PERON, Francois & Louis FREYCINET

Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes...

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Imprimerie Impériale [Royale], 1807-1811-1816- Paris, 1824. Five volumes; a handsome set of the complete official edition, including the "general reader's edition", comprising the two-volume quarto text with portrait frontispiece and two folding tables, the two-parts of the large quarto atlas bound as a single volume containing 40 plates (23 coloured and two folding) and 14 maps (two double-page and folding); together with the "Partie Navigation", comprising a quarto text volume and imperial folio hydrographical atlas, the latter with engraved title, contents and 32 engraved charts, all pages in the imperial atlas expertly mounted on new binder's stubs; a few very sporadic spots, but the set in pristine untrimmed condition, the plates crisp and the colouring bright, bound in matching period French quarter red morocco over marbled boards, corners pointed in vellum. An exceptional set of the first edition of the complete offical account of the Baudin voyage, only rarely seen complete with the important hydrographical text and atlas. This set is unusually fine, with the plates notably crisp and delicately coloured.

This set presents a rare opportunity to have the complete account, including the hydrographical supplement together with the so-called "general reader's edition", of the important Baudin voyage to Australia and the Pacific, sent out by the French government in 1800 with orders to complete the cartographic survey of the Australian coast.

Commanded by Nicolas Baudin, the expedition left France in 1800 and sailed via Mauritius to the Australian coast in the region of Cape Leeuwin, arriving in May 1801. Péron sailed as naturalist on the expedition and Freycinet as cartographer. The vessels Géographe and Naturaliste sailed north from Cape Leeuwin. The expedition surveyed the coast and made observations on the natural history and inhabitants, until they crossed to Timor. After three months the two ships set out for Tasmania, the party continuing to make detailed surveys, and went on to Sydney. They then undertook a complete survey of the southern coast and an examination of the northern coast before returning to Mauritius where, near the end of 1803, Baudin died. It was a celebrated voyage, which brought back to France the most important collection of natural history specimens in the history of the French museum, as well as a wealth of geographical and other information.

The Atlas Historique contains a series of wonderful coloured plates, some of the most beautiful of early views of Australia and fine natural history images, while the superb series of portraits of Aborigines represents the most compassionate yet honest portrayal of the displaced natives to be seen in any of the early voyage accounts.

Similarly, the detailed plates in the imperial folio hydrography atlas, prepared by Louis de Freycinet and engraved by his brother Henri, are some of the most finely realised and beautifully detailed charts of the Australian coastline ever produced, prized for their detailed surveys of Western Australia, Tasmania, and particularly Bass Strait.

The narrative of the expedition was begun by Péron, and completed by Freycinet after Péron's death. A tacit agreement between Péron and Freycinet, both of whom disliked Baudin, kept the commander's name mostly absent from the account of the expedition. Flinders completed his survey of the Australian coast before Baudin, but his imprisonment by the French in Mauritius for seven years resulted in the French exploration account being published first. Consequently, the Baudin-Freycinet narrative includes the first complete and fully detailed map of the Australian continent. It is justly one of the most famous depictions of Australia ever produced, with virtually the entire southern coast labelled "Terre Napoléon", indicating French colonial ambitions. The map, controversial even today, is often said to have been at least partly based on Flinders' charts and papers seized by the French. It is one of the most beautiful as well as one of the most famous of all maps of Australia.
Hill, 1329; Wantrup, 78a & 79a.

• AUD 125,000.00 > другие валюты
• номер заказа: 811_937

• продавец: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)