Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History
Online Auction: 27 April–13 May 2021 • 4:30 PM BST • London

Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History 27 April–13 May 2021 • 4:30 PM BST • London

W e are delighted to present the May edition of our twice-yearly sale of beautifully illustrated works of natural history, rare world maps, extraordinary atlases, topographical photographs and fine colour-plate books. Leading the sale is a splendid copy of Braun and Hogenberg’s Civitates Orbis Terrarum, the finest town-book from the golden age of cartography, offered here in a contemporary binding. Other fine atlases include ground-breaking works by Ortelius and Blaeu.

Works of topography through the ages abound, from early accounts of travels in the Near and Middle-East (Nicolay’s Navigations, peregrinations and voyages made into Turkie, 1596) to an extraordinary photographic record of travels in Tibet and Lhasa made in the 1930s. Egypt is especially well represented by two famous works: a fine tinted set of Roberts’s The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia, and Maxime du Camp’s incredibly rare Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie from 1852, one of the earliest books to include a substantial collection of original photographs of Egypt and Palestine.

Highlights in the field of natural history include one of the great American colour plate books - Elliot’s Monograph of the Phasianidae, and wonderful albums of drawings by Archibald Thorburn and J.G. Keulemans.

Natural History, lots 1-34
Maps & Atlases, lots 35-59
Europe, lots 60-73
Voyages, lots 74-83
Mediterranean & Middle East, lots 84-148
Americas, lots 149-156
Africa, lots 157-159
Asia, lots 160-184
Antarctic Exploration, lots 185-192


Georg Braun und Franz Hogenberg | Civitates orbis terrarum
Lot 41
Georg Braun und Franz Hogenberg | Civitates orbis terrarum. Cologne, 1597-c.1606, 5 volumes
Estimate: £140,000-200,000

A FINELY-COLOURED COPY OF BRAUN AND HOGENBERG’S FIRST FIVE TOWN BOOKS, the most famous of the early town atlases and "one of the best-selling works in the last quarter of the 16th century".
Maxime Du Camp | Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie
Lot 93
Maxime Du Camp | Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie. Dessins Photographiques. Paris, 1852
Estimate: £100,000-150,000

A FINELY BOUND COPY OF DU CAMP'S PIONEERING PHOTOBOOK ON EGYPT, PALESTINE AND SYRIA. The photographs were taken by the 27 year old Maxime Du Camp who travelled to Egypt with his friend the novelist Gustave Flaubert.

Important Maps and Atlases

Japan | An 18th century hand-painted scroll on whales and whaling
Lot 34
Japan | An 18th century hand-painted scroll on whales and whaling
Estimate: £26,000-30,000

A MAGNIFICENT AND RARE HAND-PAINTED JAPANESE SCROLL depicting 12 different types of whales with detailed notes on them. The scroll also includes illustrations of whaling boats and 8 different types of harpoons, together with a scene of whale catching decorated with gold leaf.
Tibet—Shepheard and Jack | Two albums of photographs of Tibet
Lot 182
Tibet—Shepheard and Jack | Two albums of photographs of Tibet, 1938, with diary transcript and related material
Estimate: £40,000-60,000

RARE UNSEEN PHOTOGRAPHS OF TIBET AND LHASA by Ken Shepheard and Archie Jack of the Royal Engineers documenting their visit in 1938.

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