Rare books from Hordern House Rare Books

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1875. A very good, fresh copy.. Large octavo, frontispiece and 16 plates, illustrated; publisher's cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. First edition of this influential and extensive study of the communitarian ideal in the United States. Charles Nordhoff (1830-1901) emigrated to the United States as a child, and went on to have a varied career as sailor, journalist and writer. His grandson Charles Bernard Nordhoff is the famous historian of the Bounty. In The Communistic Societies of the United States, Nordhoff recounts his travels to many of the socialistic societies which became popular in the nineteenth century, most famously the Shakers of Mount Lebanon, the Rappite township at 'Harmony' and the Oneida Community. As Nordhoff points out in his Introduction, he hoped that a study of these communities might provide 'useful hints toward the solution of the labor question'. Throughout, the work displays a thoroughness and lack of hysteria which supports his… Read More

Glasgow: Maclehose [for the Hakluyt Society], 1905. Twelve volumes, octavo, illustrated throughout with maps (many folding), proof impressions of the plates; essentially an excellent set in the original quarter parchment gilt over blue cloth boards, top edges gilt others uncut. A fine set of the famous Maclehose edition of Hakluyt, 'the first lecturer on modern geography and one of the leading spirits of Elizabethan maritime expansion' (PMM). This handsome production reprints the second and best edition of Hakluyt's magnum opus, the classic of travel literature. The first English collection of voyages, the work has always been recognised as one of the gems of Elizabethan letters. Although intended to be devoted to American discoveries and the British colonisation of America, and published a few years before the Dutch voyage of the Duyfken to the west coast of Cape York in 1605, it is significant that by the time of the revised second edition, Hakluyt was able to include the first tentative forays of… Read More

Amsterdam: Joannes Wolters, 1707. A little wear to hinges which are strong.. Folio, with a fine engraved title-page, parallel text in Greek and Latin in double columns; small blind-embossed library stamp on preliminaries; a handsome copy in contemporary vellum; spine decorated in gilt between raised bands, leather label, covers ornately gilt with complex central emblematic device. The best edition of Strabo's enormous Geography, his kolossourgia or colossal work as he described it himself. The influential Greek geographer who travelled widely, studied under both Aristotelian and Stoic teachers, and spent some decades in Rome, wrote his work early in the first century. Along with the less-known geographers Aratus and Geminus, Strabo promulgated the idea that the torrid zone of the spherical globe was occupied throughout its length by an ocean which divided his continent from another antipodal one in the southern hemisphere. This edition is based on the critical edition by the great classical scholar… Read More

Paris: Andrieu & de Puymaurin, 1822. Extremely fine.. Bronze medal, 51 mm; Obverse: profile portrait of Louis XVIII; Reverse: "Hémisphère Austral. Physique Astronomie. La Corvette l'Uranie Mr. Ls. de Freycinet Commandt... S.A.R.M. Le Duc d'Angoulême, Amiral de France etc..." Bronze medal, 51 mm. An excellent example of the very uncommon bronzed copper medal commemorating the first voyage of Duperrey to the Pacific. A similar example of this bronze version is held in the Rex Nan Kivell collection of the National Library of Australia. Duperrey's voyage was one of the greatest of the French grands voyages to the Pacific. The expedition set out from Toulon on 11 August 1822, with the intention of collecting scientific data and specimens, but also instructed to report on the possibility of establishing a penal colony in Western Australia. Duperrey, who was thirty-five at the start of the voyage, had been on the crew of the previous major French Pacific voyage, that of Freycinet. He had as his… Read More

London: J. Johnson et al., 1803. Ten volumes, octavo, engraved portrait frontispiece and folding table, prize-plate & bookplate, later gift inscription from Buxton to his son; early diced calf with the insignia of Trinity College Dublin to the boards. A fine and most attractive set in original calf, presented as a school prize in 1806 to Thomas Fowell Buxton, the social reformer (and with his own engraved bookplate and later presentation inscription). The set has a school prize plate from its original presentation to Buxton for his progress in the Third Class of Trinity College, Dublin, which he attended from 1803 to 1807. It would be interesting to know whether the works of Bacon had any direct influence on Buxton's career, but he evidently cared for the set as he presented it to his eldest son and the Second Baronet, Edward North Buxton and his wife Catherine, on 12 December 1836. .

Lisbon: Typographia da Academia, 1863. Original printed wrappers, a few chips.. Quarto, 24 pp., with a map integral to the text, original printed wrappers; an uncut copy. A controversial treatise claiming the primary discovery of the Australian continent as a Portuguese achievement. This theory derives from the author's belief in the secret Portuguese mapping of various parts of the Australian coast as revealed in the Dieppe maps. The author, Richard Major, enjoyed privileged access to rare manuscript and cartographic materials as an employee of the British Museum and secretary of the Hakluyt Society. He had a fluent command of Spanish which allowed him to study and interpret first-hand archaic and difficult material beyond the grasp of his contemporaries. The theory was, unsurprisingly, popular with the Portuguese. In 1861 Major was honoured by Pedro V of Portugal and made a knight of the Tower and the Sword. Although many of Major's beliefs are now not widely held (and his interpretation of the… Read More

Parramatta: 29 April, 1831. Very good.. Two-page autograph letter by Marsden, on watermarked paper, 325 x 200 mm., original red wax seal, old folds; stamp for the Parramatta post office. A letter from the ageing but indefatigable Marsden to the pastoralists' agent George Ranken, agreeing to terms, presumably for the leasing of a property. In his tenure as Chaplain to the Colony and incumbent of St John's Parramatta, Marsden had become a wealthy man and a considerable landowner. A controversial figure in New South Wales, he had answered his sharpest critics, Governor Macquarie and William Wentworth, in his An Answer to Certain Calumnies in the Late Governor Macquarie's Pamphlet, and the Third Edition of Mr. Wentworth's Account of Australasia (London, 1826). In New Zealand, Marsden was not such a polarising figure: although stern and pious he had shown great energy in the establishment of the first school and opposing trade in arms. This letter is written after his sixth and penultimate visit there… Read More

Paris: Logerot, Pauly, and others, 1910. In good original condition.. Six map puzzles, each measuring 330 x 240 mm., housed in the original colour printed card case. Geographical jigsaw puzzle set comprising six maps mounted and cut into parts corresponding to the colonial dominions of major European powers. This division of the world reflecting European territorial aspirations exemplifies the mood of the first decade of the twentieth century and the rivalry that precipitated the outbreak of the First World War. Accordingly, this puzzle set has an interesting social history dimension as it tangibly demonstrates the overlap between colonialism and early childhood education. The map of Australasia and the Pacific is captioned Océanie dressée par M. Mrs. R. Cortambert et A. Vuillemin, and bears the imprint 'Logerot éditeur Quai des Augustins, 55'. It is a later printing of an engraved map of the same title published by Hachette in 1852. This lithographed version was prepared circa 1880, and includes… Read More

Dunedin: New Zealand Institute, 1896. In good original condition apart from creases to the portraits of Wiremu Te Manawa and Tawhiao; the collation is complex with variants found in recorded copies, in this copy (in the original binding) the content pages for parts 2,3,4 and 5 were not originally included.. Large quarto, profusely illustrated throughout (including seven special plates printed in black and red), a very attractive copy in original half morocco binding. A special publication of the New Zealand Institute to record and photograph all outstanding examples of surviving Māori art and design as a record for posterity. The range of material encompassed is impressive: carved prows of war canoes and seafaring craft, architecture and habitations, weapons, implements of agriculture and handicraft, fish hooks and lines, musical instruments, mokomokai and so forth. Of special interest is the section of seven plates printed in black and red depicting rafter patterns. The material is presented out… Read More

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

London: T. Bensley, for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1816. A few scattered fox marks otherwise very good.. Three volumes, octavo, with 240 full page engraved illustrations, 237 of them hand coloured; a fine set in in a splendid contemporary binding of full green calf, sides bordered in gilt, spines panelled in gilt between bands, with double labels, marbled endpapers and edges. The first edition, in three handsome period bindings. Richard Duppa (1770-1831) describes the taxonomic system first developed by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus He includes detailed instructions to name, describe and rank different species of plants and includes a 41-page botanical dictionary and a 9-page index. all but three of the 240 engravings are beautifully hand coloured. A prolific writer, Duppa studied art in Rome and was skilled in drawing. He wrote on botanical, artistic and political topics and was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He lived at 7, Weymouth Street, Portland Place and died in… Read More

London: Chapman and Hall, 1837. Spine and joints worn at head and tail; inner stitching a bit weak. Some occasional browning to plates, but generally good.. Octavo, with the half-title; 43 plates in first state; publisher's brown blind-stamped cloth binding, spine lettered in gilt, pale yellow endpapers. First English edition, first issue, of the great novel, preceded only by the publication in original parts, and the unauthorised Philadelphia printing. This copy has a charming if rather boisterous bibliophile association, having been given to A. Edward Newton by R. B. Adam, who has written on the front free endpaper 'Dear A E N, I do not remember who Pickwick was; but I think you told me he was a relation of yours so this must be yr book. R. B. May 30 1927'. Beneath this he has added 'Sam [Weller] why don't you answer?' Tipped in on the same leaf is a slip of paper in Adam's hand: 'Dr N, I have read a book or 2 but I be d... d if I do not think this is one of the greatest books in the World. R. B.'… Read More

Hanhndorf, 1932. Charcoal, chalk and coloured pencil on paper 43.0 x 65.0 cms, in the original frame, with the stamp and label of Heysen's studio in Hahndorf on the verso. A conservationist ahead of his time, and "the first Australian painter to focus on the eucalpytus tree as an artistic subject", the celebrated artist Hans Heysen (1877-1968) fell in love with the landscape around the Flinders Ranges, travelling there for the first time in 1926, and making many more trips between 1927 and 1949. His work reflects his deep appreciation and understanding of nature. This atmospheric landscape study reflects the wild untamed scenery of the Bunyeroo Valley, one of the main gorges which runs through the range of mountains named for the artist, towards Lake Torrens. The Heysen Trail, a walking track stretching 1,500 kilometres from Cape Jervis to Parachilna Gorge in the Flinders Ranges, was also named in his honour. . Provenance: Sir Val Duncan, London, thence by descent; private collection New South Wales.

London: Strahan & Cadell; Strahan & Cadell; H. Hughs for Nicol & Cadell, 1785. In generally very good condition with the inevitable odd spot or thumbmark; chart (Friendly Islands) at p.225 in volume 1 of the third voyage and the folding plate of coastal profiles at p.82 both with water stains.. Together eight volumes, quarto, and folio atlas; a good set in old half calf and marbled boards, double labels. The full series of the official narratives of Cook's voyages - the cornerstone of any collection of books relating to Australia or the Pacific. Each of the three narratives is illustrated with marvellous engravings based on the work of the official artists on the voyages, including Parkinson, Hodges, and Webber, and the series stands as the great monument to Cook's achievements. These were the best-sellers of the second half of the eighteenth century; very expensive when published, the first editions were sold out within a few days of publication. Their popularity meant that many copies were almost… Read More

Edinburgh & London: Blackwood and Cadell, 1822. Duodecimo, [xi], 215pp. lacking the half-title. With a portrait frontispiece. Old half calf, marbled boards, skilfully rebacked. First edition of almost the sole original narrative of an Australian Second Fleet voyage, this account of voyages and adventures in the Pacific was written by a common seaman whose naval career lasted from 1776 to 1801. Nicol first came to the Pacific as a steward with Captain Portlock in 1785-1788; during that voyage he made a stay in Hawaii, and his short but interesting observations include a description of the making of knives out of hoop iron for the King of Hawaii. His account of the voyage of the Lady Juliana to New South Wales, arriving in June 1790 carrying 245 female convicts, is one of the most important parts of the book since it provides virtually the only extensive description of a Second Fleet voyage (for which reason it has recently been republished by Tim Flannery). Nicol describes nine women on the voyage,… Read More