Beschreibung:

Title: Voyage de découvertes aux terres australes - Part I of Atlas only Author: Peron, Francois, et al. Place: Paris Publisher: De l'Imprimerie Imperiale Date: 1807 Description: With 40 copper-engraved plates, 24 of them hand-colored, 2 double-page; numbered II-XLI, as issued. 31.5x25 cm. (12½x9¾"), period half calf & marbled boards. Rare atlas to the first edition of the account of explorations in Australia and the adjacent islands. The account was in two text volumes and the atlas in two parts, published 1807-1816 (the second part of the atlas contained 14 folded maps and plans). The expedition was sent out by Napoleon Bonaparte, under command of the well experienced captain Nicolas Thomas Baudin (1754-1803), to examine the Australian South coast thoroughly in order to find a strait, which supposedly divided the Australian island in two halves. The second volume of the text was completed by Freycinet and published in 1816 after Peron, the naturalist, had died. The plates in the atlas, especially the colored ones, have become quite famous as they are often reproduced. This copy of Part 1 of the atlas lacks the title-page, but is complete with all the plates - as Ferguson states " ... plate 1 of part 1 being also no. 1 of part 2." Included is a plan of Sydney; colored coastal views; natives of the region including Van Diemen's Land; animals including kangaroos, wombats, duck-billed platypus, elephant seals, etc.; two views of Sydney, one double-page; a double-page view of Timor; and more. There is a tissue-guard to each plate, generally tipped to the back of the preceding plate, apparently as issued. Lot Amendments Condition: Spine and corners a bit rubbed, some minor foxing and finger-soiling within, else very good or better. Item number: 211743