Rare books from Hordern House Rare Books

London: Stockdale, Scatcherd and Whitaker, Fielding, & Hardy, 1784. A few spots and stains but a good set.. Four volumes, octavo, with two folding maps and 49 plates, in a smart modern binding of polished half-calf with gilt labels, with the often discarded half-titles present. First octavo edition of the third voyage account, with a large chart of the world as discovered by Captain Cook, and a finely engraved folding map of the Hawaiian Islands. Intense public interest in the fabulous discoveries of the third voyage and widespread consternation over the death of England's beloved mariner resulted in copies of the quarto edition selling out quickly. The demand prompted two London octavo editions of 1784-1785, including this set printed for John Stockdale and a group of entrepreneurial publishers. The text was abridged, omitting some technical and navigation details, and as a result reads more like an adventure than the official quarto edition. The list of subscribers is considerable, indicating the… Read More

London and New York: J. and F. Tallis, n.d., but, 1848. Fine set.. Eight volumes, large octavo, with numerous plates and maps, some hand-coloured; a very fine, bright set in the original red cloth, spines and front boards richly decorated in gilt. A set in particularly fine condition. First published in 1834 and extensively revised and extended over the next twenty years, Martin's comprehensive account of the British Colonies encapsulates the remarkable growth of the British Empire under Queen Victoria. A former Colonial Treasurer at Hong Kong, Martin's constantly revised and expanded book is "a work of extraordinary research, reference, and completeness" (Hocken), although it is perhaps now most notable for the fine series of highly decorative handcoloured Tallis maps that illustrate it. This set, complete in eight parts, is not recorded in Bagnall, Ferguson, or Hocken, although Ferguson's 4822a describes what we take to be a prospectus for this edition. .

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: John Murray, 1818. Two volumes, octavo, large folding map, engraved frontispiece of Mariner in Tongan dress, three leaves of native music; an attractive set in contemporary handsome green half calf, spine gilt with red labels. Second edition of Martin's important account of William Mariner's four years in Tonga between 1806 and 1810. Martin's account of Tonga - Cook's "Friendly Isles" - was first published in London in 1817; this second revised edition was issued the following year and contains a large folding map of the Tongan archipelago not present in the first edition. This detailed and finely engraved map shows outlying reefs and notes the exact point where Mariner was wrecked off the island of Lefooga (present day Lifuka in the Haapa'i group). The work is based on the life of William Mariner, who sailed on the Port au Prince, a privateer which attacked Spanish vessels in the Pacific. They landed at the Hapai Islands in Tonga in 1806, were attacked after a quarrel, and the ship was burnt… Read More

London: John Murray, 1887. Eight volumes, octavo, single portrait frontispiece, 14 maps (12 folding and 5 coloured); understated half brown morocco, gilt spine with raised bands. A most attractive set of Gibbon's opus, first published in 1776 and here re-issued with notes by Dean Milman, M. Guizot and William Smith. The first volume includes a portrait frontispiece of Gibbon by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire remains an intriguing work; although in some respects superseded by the following century of (primarily German) classical scholarship, Gibbon style is fresh and intriguing, and the historiographical questions he raises are effectively timeless. .

London: G.G. and J. Robinson, J. Johnson, and others, 1798. Fifteen volumes, octavo, a lovely set in contemporary full calf, red spine label; front board of each volume blind stamped with family crest, previous owners name 'J. N. Webb' inscribed on endpaper of each volume. A new and enlarge edition of the great biographical dictionary, prepared under the scrutiny of English clergyman William Tooke (1744-1820). The breadth and scope of the work is impressive, in some degree reflecting the prodigious intellect and energy of its editor. Tooke was a capable translator of German, French and Russian, and as a close friend of the publisher John Nichols was responsible for numerous English editions. Appointed chaplain of the Russia Company at St. Petersburg in 1771, Tooke initiated a long-term correspondence with Nichols and became a primary informant on Russian affairs for the London gentry of the period. Much of the value of the present work lies in its provision of good information outside the standard… Read More

Melbourne: Robert S. Brain, 1885 -, 1890. A very good set finely bound. Two volumes, thick octavo, with all 20 "decades", 199 lithographic plates (including one double folding plate), nearly all coloured and some finished by hand; attractively bound in contemporary navy half calf, spines gilt, double labels in maroon and tan. A superb copy of this beautifully illustrated work. McCoy's book has been a somewhat overlooked classic of Australian natural history, representing the culmination of nineteenth-century scholarship in the field. Irish-born Frederick McCoy arrived in Melbourne in 1854 to take up the first Professorship of Natural Science at the newly-formed University of Melbourne. For the next forty years he was at the centre of colonial scientific life. He became the first Director of the newly formed National Museum of Victoria and was responsible for the rapid development of the Museum and its collection. McCoy 'built up an outstanding natural history and geological collection, including… Read More

London: Gresham Publishing Company, 1907. Nine volumes, quarto, colour frontispieces and plates, folding tables; bright original decorated cloth with the bookplate of Henry White. A most attractive set in original art nouveau bindings of this complete guide to equine veterinary care, husbandry and pedigrees; profusely illustrated throughout. An ideal gift for horse lovers. .

New York: E. & G.W. Blunt, 1853. Some moderate browning of the preliminary leaves, a little foxing throughout, some regular wear to extremities of the bindings.. Quarto, engraved title-page and 114 engraved plates, two folding; later half red roan. The classic and generously illustrated (a plate to every page of text) guide to practical seamanship, and particularly to rigging, here in a specially arranged American edition. The editor, George Blunt, explains that thirty-four years earlier, "his vocation then being upon the deep", he had used an English edition of Lever's Sheet Anchor. Modern changes in rigging have been included, and the new material includes Tables on Rope, Canvas, Guns, Spars, Clippers, and Forbes's New Rig. .

Brescia: Boninus de Boninis, 1483. Closed marginal tear to gutter of ai, closed marginal tear to lower margin aii, aiv-aviii with neat marginal annotations in an early hand in Greek and Latin.. Small folio (302 x 198mm), 191 leaves (initial blank leaf discarded), with seven diagrams and a world map within the text; capital spaces blank; a fine, large copy in handsome Regency russia leather, sides richly tooled in gilt and blind with anthemion and scroll motifs, spine lettered in gilt and stamped in blind and gilt in compartments, all edges gilt, with lavender endpapers, by S. Ridge, of Grantham, with his ticket; Syston Park bookplates (see below). A superb copy of this great and rare book, from the library at Syston Park, with the first appearance in print of the famous Macrobian world map, the most influential of all pre-Renaissance views of the world, including an antipodean, southern continent. Printed in Brescia, in the first decade of printing there, this strikingly handsome production is the… Read More

[Exeter], 1879. Large quarto (365 x 275 mm); contents comprising 14 vellum leaves heavily illuminated by F. Faulkner White, Gothic-style calligraphic text surrounded by multicoloured borders; title leaf with small oval albumen photograph of the recipient, Ralph Sanders, mounted; 3-leaf testimonial of appreciation; remaining leaves recording the names of the 342 citizens of Exeter; folding printed broadside titled "A Memento of the Galley Case. Presentation to Messrs. Thomas Latimer and Ralph Sanders, Re-printed from The Daily Western Times...", providing an account of the case and the creation of the memento; finely bound by H. Harris of Exeter, c.1880, in contemporary red morocco gilt, floral motifs to compartments, triple fillet to sides enclosing elaborately decorated brown onlay frames, roundels at each corner with vellum onlays, with two additional vellum onlays bearing the coat of arms of Great Britain and date, title lettered to brown onlay ceremonial ribbon in central panel, board edges,… Read More

London: John Murray, 1857. Mild stains to frontispiece (perhaps due to paper type); otherwise a really fine copy.. Large octavo, engraved portrait and 23 plates (including folding frontispiece view), two folding maps by Arrowsmith at the end of the book, and numerous wood engraved illustrations through the text; in a fine contemporary binding of half black morocco and grained cloth sides, spine gilt in compartments, marbled edges and endpapers. The most famous account of African exploration, recording three years spent in the wilderness between 1853-1856. 'Livingstone, one of the great characters of the nineteenth century, embodying all the virtues of the Victorian age, is often remembered more for his qualities as a man than for his achievements as an explorer. Born with no social advantages, it was his courage and boldness of conception, his deep religious feelings and his great powers of endurance that carried him through the trials and hardships of a dedicated life and eventually gained him the… Read More

Basil: J.J. Tourneisen, 1788. Two volumes in one, small octavo; a good copy in half calf over speckled boards. The first continental edition: a Basle reprint of Kippis' biography of Cook, published the same year as the original. The catalogue of the Kroepelien collection points out that this is the first work to have eight chapters rather than seven (as in the London and Dublin editions of the same year), as one chapter is here split in half. This strongly suggests that this was the source of the later continental editions, which all followed this structure. Kippis' biography, based on Admiralty documents and sources, as well as information from Cook's widow and Sir Joseph Banks, was the standard life of the navigator for the next century. The account of Cook's death is sourced directly from Samwell, whose account (today exceptionally rare) had appeared in print two years earlier. The proposed settlement of Botany Bay is mentioned as a result of the voyages: 'If it be wisely and prudently begun and… Read More

London: T. & W. Boone, 1839. A little rubbed, with map at end of volume 2 in poor condition and with obtrusive tape repairs.. Two volumes, octavo, with lithographed title-pages, large folding map (repaired) and 51 lithographed plates, a few folding or coloured, and small text illustrations; contemporary half calf with marbled boards. Thomas Livingstone Mitchell was appointed to succeed Oxley as Surveyor General of New South Wales in 1828. The first expedition described here was undertaken to establish the veracity of a story spread about the colony by escaped convict George Clarke, "The Barber", who claimed to have discovered a large river flowing to the north of Australia, known by the Aboriginal name of Kindur. This expedition investigated the Namoi, Gwydir and Barwon rivers, but failed to prove or disprove the existence of the Kindur. The second and third expeditions were both aimed at fully determining the course of the Darling River, extending on Sturt's earlier discoveries. Despite meeting… Read More

London: John Murray, 1853. A little very light rubbing to the joints of the bindings.. Two parts bound as two volumes, octavo; with five folding maps, eleven lithographed plates, and more than 200 woodcuts in the text, some of them full-page; bound without a final leaf of publisher's advertisements in fine contemporary full polished tree calf, sides bordered in gilt, spines ornately panelled in gilt between raised bands, red leather lettering- and numbering-pieces. A very attractive set of this archaeological classic in a beautiful tree calf binding of the period. "During [his] expeditions, often in circumstances of great difficulty, Layard despatched to England the splendid specimens which now form the greater part of the collection of Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum. Layard believed that the native Syriac Christian communities living throughout the Near East were descended from the ancient Assyrians. Apart from the archaeological value of his work in identifying Kuyunjik as the site of… Read More