Natural history, Voyages, Military, Fine Bindings ….

Lot 3 Birds of Australia by John Gould. A comprehensive and scientifically groundbreaking work. It was the first comprehensive survey of the birds of Australia. A remarkable 681 species describe with an addition 328 described by Gould being new to Western science.

Lot 7 Temple of Flora is the third part of the New illustration of the sexual system of Carolus von Linnaeus by Dr Robert Thornton and is regarded as a great 19th C English botanical publication. Thornton commissioned artists Peter Henderson, Philip Reinagle, Abraham Pether and Sydenham Edwards to illustrate with a vision of art meeting science.

Lot 38 Joseph Banks’ Florilegium – Botanical Treasures from Cook’s First Voyage. Sydney Parkinson made many of the original drawings from the specimens collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander collected on board the Endeavor. The engravings were original done in the 1771-1784 but is wasn’t until the 1980s that Bank’s vision came to life.

Lot 1 Darwin Zoology on HMS Beagle. Charles Darwin (1809-1892) was the naturalist on the voyage of the HMS Beagle(1831-1836) which spent much time around South America. It was in the Galapagos islands that he observed that the finches on this island had habitat specific ways of gathering food. He reflects that this voyage was an important part of his life. It may have been the seed for Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Lot 10 Facsimile of the Kelmscott Chaucer. William Morris was a key figure in the Arts & Crafts Movement and founder of The Kelmscott Press. Morris designed the book’s typefaces, initial letters and borders. The pages were printed by hand printed and bound in a medieval style. The Chaucer was published a few months before Morris’s death(1896) and is considered his masterpiece.