Tableau des decouvertes du Capne. Cook & de la Perouse

A$8,500 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Paris : chez l auteur, rue Coqueron Mon. de France ; Bordeaux : chez le Cne. S. Sauveur sous le peristyle de la Grande Comedie, l an 7 de la Republique Francaise [1798 or 1799]. Aquatint with hand colouring, 430 x 534 mm (sheet), old mount burn to margins, a very good copy with vibrant original colour. French-Canadian artist, writer, and diplomat Jacques Grasset de Saint Sauveur (1757-1810) was born in Montreal and moved to Paris following the annexation of New France by the British. He published a number of encyclopedias of ethnology, illustrated with fine engravings of peoples of the world. Forbes describes their collation as a bibliographical nightmare (Forbes, 137). The present engraving was originally issued in a portfolio of 5 engraved tableaux illustrating people indigenous to the five great continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Pacific). The portfolio accompanied the book Tableaux des principaux peuples de l Europe, de l Asie, de l Afrique, de l Amerique, et les découvertes des Capitaines Cook, La Perouse, etc , a volume of five parts published in the sixth year of the Republic (1798). This complete set of book with portfolio is very rare and held in only a couple of international institutions (none in Australia, although the University of Melbourne holds a copy of the book). It is described by Forbes (281). The following year, the seventh year ot the Republic (1798 or 1799), the five parts were reissued separately, each accompanied by one of the book

• Binding: Hardcover

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