Lot 109
John Webber, R.A. (1751-1793)
Views in the South Seas from drawings taken on Board the Resolution, 1776 to 1780: View in Queen Charlottes Sound, New Zealand; Boats of the Friendly Islands; View in the Island of Cracatoa; A View in Oheitepeha Bay, in the Island of Otaheite; Waheiadooa, Chief of Oheitepha, lying in State; View of the Harbour of Taloo, in the Island of Eimeo; A Toopapaoo of a Chief, with a Priest making his offering to the Morai, in Huoheine; The Resolution beating through the Ice, with the Discovery in the most eminent danger in the distance; The Narta, or Sledge for Burdens in Kamtchatka; Balagans or Summer Habitations, with the method of Drying Fish at St Peter & Paul, Kamtschatka; View in Macao, Including the residence of Camoens, where he wrote his Lusiad; View in Macao; View in the Island of Pulo Condore; The Plantain Tree, in the Island of Cracatoa; and The Fan Palm, in the Island of Cracatoa (Abbey Travel 595, nos. 1,2,4-16)
Closed8 April 2009
Price Realised
GBP 28,750
More Information
Specialist note
EXTREMELY RARE LIFE TIME EDITION Sir Maurice Holmes, states in his "Captain James Cook RN FRS, A Biblographical Excursion", published in 1952, that the original drawings were published by Webber between 1788 and 1792 "etched and coloured by himself".
A similar bound set is in the British Museum (Lucas Collection) No. 246*a2
A posthumous edition of these etchings, with descriptive letterpress was re-published by Boydell & Co. in 1808, with an aquatint ground.
John Webber was the official artist of Cook's Third Voyage. The Resolution sailed from Plymouth in July 1776 and successively visited Cape Town, October; Tasmania, January 1777; Charlotte's Sound New Zealand, February; Tonga and Pacific Islands, March-August; Tahiti, August; Hawaii, January 1778; Nootka Sound, March; Alaska, June-July; Bering Straits, August; September-November, returned to Hawaii by way of the Aleutian Islands. In March 1779, after Cook's death, the expedition sailed north again to Kamtschatka and the Bering Straits before returning to England by way of Macao, Batavia and Cape Town.
A similar bound set is in the British Museum (Lucas Collection) No. 246*a2
A posthumous edition of these etchings, with descriptive letterpress was re-published by Boydell & Co. in 1808, with an aquatint ground.
John Webber was the official artist of Cook's Third Voyage. The Resolution sailed from Plymouth in July 1776 and successively visited Cape Town, October; Tasmania, January 1777; Charlotte's Sound New Zealand, February; Tonga and Pacific Islands, March-August; Tahiti, August; Hawaii, January 1778; Nootka Sound, March; Alaska, June-July; Bering Straits, August; September-November, returned to Hawaii by way of the Aleutian Islands. In March 1779, after Cook's death, the expedition sailed north again to Kamtschatka and the Bering Straits before returning to England by way of Macao, Batavia and Cape Town.