- 657
Hunter, John
Description
- An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, with the Discoveries that have been made in New South Wales and in the Southern Ocean. London: John Stockdale, 1793
- paper
A fine association copy with the bookplates of John Douglas and Samuel Enderby junior (see provenance).
Hunter served as second in command to Governor Phillip on the Sirius, in the first convict fleet, and later succeeded Phillip as Governor of New South Wales. Included here is one of the earliest views of Sydney, after a sketch by Hunter dated 1788, showing the very modest settlement that had been founded in the previous year. The plate of a New South Wales family was engraved by William Blake after a sketch by Governor King.
Provenance
Samuel Enderby junior (1756-1829, whale and seal oil merchant and promoter of Antarctic exploration), bookplate of a harpooner with dark hair [Enderby Sr.'s bookplate has the harpooner with white hair; see his copy of Dalrymple's An Historical Collection of Several Voyages (lot 354)]. Under Samuel junior's leadership of the company "in 1806 the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands were discovered by their vessel the Ocean, and in 1808 Bouvet Island (Bouvet-øya) was rediscovered by the Swan and Otter and rediscovered again in 1825 by the Sprightly and Lively when it was claimed for the crown" (ODNB). Samuel Enderby (probably the father who died in 1797) was a subscriber to this work.
Loosely inserted is a note of provenance from a descendant of Enderby, recording the sale of this book on 13 October 1983 (auction at Lawrence Fine Art, Crewkerne, lot 277).