Library is Treasure Trove of S. Pacific Exploration History
Enthusiasts of Pacific exploration are eagerly awaiting a sale of 260 lots of extraordinarily rare books and manuscripts from a library devoted to the subject of Hawaiian and South Pacific history. To be presented at the New York galleries of international auctioneers, Bonhams, the highly anticipated sale boasts everything from famed expedition narratives to documents pertaining to one of the first stock market crashes.
Undoubtedly one of the most coveted of these lots is an excessively rare Congressional copy of Charles Wilkes’ record of his famed 1838-1842 South Seas expedition. The expedition was launched by the United States Congress to “announce America’s scientific coming of age” and marks the first U.S. governmental sponsorship of a large-scale scientific endeavour. In keeping with its mission, the expedition included naturalists, botanists, a mineralogist, taxidermists, artists and a philologist. Specimens gathered by expedition scientists became the foundation for collections of the Smithsonian Institution and as a result of their work, significant contributions were made to the fields of geology, botany, conchology, anthropology, and linguistics.
With 64 engraved plates, 9 double-page maps, as well as over 250 woodcut and steel engraved text illustrations, the copy to be offered at auction is one of only 100 to have been printed and one of just 75 copies which survived the 1851 Library of Congress fire. Further elevating its rarity is the fact that it is the copy presented to Commander Charles Wilkes himself, its bookplate reading “Presented by the Congress of the United States to Captain Chas. Wilkes, US Navy, Commanding Expedition”.
Stretching to five volumes in its original binding and extensively illustrated, this truly historic lot is estimated at $30,000-50,000.
Also of great interest to historians and collectors is a Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage to the Pacific.
Cook is celebrated for having made the first European contact with the Hawaiian Islands and the eastern coastline of Australia as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Accounts of his voyages to the islands of the Pacific and his descriptions of their exotic inhabitants made him a star of his period. His third voyage, during which he lost his life, made him the stuff of legend. To be offered is an account of Cook’s final voyage that pre-dates the official London account. Written by John Ledyard of Hartford, CT – a corporal aboard Cook’s vessel the Resolution and the only American crew member to record his memories – the journal includes details of the voyage not available elsewhere.
Annotated with numerous corrections and made even more desirable as it was originally the property of Ledyard’s first cousin and is most likely a presentation copy to a good friend, the lot is estimated at $25,000-35,000.
This is not the only lot of interest stemming from Cook’s explorations. Estimated at $6,000-9,000 is one of the silver-plated medals originally commissioned to be distributed as gifts on Cook’s second voyage. Also from an archive of letters, maps, sketches, and artifacts is a cannonball likely fired by Cook’s crew in retaliation for his murder. This unusual piece of history, along with other items from the collection, is estimated at $7,000-9,000.
However, expeditions and voyages are far from being the only topics of interest in the upcoming sale.
A copy of the first constitution of Hawaii, dated 1841, will be on offer. Printed in Hawaiian, it carries an estimate of $5,000-7,000.
Sure to entice collectors will be what is quite possibly the earliest printed reference to a Great White shark attack. This sensational tale of a “great dogfish” which devoured a Neapolitan fisherman, describes the attack and the subsequent hunt for the fish. As eyewitnesses report it was “20 hand-widths long with an excessively wide mouth, three rows of robust teeth in the upper jaw and one in the lower… being weighed, it was sixteen cantaros (about 1600 pounds)”. This extreme rarity is estimated at $5,000-7,000.
For those with a penchant for linguistics, there will be many lots of note.
Of these, a spelling sheet with the alphabet as well as examples of verb conjugations and pronunciations of the obscure language of the Gilbert Islands – Gilbertese – will be offered. Estimated at $1,500-2,500 and dated 1858 this is thought to be the first printed work in Gilbertese.
Also to be presented is a first edition copy of A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand, dated 1820 and estimated at $3,500-5,000. Co-written by Thomas Kendall – one of the first missionaries to serve in New Zealand – with the help of Maori chiefs Hongi and Waikato, the book is one of the first comprehensive texts on the Maori language.
Collectors with an interest in the intersection of the everyday lives of settlers and natives of the Pacific will be especially interested in a lot including all six issues of a short-lived native Hawaiian periodical from 1856, The Sandwich Islands’ Monthly Magazine (est. $2,000-3,000) as well as a biography of a native Hawaiian who “gave up his intoxicating drinks and the hula” upon converting to Christianity (est. $400-600).
Those with an interest in the cyclical nature of history will be drawn to a collection of 20 Parliamentary Acts passed in reaction to the infamous “South Sea Bubble” which harkens to our current financial crisis. The mania started in 1711, when Britain proposed a deal to the South Sea Company (SSC), where Britain’s debt would be financed in return for interest and exclusive trading rights in the South Seas. Investors clamored to purchase stock in what they saw as a monopoly of the South Seas causing the stock value to skyrocket regardless of the inexperienced management team, suspiciously frequent re-issuing of stock, and dismal to non-existent earnings. Eventually the management of SSC realized that the value of their personal shares in no way reflected the actual value of the company or its earnings and sold their stocks in the summer of 1720, hoping no one would leak the failure of the company. However, knowledge of the actions of SSC management spread, and the panic selling of worthless certificates ensued. A complete crash was avoided due to the government’s help in stabilizing the banking industry and resulted in outlawing of the issuing of stock certificates – a law that was not repealed until 1825.
One of several lots relating to the “South Sea Bubble” it includes such ominous legislation as prolonging the hearings for determining claims, enabling the King to be Governor of the Company, and several releasing monies for the so-called “Sinking Fund.” Estimated at $3,000-5,000, this is a fascinating look at both past and present.
The illustrated auction catalog for the sale will be online at www.bonhams.com/books in the weeks preceding the public preview and auction. For more information about this department’s annual sale, please visit www.bonhams.com/usbooks.
Cook Journal Cover Page sm.jpg (45 KB)
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