A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World. Performed in His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and Adventure, In the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. Written by James Cook [Captain Cook], Commander of the Resolution. In Two Volumes. Illustrated with Maps and Charts, and a Variety of Portraits of Persons and Views of Places, drawn during the Voyage by Mr. Hodges, and engraved by the most eminent Masters. Published in London by W. Strahan and T. Cadell in 1777, 4to.
FIRST EDITION OF CAPTAIN COOK'S MOST IMPORTANT EXPEDITION AND THE ONLY VOYAGE WRITTEN BY COOK HIMSELF. COMPLETE IN TWO VOLUMES WITH ALL OF WILLIAM HODGES' 63 FAMOUS STUNNING FOLDOUT MAPS, CHARTS, AND PLATES!
-------------------
Similar examples have previously sold for £11,250 (Christie's 13th Dec 2017 lot 123) and $11,875 (Christie's 16th Oct 2020 lot 18) in GBP and USD, respectively. This here is a true investment opportunity for a rare and desirable book which is only likely to appreciate. Here being a practically unheard of opportunity to acquire it at a very attractive price.
Captain Cook's second voyage, following the success of the first, was to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible in search of the great 'Terra Australis'. On this voyage aboard the HMS Resolution, Captain Cook became the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle and left his legacy as perhaps the greatest explorer to ever live. This two volume book is his account of the voyage and is just as legendary as the voyage itself and remains an incredibly beautiful publication with an excellent set plates (most of which are in fine condition) and lovely typography.
On his second voyage, Captain Cook made numerous discoveries and rediscoveries, including Easter Island, Norfolk Island, the Tonga Islands, the New Hebrides, Tahiti, the Marquesas, and several others. He also visited New Zealand several times and provided a record of the aboriginal people that lived there and, of course, his expedition of the South Pole and the Antarctic region. On the last part of Cook's second voyage, he discovered and charted Cape Town, St. Helena and Ascension.
This book is incredibly significant for the vast amount of information concerning Pacific peoples and islands, the development and uses of chronometers as a navigational tool for finding longitude, and significant also in medical advances for treating and preventing scurvy. One thing worth noting with this book is that the plates were printed larger than the text block, and so many are trimmed down to fit in the volumes. This, as mentioned in the bibliographical sources for this book, is not particularly a defect as all two volume copies bound with the plates are in this manner.
-------------------
Size: 290 x 230 x 50 cm (approx., each)
Condition:
Spines rebacked with contemporary calf, probably 19th century, sunned. Attractive tooled morocco labels to both spines, both present, with gilt date at the foot of the spines of 1777. All boards are securely attached without wear to contemporary joints. Boards are probably original or very near contemporary and have some light wear at the extremities but are generally very good or better, retaining the gilt borders. Some shelf and edge wear with places of loss to the leather at board edges and corners. No shelf lean. Top page edges dulled as typical, though not significantly so. Sewn tailpiece of the second volume is slightly loose without any structural effect. Bookplate to front pastedown of both volumes of W.A. Foster. Two ink ownership inscriptions at head of title pages, one being quite early (and illegible to us) and the other of William Foster, relatively contemporary (early 19th century?). Some mild toning throughout the text blocks with very light sporadic foxing. Stain at leaf edges in the first volume affecting from the ffep through to the foldout map, affecting the map but not so as to affect its legibility. Slight tear to map at join to book. Some offsetting to verso pages from the darker plates such as pp.37 in volume one with the very attractive and famous foldout plate showing 'The Ice Islands'. Rough edge to plate 36 to verso of pp.310 in volume one, not affecting the illustration itself. All plates, maps, charts, tables, diagrams, etc are present and both volumes are collated as complete with original blanks. Almost all plates are in fine condition, some have some mild toning and some have very small tears where they meet the book, none of these tears affect the illustrations. None are trimmed in such a manner as often found that trims away a significant amount of the plate, they are in excellent shape. The map at the start of volume one has some stains as mentioned previously, otherwise these volumes have an excellent set of plates.
A truly excellent example of this very rare and important book.
