folds and the drawing uniformly faded but good.. Fine original drawing in ink on paper, with watercolour highlights, 470 x 450 mm., showing an armed ship in profile, flying several flags; with long manuscript notes on the verso detailing rigging, fitout, and apparently costs. A fine and very rare piece: this is an eighteenth-century sectional elevation of a French ship, probably for construction purposes and perhaps a design and estimate for a specific vessel. The drawing has been inspected by Contre-Amiral François Bellec (former director of the Musée de la Marine, Paris, and author of Unknown Lands: The Log Book of the Great Explorers, Tragédies De La Mer: Les Mythes De L'histoire, Le livre de L'aventure Maritime, Océans des hommes, and La Mer sous le regard des peintres de la marine). Admiral Bellec was impressed by the piece, dated it to the middle of the eighteenth century, and said that he was not aware of more than a few similar pieces in French… Read More