Paris: Estienne Michallet, 1681.. [2],16,43,[1],18,[2],32,[4],20,14,8,16pp. including six plates and errata leaf, plus two folding maps (of three,... More

Paris: Estienne Michallet, 1681.. [2],16,43,[1],18,[2],32,[4],20,14,8,16pp. including six plates and errata leaf, plus two folding maps (of three, lacking the equipolar projection map, "Explication de la carte de la Decouverte de la Terre d'Ielmer") and three plates (two folding), with eleven engravings in the text. Contemporary calf, spine gilt, raised bands. Chipped at spine ends, a bit of wear along upper and lower portions of front hinge, bottom edge of rear board slightly worn. A few neat corrections in a contemporary hand. Tasman map and the two folding plates with closed tears along the bound-in edge, but with no loss. Small closed tear along one fold of the Mississippi map, but with no loss. Overall, a very good copy, lacking only the equipolar projection map. In a half morocco box. The very rare first edition of Thevenot's collection of travels, and an essential document in the exploration of the interior of North America. This is a very complex book bibliographically, and there are many variant issues, especially in the part of the work devoted to natural history discoveries of Swammerdam and others. Many copies lack some of the natural history components. Its importance and value, however, derive from the section and accompanying map devoted to the travels of Marquette and Joliet and the map showing the discoveries of Abel Tasman, and these are identical in both editions. The most notable aspect of Thevenot is that it contains the first publication of Father Marquette's relation of his discovery, with Joliet, of the upper Mississippi River and their exploration as far as the Arkansas River in 1673. This remarkable expedition established the basic structure of the Mississippi headwaters for the first time, and opened the way for the dominance of the French in the Mississippi Valley over the next century. Their account begins on May 17, 1673, when the party set out in two canoes from Mackinac. They reached the Mississippi via Green Bay and the Fox River on June 17, floated as far south as Arkansas, and returned north by way of the Illinois and Des Plaines rivers and the later site of Chicago. The accompanying map is a major landmark of American cartography, "Carte de la decouverte faite l'an 1673, dans l'Amerique Septentrionale." The map is the first to bear the word "Michigan," and shows the lake of that name and the Mississippi River from its headwaters to the sea. A figure appears in the center of the map, identified as "Manit8," representing an Indian god. The map appears here in its third state, as usual, with the date of 1673 in the title of the map. Burden convincingly asserts that the first and second states (known in only one copy each) were almost certainly proofs. This is one of the most important American frontier exploration narratives. Howes says: "The first edition of Thevenot's RECUEIL, while less rare than Le Clerq's PREMIER ETABLISSEMENT DE LA FOI, 1691, is of equal importance...." "The first printed representation of the Mississippi based on actual observation" - Streeter. The other sections of Thevenot's work are of considerable interest as well. The Tasman map is one of the first to show parts of the Australian coastline in detail, based on his 1644 voyage. It shows part of the coast of New Guinea, Tasmania, and much of the east coast of Australia, and is a basic work of Australian cartography. It is present here in its third issue, with the Tropic of Capricorn inserted and with the rhumblines. "In any state the map is a great rarity. It is one of the earliest charts devoted entirely to Australia, and is the first French map of Australia" - Davidson. There is also an account of explorations in polar regions by the Dutch in 1680, which is usually accompanied by a third map, an equipolar projection, which is lacking from this copy. The third exploration piece is an account of a trip overland from Russia to China in 1653. Finally, there is a discourse on navigation, and the natural history sections discussing the illustration of insects. A major work of Americana, with one of the landmark accounts and maps of the discovery of the Mississippi Valley. CHURCH 672. HARRISSE NOUVELLE FRANCE 147. SABIN 95332. WORLD ENCOMPASSED 211. STREETER SALE 101. SIEBERT SALE 659. HOWES T156, "c." EUROPEAN AMERICANA 681/141. BURDEN 540. CLEMENTS, 100 MICHIGAN RARITIES 4. GREENLY MICHIGAN 6. GRAFF 4122. JONES 320. TOOLEY, MAPPING OF AUSTRALIA AND ANTARCTICA, plate 92. Davidson, A BOOK COLLECTOR’S NOTES, pp.28-29. Less

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London: Taylor & Francis for Henry Sotheran & Co, 1891-98. 2 volumes in 8 original parts, large folio. (22 3/16 x 15 1/16 inches). Smaller... More

London: Taylor & Francis for Henry Sotheran & Co, 1891-98. 2 volumes in 8 original parts, large folio. (22 3/16 x 15 1/16 inches). Smaller format letterpress "Notice to Subscribers" tipped in at front of part VI, smaller format "Completion of the work" notice from the publishers tipped in at front of part VIII. 79 fine hand-coloured lithographic plates by William Mathew Hart, after his own drawings (52) and John Gould (20) or John Gerrard Keulemans (7), 13 uncoloured illustrations. Original pictorial grey paper-covered boards, dark blue cloth spines, the upper cover of each part with the letterpress title beneath a large wood-engraved title vignette, the eight parts contained in two dark green morocco-backed cloth boxes, the spines in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second and third compartments, the others with repeat decoration in gilt made up from various small tools. A very fine copy of this, the first monograph devoted to these remarkable birds and the "last of the fine bird books" (Fine Bird Books p.107). This copy, in original parts, with the best colouring of any copy that we have handled in past forty years. The remarkable-looking Birds of Paradise have captivated western science since Magellan first brought back a skin of such a creature in 1522. The skins, highly prized by East Indian natives, was given by the ruler of Batchian (in the Mollucas) as a gift to the King of Spain. The legs and wings of the bird, however, had been removed when skinned, presumably to better show its impressive plumage. When asked why the bird had no wings or feet, the natives replied that none were needed as the bird simply floated in its heavenly paradise. Thus, the earliest descriptions of the species, and indeed even its scientific naming by Linnaeus in the 18th century as Paradisaea apoda (legless bird of paradise), perpetuated that myth. Due to the remote nature of their rain forest habitat in New Guinea, it was not until the mid-19th century that these remarkable birds were first scientifically observed and accurately described. Gould had intended to publish a the first monograph devoted to the birds of paradise following completion of his Birds of New Guinea, but he did not live to do so. When Sharpe took over the task of completing that work, he appealed for subscribers for the proposed monograph. The response was clearly enthusiastic as within three years the first part of the present work was published. Some of the plates had previously appeared in Gould's Birds of New Guinea as "Messrs. Sotheran purchased the stock of Gould's works after his death [and] acquired the stones with which he had intended to illustrate his Monograph... Many of them were broken or otherwise damaged, and of these some have been redrawn or replaced by new plates by Mr. Hart. Since Gould's time, however, many marvelous new species have been discovered, and these have been described and figured in the present work" (Appendix). As the small format slip in part six makes clear, the timing of the publication of the work could not have been better, as so many beautiful new species were discovered whilst the work was in preparation that Sharpe felt justified in extending the size of the work from six to eight parts. Copies of this work were issued at a later date with inferior hand-colouring. The quality of the colouring of the plates in the present copy is outstanding, and it is only with examples of this work in the original parts that the colouring can be guaranteed to be contemporary with the original publication dates. Copies such as the present example are very rare: only three are listed as having sold at auction in the past thirty years. Fine Bird Books (1990) p.107; Nissen IVB 581; Ripley 263; Wood, p.565; Zimmer, p.581. Less

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Philadelphia: B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1755.. Folding handcolored engraved map by James Turner after Lewis Evans. Quarto. Full tan polished tree... More

Philadelphia: B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1755.. Folding handcolored engraved map by James Turner after Lewis Evans. Quarto. Full tan polished tree calf by Riviere, covers with a gilt roll tool border, spine in six compartments with raised bands, red morocco label in the second compartment, the others with an overall repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, a.e.g. Map backed on linen. Very good. One of the most important maps of the British colonies done prior to Independence, a landmark in American cartography and an important Franklin printing. Lewis Evans' map, titled "A General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America," shows the east coast of North America from Montreal and New England to the northern border of North Carolina, and also includes the Ohio valley in the west. The Evans map appeared in 1755, the same year as John Mitchell's famous map, with Evans drawing from his original surveys and Fry and Jefferson's 1753 map of Virginia. Evans' map acknowledges French claims to all lands northwest of St. Lawrence Fort, resulting in criticism from New York, notably the New York Mercury. Despite the controversy, Evans's work was very popular (there were eighteen editions between 1755 and 1814), and was famously used by General Braddock during the French and Indian War. Evans gives a detailed geographical description of the middle and southern colonies, particularly notable for an early description of the Ohio country, and gives a good description of the Carolina back country. Evans was also eager for the British to expand into the South, especially West Florida, to challenge the French and Spanish in the Gulf. According to Governor Pownall, writing in 1776, the map was the authority for settling boundary disputes in the region as it so accurately depicted the region. The present example is a very fine copy of the second edition, first issue of the text published by Benjamin Franklin (i.e. without an additional London imprint below Franklin's) and contains a rare example of the first issue of the map (i.e. without "The Lakes Cataraqui" just north of Lake Ontario). Significantly, the map present in this copy is with lovely full period hand-coloring. Sabin notes that many copies of Evans' tract do not include the map, and that only some copies are fully colored, as is this copy. On this second edition of the text, published the same year as the first, Miller notes: "This revised second edition of Evan's analysis of his General Map of the Middle British Colonies is virtually a page-for-page resetting of the first edition with sub- titles added on pp. 6 and 11, and the numeral 2 inserted to the left of the signature on the directional line of the first two leaves of each quire in fours." "The map is considered by historians to be the most ambitious performance of its kind undertaken in America up to that time, and its publication was a milestone in the development of printing arts in the colonial period" - Schwartz & Ehrenberg. MILLER 606. CAMPBELL 543. EVANS 7412. SABIN 23175. HOWES E226. CHURCH 1003. WHEAT & BRUN 298. BROWN, EARLY MAPS OF THE OHIO VALLEY 41. CRESSWELL, "COLONY TO COMMONWEALTH," pp.53-54, 82. DEGREES OF LATITUDE 34. GARRISON, CARTOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA, pp.269-74. PHILADELPHIA: THREE CENTURIES OF AMERICAN ART, pp.64-67. SCHWARTZ & EHRENBERG, p.165. STEPHENSON & McKEE, VIRGINIA IN MAPS, p.82. SUAREZ, SHEDDING THE VEIL 57. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 255. Klinefelter, "Lewis Evans and his Maps" in TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, Vol. 61, no. 7 (1971). Stevens, LEWIS EVANS AND HIS MAP (London, 1905). Less

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