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

London: Henry Colburn, 1843. Binding worn at head and foot, spines faded, hinges cracked but sound,. Two volumes, octavo, xxxviii, (1, fly-title), 387, 16 (ads); vi, (1, ills.) 474pp. With two folding maps and a larger world chart in pocket of the binding, as issued; frontispiece in each volume and 17 other engraved plates, and 20 engraved vignettes in the text; 16 pp. publisher's advertisements at end of the first volume. Original blue-green cloth, gilt-lettered backstrips. First edition of Captain Sir Edward Belcher's narrative of the world voyage of the Sulphur, during the years 1836-1842, and 'an important surveying voyage to the Pacific' (Forbes). Belcher took command of the ship after Captain Beechey fell ill in Valparaiso. The expedition had been sent out to survey the Pacific coast of North and South America and the Pacific basin. 'The various harbours along the coast of California and northwest to Alaska were surveyed, and a month's journey in open boats was made up the Sacramento River… Read More

London: C. Raworth, 1803. Quarto, with a large folding plan, chart, coloured plate of a cockatoo and five other engravings including a portrait of Bennelong; complete with the "List of the Encouragers" and the blank leaf; a handsome copy, with wide margins, in contemporary calf, respined to match by Aquarius. First edition: a very handsome copy of this desirable work on early Australian coastal exploration. The Lady Nelson was the first ship to be built with sliding keels to allow closer exploration of shallow coastal waters. James Grant was born in Scotland in 1772; in 1800, as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, he brought the Lady Nelson to Australia in company with HMS Porpoise. He sailed the unusually designed ship through Bass Strait, the first to do so from the west and, on arrival at Sydney, discovered that he had missed Flinders to whom he was to deliver the ship and was sent back to survey the south-western coast of the continent, assisted by Francis Barrallier. However, because of the… Read More

London: T. & W. Boone, 1847. Two volumes, octavo, 17 plates and two folding maps, illustrated; in attractive old pale tan half calf, double labels. First edition of this important account of the Fly's surveying voyage of coastal Australia. Jukes' account is particularly significant for his description of the Queensland coast, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Torres Strait, and includes an impressively detailed map of the north-east coast from Endeavour River north to New Guinea. Numerous encounters with native peoples, particularly in the Torres Strait are described in the text and illustrated in the splendid plates, mostly by Harden S. Melville, who who published his own illustrated work on the voyage (Sketches in Australia and the Adjacent Islands, 1849). The Fly, Captain Blackwood, sailed from Falmouth on 11 April 1842 with the cutter Bramble. Jukes sailed as naturalist to the expedition, and with his captain's consent wrote the official narrative. The survey of Torres Strait and of the Great… Read More

London: T. & W. Boone, 1847. Two volumes, octavo, with many engravings (full-page and textual), and a folding map at the end of each volume; a fine copy, complete with all advertisement leaves including a half-sheet advertisement for Leichhardt in vol. I and another for Dutton's "South Australia" in vol. II, in the original and unfaded blue-grey blind-stamped cloth. First edition: a fine copy, in original condition, of this important surveying voyage of coastal Australia. Jukes' account is particularly important for his description of the Queensland coast, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Torres Strait, and includes an impressively detailed map of the north-east coast from Endeavour River north to New Guinea. The Fly, Captain Blackwood, sailed from Falmouth on 11 April 1842 with the cutter Bramble. Jukes sailed as naturalist to the expedition, and with his captain's consent wrote the official narrative. The survey of Torres Strait and of the Great Barrier Reef, as well as the various New Guinea… Read More

London: Treuttel and Wurtz, 1823. Quarto, two parts in one, with a folding frontispiece map and 25 lithograph plates, very occasional spotting to plates; modern polished calf, gilt. The first edition in English of this informal narrative of the Freycinet voyage, the great French expedition to Australia and the Pacific commanded by Louis de Freycinet; it is also the first appearance in English of any account of the expedition. Arago was the official artist on the voyage, and the lithograph plates here are all after his own drawings. His narrative is highly readable, not least because he entirely avoids the conventional forms of the voyage narrative, ignoring the "eternal repetition of winds, currents, longitude and lattitude". Full of wry humour, it takes the form of a series of letters to a friend. Long portions relate to Australia, with descriptions of Sydney, the Blue Mountains, and of meetings with Governor Macquarie and John Oxley. There is also a long account (almost 100 pages) of their stay in… Read More

New York: Redfield, 1854. Octavo, 376, (16, ads.)pp. With a frontispiece and two plates, with tissue guards, foxed. A fine copy in publishers green cloth. First edition in English of Gabriel Franchère's account of Astoria on the mouth of the Columbia River. While the book chiefly recounts his extraordinary overland journey of five months through the Rocky Mountains to the Red River Settlement (later Winnipeg) and thence to Montreal, it is also well-regarded for the author's account of his early and important visits to Hawaii and Tahiti en route to the northwest Pacific. Franchère's narrative was first published in Montreal some years previously; this edition was prepared for the American public by the clergyman and sometime novelist Jebediah Vincent Huntington who patriotically proclaims the book as 'the only account by an eye-witness and a participator in the enterprise, of the first attempt to form a settlement on the Pacific under the stars and stripes.' Franchère was a member of the party sent… Read More

London: T. and W. Boone, 1849. Two volumes, octavo, with folding map and fifteen plates including six chromolithographs (some after S.T. Gill and John Gould); bound without publisher's advertisements; a very handsome set in contemporary red half morocco and marbled boards and edges. The famous original account of Sturt's last expedition, to Coopers Creek and the Simpson Desert. Sturt's journey into the harsh interior of the continent was one for which he had petitioned over many years. One of its most important results was the final, reluctant abandonment of the old hopes for the discovery of an inland sea. Sturt and his party of fifteen suffered dreadfully. They were trapped at Preservation Creek in the Grey Range for nearly six oppressive months after summer heat dried up all water in the surrounding country. The party suffered greatly from scurvy, losing its second-in-command; Sturt himself survived on the return journey by using Aboriginal food sources. He received the rarely awarded gold medal… Read More

London: Reeve and Co, 1853. Binding a bit scuffed but a good sound copy.. Two volumes in one, octavo, xvi, 322; [viii] 302 pp. Tinted lithographed frontispiece in each volume, tinted lithographed folding map at end. Bound without the advertisement leaves and half-title to vol. 2. Half maroon calf, cloth boards, marbled edges, An important Pacific and Arctic voyage. Seemann was the naturalist of the Herald expedition, which made extensive surveys along the Northwest Coast and into the Bering Sea. They "explored most of the west coast of America, the Galapagos, the Hawaiian Islands, Kamchatka, Bering Strait, Alaska, and the Arctic Ocean. Extensive land exploration was undertaken in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, and Mexico. In September 1846 the Herald anchored in San Francisco Bay, and the author records a visit to Mission Dolores, at that time occupied by a party of Mormons" - Hill. "At the end of 1848 Captain Kellett was directed to join the search for Sir John Franklin, going through Bering Strait… Read More

London: J. Debrett, 1789. A lovely copy in very good condition.. Octavo; with the half-title, no advertisement leaf; early half calf and marbled boards, spine with double labels and gilt ornaments in compartments between raised bands. Tench's first work on the colony at Port Jackson, in the important third edition, the first to include his new Postscript, printing a letter from Sydney Cove dated 1 October 1788. This closely-printed letter (pp. 147-8) reports further activity since July and, despite the growing difficulties faced by the settlers, strikes the bright and optimistic note characteristic of the author. The letter is particularly interesting regarding the early settlement at Norfolk Island, and includes the ominous aside that the Norfolk settlers have made every attempt to 'find a landing-place, whence it might be practicable to ship off the timber growing there, but hitherto none has been discovered.' Just six months after the time of writing the Sirius would be wrecked trying to anchor… Read More

Washington: Beverley Tucker, 1856. The binding tired and faded but a good reading set.. Three volumes, quarto, Volume 1 with 87 lithographed plates (most tinted), three colour facsimiles of Japanese woodblock prints (two folding), six maps (two folding), numerous wood-engraved illustrations in text, the suppressed nude bathers plate not present as usual; Volume 2 with 27 illustration plates (18 hand-coloured), 16 plates of wind & current diagrams, 16 folding maps (14 linen-backed); Volume 3 with 352 wood-engraved star charts. Original cloth. First edition, the Senate Issue, of Perry's account of his historic voyage to Japan in command of a naval expedition which was to lobby the Japanese government to establish diplomatic relations with the United States. The resulting treaty in 1853 ensured better treatment by the Japanese authorities of shipwrecked seamen and permitted American ships to dock at two Japanese ports to refuel and to seek supplies. "The most important result... was that the visit… Read More

London: S. Baker, 1768. Old rebacking, calf rubbed, joints splitting, headband worn.. Octavo, with a frontispiece; contemporary dark calf, various owners' signatures including a presentation to 'Arthur Cadogan from Genl. Fox'. First edition. 'Admiral Byron's narrative of the loss of the Wager is one of the most thrilling accounts in the language, and supplied his illustrious descendant with many particulars for the shipwreck in Don Juan' (Sabin). Byron, later a noted Pacific explorer in his own right, and eventually governor of Newfoundland, was known as "foul weather Jack"; he was a midshipman aboard the Wager and his narrative provides a notable supplement to the main account of Anson's voyage. Byron gives 'an account of pillaging, treachery, and murder by the crew, most of whom claimed that since their pay ceased the moment the ship was lost they were no longer subject to military discipline and it was every man for himself. It told of Byron's own living off the sea, without shelter or clothing,… Read More

Philadelphia: Henry Perkins, 1839. Rebacked retaining much of the original spine.. Octavo, [i-v] vi-viii [9] 10-352pp. Original plum cloth. First edition. Townsend travelled with naturalist Thomas Nutall and Jason Lee in Nathaniel Wyeth's second expedition to Oregon in 1834; leaving Independence at the end of April, 1834, the party stopped en route at the unfinished Fort Hall, and reached Fort Vancouver in the middle of September. Streeter calls his narrative "one of the best early ones." Hill remarks that "Townsend also gives in-depth observations of the manners and customs of the Indians and of the lives of the fur traders in the Columbia region." On the return trip, Tahiti and Juan Fernandez Island were visited" Townsend was an ornithologist, and his notes on the natural history of the region, along with Nuttall's, were used by John James Audubon in preparing the Birds of America. . Provenance: Alexander E. Harvey (with small label).

London: John Murray, 1824. Two volumes, octavo, with four splendid folding maps; in contemporary navy blue half calf, marbled boards, edges and endpapers, spines ornately panelled in gilt with duble brown labels (lettered "Franklin's Journey to the Copper Mine River"). A particularly fine set, in a most attractive contemporary binding, of the second, first octavo, edition: Sir John Franklin's narrative of the 1819-1822 expedition to the polar north under his command. Assured of guides and ongoing supplies by the Hudson's Bay Company, Franklin and his party of twenty men sought an overland route east of the Coppermine River. Using native canoes to traverse a vast landscape, relations among the men deteriorated as food and supplies dwindled. Cold, exposure and starvation took a harrowing toll as cannibalism and murder erupted amongst the voyagers. A total of nine men died. This account was initially published in a lavishly illustrated quarto edition. This second edition in smaller format features four… Read More

Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1845. A fine set.. Six volumes in five, including the atlas; with 64 steel-engraved plates; text illustrations engraved in steel & wood; nine double-page copper-engraved maps; atlas with five large folding copper-engraved maps & charts (one hand-coloured); contemporary half green pebbled morocco, marbled boards, spines lettered in gilt. The substantial narrative of the massive official American expedition, one of the three great Antarctic voyages of the 1840s. This fine set is an example of the edition of 1000 sets printed of the public edition, which was preceded by the very rare quarto official and unofficial editions, printed in just 100 and 150 copies respectively, many of which were subsequently destroyed, and consequently today almost unknown on the market. Later editions, including the second 1845 octavo edition, are smaller in size, are generally of inferior quality and do not include the fine steel-engravings found here. This is thus the much preferred edition… Read More

London: T. & W. Boone, 1852. Two volumes, octavo, with engraved folding map and 13 lithographed plates after T. Huxley and others as well as many text illustrations; a fine copy in an early binding of half polished calf, spines gilt in compartments, double labels. First edition: "a very important voyage of exploration and scientific research" (Ferguson). This was the last, and today is the most difficult to find, of the great exploration journals published by Boone during the heroic age of Australian exploration. John MacGillivray served as the chief naturalist on the Rattlesnake, part of the important series of hydrographical voyages undertaken by the Admiralty in the late 1840s to chart the Great Barrier Reef and north coast, and the southern coast of New Guinea. The Rattlesnake continued the work that began with Lort Stokes on the Beagle and was continued by Blackwood on the Fly and Bramble. The ship's complement was distinguished by the presence of the naturalist, T.H. Huxley, and the marine… Read More

London: J. Debrett, 1789. In excellent condition; some of the uncut edges slightly dusty, a very small brown spot in extreme lower forecorner of eight leaves towards end.. Octavo, complete with the half-title and the final leaf of Debrett's advertisements; an excellent and large copy, edges uncut, in a traditional binding of half calf and marbled boards by Aquarius. A particularly good copy, completely uncut, of the elusive first edition of the first eye-witness account of Australia's first white settlement. The first copies appeared for sale in London on 4 April 1789, before the publication of the official account by Governor Phillip. Tench's book not only predates the other First Fleet accounts, but it is also arguably the most readable and the most sympathetic. John White's journal apart, the others are more or less official in tone; none has the directness of Tench's description of life in the first days of the colony. This first edition has become noticeably rare on the market: surprisingly… Read More

London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860. Two volumes, octavo, with three coloured maps (two folding), four coloured plans, a coloured chart, 20 "chromoxylograph" plates, and numerous woodcuts; complete with half-titles; in a fine contemporary binding by Bickers and Sons, London, of full pale calf, sides bordered in gilt, spines gilt in compartments between raised bands with double labels, marbled endpapers and edges. First edition of the outstanding narrative by Professor Hind of his investigations of the country between Lake Superior and the Rocky Mountains, during a government-funded exploration seeking a land corridor to the British Columbia goldfields and looking at the possibility of a railroad to reach the Pacific coast. "During this exploration, Mr. Hind lived almost constantly among the Crees and Chippeways, whose habits and peculiarities he was most eager to study, and prompt to record. Everything in their life had not only the charm of novelty to him, but as a man of science, he… Read More

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

London: Hurst, Chance and Co, 1829. Two volumes, octavo, plates (two folding, one coloured), and a folding map; plates crisp, in half green morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, spine banded and gilt. First edition. Forty years after the French explorer first disappeared, Peter Dillon, a sandalwood trader, called at the Solomons; when a silver sword guard was shown to him, he suspected that he might have accidentally discovered the solution of a mystery that had tormented the French for so long. He returned to India and persuaded the government of Bengal to sponsor an expedition. At Vanikoro he found many relics including a portion of the stern of the Boussole, ships' bells stamped 'Bazin m'a fait', monogrammed silver, metal fragments and mill stones known to have been aboard. One native had a glass piece from a thermometer in his nose. Dillon was made a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur, his expenses defrayed and granted a pension. His book was commercially successful, appearing in English and French… Read More

New York: Redfield, 1854. Recent bookplate to front pastedown, skilfully rebacked with most of the original spine laid down.. Octavo, with three engraved plates, author's inscription to head of title-page; a good copy in publishers green cloth, preserved in a folding cloth case. First English translation, signed and inscribed by the author, of Gabriel Franchère's account of Astoria on the mouth of the Columbia River. While the book chiefly recounts his extraordinary overland journey of five months through the Rocky Mountains to the Red River Settlement (later Winnipeg) and thence to Montreal, it is also well-regarded for the author's account of his early and important visits to Hawaii and Tahiti en route to the northwest Pacific. Franchère's narrative was first published in Montreal some years previously; this edition was prepared for the American public by the clergyman and sometime novelist Jebediah Vincent Huntington who patriotically proclaims the book as 'the only account by an eye-witness… Read More