The three voyages of Captain Cook: FIRST: An account of the voyages… for making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere. . .; SECOND: A voyage towards the South Pole, and round the world…; THIRD: A voyage to the Pacific Ocean. . . for making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere
A COOK FAMILY SET
THE COMPLETE VOYAGES OF CAPTAIN COOK
“THE BASIS FOR ANY COLLECTION OF PACIFIC BOOKS”
First Voyage: Hawkesworth, John. An account of the voyages undertaken by the order of His Present Majesty for making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, And successively performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Willis, Captain Carteret, And Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow and the Endeavour: drawn up From the Journals which were kept by the several Commanders, And from the Papers of Joseph Banks, Esq; By John Hawkesworth, Ll. D. in three volumes. Illustrated with Cuts, and a great Variety of Charts and Maps relative to Countries now first discovered, or hitherto but imperfectly known. Three volumes. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1773. Second edition.
with
Second Voyage: Cook, James. A voyage towards the South Pole, and round the world. Performed in His Majesty’s Ships the Resolution and Adventure, In the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. Written By James Cook, Commander of the Resolution. In which is included, Captain Furneaux’s Narrative of his Proceedings in the Adventure during the Separation of the Ships. In two volumes. Illustrated with maps and charts, and a variety of portraits of persons and views of places, drawn during the Voyage by Mr. Hodges, and engraved by the eminent Masters. Two volumes. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1779. Third edition.
and
Third Voyage: Cook, James, Captain; and Captain James King. A voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Undertaken, by the command of His Majesty, for making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere. Performed under the Direction of Captains Cook, Clerke, and Gore, In His Majesty’s Ships the Resolution and Discovery; in the Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779 and 1780. In three volumes. Vol. I and II. written by Captain James Cook, F. R. S. Vol. III. by Captain James King, Ll. D. and F. R. S. Published by Order of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. The Second edition. Four volumes. London: H. Hughs for G. Nicol and T. Cadell, 1785. Second edition.
Text: quarto (11 5/8” x 9 3/8”, 295mm x 238mm).
Atlas (to the third voyage): folio (21 7/8” x 16 ¼”, 557mm x 406mm).
First Voyage
Vol. I: binder’s blank, A4(–A4) [A]4 χ1(=A4?) a-e4 f2 B-3L4 3M-3N2, binder’s blank [$2 signed; –A1]. 258 leaves, pp. [20] (title, blank, 3pp. dedication, blank, 8pp. preface, 6pp. contents), i ii-xxxvi, [4] (3pp. directions to the binder, errata); 1-3 4-456. [=lx, 456] With 21 engravings: 18 maps, of which 5 are folding and 10 double-page; and 3 folding plates.
Vol. II: binder’s blank, A4 a4 B-3F4, binder’s blank [$2 signed; –A1]. 212 leaves, pp. i-xi (title, blank, 5pp. contents, blank, fly-title, blank, introduction) xii-xiv, 1 2-410. With 22 engravings: 8 folding maps and 14 plates, of which 7 are folding.
Vol. III: binder’s blank, A-3C4 3D2 [A]4, binder’s blank [$2 signed; –A1]. 202 leaves, pp. 1-7 (title, blank, 4pp. contents, text) 8-395, blank, 21 22-8 (8pp. advertisements). With 9 engravings: 3 maps of which 2 are folding and 1 double-page, and 6 plates of which 2 are folding.
With 52 engravings: 29 maps, of which 15 are folding and 11 double-page; and 23 plates, of which 12 are folding.
Second Voyage
Vol. I: binder’s blank, A4 a-d4 B-Bbb4 Ccc2(–Ccc2), binder’s blank [$2 signed; –A1]. 209 leaves, pp. i-ix (title, blank, 6pp. contents, introduction) x-xl, 1 2-378. With 37 engravings: 7 maps, of which 3 are folding; a portrait frontispiece and 29 plates, of which 14 are folding.
Vol. II: binder’s blank, A-Ddd4 Eee2, binder’s blank [$2 signed; –A1]. 202 leaves, pp. [8] (title, blank, 5pp. contents, advertisement), 1 2-396. With a folding letterpress table and 27 engravings: 7 maps, of which 3 are folding; and 20 plates, of which 11 are folding.
With a folding letterpress table and 64 engravings in toto: 14 maps, of which 6 are folding; and 50 plates, of which 25 are folding.
Third Voyage
Vol. I: binder’s blank, π2(–π1) A4 a-m4 B-3G4 3H4 (3H4 blank), 2 binder’s blanks [$2 signed]. 265 leaves, pp. [10] (title, blank, 8pp. contents), i ii-xcvi, 1 2-421, 3 blanks. With 7 engraved maps, of which 5 are folding.
Vol. II: binder’s blank, π2(–π1) A4 a2 B-3Z4 4A2, 2 binder’s blanks [$2 signed]. 281 leaves, pp. [14] (title, blank, 12pp. contents), 1 2-548. With 11 maps, of which 4 are folding.
Vol. III: 2 binder’s blanks, π2(–π1) A4 a2 B-Ee4 Ff2 Gg-3X4 3Z-4B4 4C2, 2 binder’s blanks [$2 signed]. 285 leaves, pp. [14] (title, blank, 10pp. contents, appendix contents, blank), 1 2-556. With 6 engraved maps of which 2 are folding, and a folding letterpress table signed “3Y.”
Atlas: with 65 engravings: 2 folding maps and 63 plates (including the additional “Death of Captain Cook” by Bartolozzi after Webber).
With (in the text) a folding letterpress table and 24 engraved maps, of which 11 are folding.
With 2 folding letterpress tables and 205 engravings in toto: 69 maps, of which 45 are folding; and 136 plates, of which 37 are folding.
Text bound in slightly later (ca. 1805) tree-marbled calf (re-backed, with the original backstrips laid down). On the spine, 6 panels with three-masted ships gilt. Author and title gilt to black calf in the second panel. Number (sequential: I-VIII) gilt to an inset red calf oval in the fourth panel. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block glazed yellow. Atlas bound in later half calf over marbled paper. On the spine, seven raised bands with anchors gilt to the panels. Title (“PLATES/TO/COOK/&KING’S/VOYAGE”) gilt to red sheep in the second panel.
Text volumes re-backed, with the original back-strip laid down. Generally rubbed with some wear at the extremities. Residue from bubble-wrap to the front board of 1.III. Internally, some of foxing — generally mild, with some passages moderate — and offsetting from the plates and maps. Repaired tears to 1.I.F4, 2.I.b1 and 3.III.3G1. Bookplate of John McAllister to the front paste-down of all volumes but 2.II, with his graphite “McAllister June/57” in graphite to the verso of the first free end-paper to 1.III, 2.I (as well as a longer note[1]), 2.II and 3.III. Ownership signature of Elizabeth Cotton to the recto of the first binder’s blank of each volume of the first and second voyages, dated “August the 7th 1784” in the first voyage and “April ye 15 1785” in the second.[2] Ink manuscript dates of sailing for all three voyages to the verso of the front free end-paper of 1.I. Tipped in leaves (or bifolia) either with newspaper clippings (dated 1832 to 1837) — recto of the front binder’s blank of 1.I, verso of the rear end-paper of 1.II, verso of the front free end-paper of 3.I — or manuscript (mostly copies of reviews or other reception of the work, dated 1773 to 1795) — recto of the front binder’s blank of 1.I, recto of the final binder’s blank of 1.I, recto of the rear end-paper of 1.II, verso of the second rear binder’s blank of 3.I. Atlas scuffed at the boards. Armorial bookplate of John Bax to the front paste-down. Front free end-paper laid in. Repaired marginal tears and losses, some soiling to the peripheries.
Captain James Cook (1728–1779) was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer, known for his three voyages to the Pacific. He provided the first recorded contact with eastern Australia and Hawaii, and the first circumnavigation of New Zealand. His travels also included the Antarctic, America and the Bering Strait. He sailed to the Southern Hemisphere on the Endeavor (1768–1771) for the first of his three major voyages. His research contributed to the British annexation of Australia and New Zealand. Cook sailed thousands of miles across uncharted water and made an enormous contribution to the geographical knowledge of the Southern Hemisphere.
On his first voyage, chronicled by John Hawkesworth, Cook nearly lost a ship on the Great Barrier Reef. He took the following two voyages on the Resolution with companion ships the Adventure (1772–1775) and the Discovery (1776–1779). There was a single vessel for the first voyage, and companion ships for the other two. In his early years, Cook gained acclaim during the Seven Years War for his scientific and accurate navigation around the coast of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River. He later joined the Royal Navy in 1755. Cook was a superb seaman, surveyor, cartographer and leader. He brought scientists on his voyages, such as botanist Joseph Banks and artist John Webber, who made significant discoveries of their own. During his third voyage to the Pacific, Cook sailed to Hawaii, along the American coast and up to the Bering Strait. However, upon his return to Hawaii, he became involved in a dispute over the kidnapping of a Hawaiian chief that led to his death.
Celebrated by Hill as “the basis for any collection of Pacific books,” Cook’s voyages — though Cook was not the only captain or author — are included in Printing and the Mind of Man, the definitive account of the most consequential printed books. Their bibliography is fairly complex, and rarely does a set of uniform first editions appear. Indeed, Hill is clear that the second edition of the first voyage surpasses the first edition. Sets tend to have been made up as the acclaim of the voyages spread, as the marks of ownership attest.
Superlatively uncommon is the full and clear ownership marks of Elizabeth Cotton, who acquired the first voyage 7 August 1784 and the second voyage 15 April 1785. Women’s book-ownership has been the focus of great study in recent years, clustered around the “HerBook” moniker, righting the misconception that men owned books while women did not. The price of the work — it is unclear whether Cotton owned the third voyage — was fairly substantial, suggesting that Cotton was a woman of means. Likely she is Elizabeth d’Avenant (née Cotton, 1735–1803; m. 1782) of Cheshire. She was the daughter of Sir Lynch Salusbury Cotton, fourth baronet Cotton of Combermere and uncle to Hester Lynch Thrale (Mrs. Piozzi). Her husband was Col. Thomas d’Avenant of Clearbrook (Davenant, ca. 1725–1798). The second binder’s blank of 3.III shows a watermark date of 1802, suggesting that the set was (re-)bound shortly after Cotton’s death.
The next owner to leave his mark on the volumes was John McAllister (Jr., 1786–1877) a prominent Philadelphian and a cousin of Captain Cook’s through his mother, Frances (née Wardale). The elder Mrs. McAllister and Mrs. Elizabeth Cook were friends and correspondents, and the widow Cook sent to Philadelphia various pieces of Cookiana, some of which are now to be found in the National Library of Australia. McAllister left marks of ownership in all the text (his bookplate in every volume but 2.II). His note in the 2.II indicates that he owned at least two leaves from Cook’s manuscript journals. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he was an antiquarian and worked, with his father John Sr., as an ophthalmologist and optician. The firm — with encouragement from Benjamin Franklin — was patronized by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson i.a.
(McAllister’s books were auctioned in Philadelphia by Stanislaus Vincent Henkels for Samuel T. Freeman and Co. 10-11 May 1909. Lot 149 is a set of Cook’s voyages with dates that match the present set, but appear to have contained “11 vols. text and folio volume of plates;” perhaps there were additional volumes of ephemera or other Cookiana. The following comment is printed about this lot:
"The late Mr. McAllister has this to say about this set of Cook’s voyages: 'This set of Cook’s voyages was (except one of the volumes of the Second Voyage, which I was afterwards enabled to supply) purchased by me from Geo. Ord. Mr. Ord lately remarked to me that the set had belonged to Dr. Franklin. It will be seen by a close examination of the inside of the covers of the first three volumes that the name of "Doctor Flanking" had been written on the first fly leaf, and that the ink had left its mark upon the inner side of the cover. It may be that these three volumes had been intended for Dr. Franklin, and that on account of the mistake in the spelling of his name, other volumes had been substituted for them.' In the 6th volume of Franklin’s Works, published by his grandson, will be found Franklin’s own account of the copies of Cook’s voyages, which he owned."
Careful examination of the present set shows no sign of these pen marks or of their offsetting. That said, replacement of end-papers is easily enough done. The absence of McAllister’s bookplate in 2.II does suggest that he acquired that volume separately, as described above. George Ord (1781–1866) was a zoologist also based in Philadelphia. Ord worked with Alexander Wilson on American Ornithology, bringing out its second edition after Wilson’s death. The ownership of the set by Benjamin Franklin is tantalizing, but difficult to credit fully.)
The lot description in McAllister’s sale describes the atlas volume as “half calf, broken,” which could account for the later binding; it may also indicate that the purchaser of the set replaced the atlas— as happens so often — with an exogenous volume. The armorial bookplate of John Bax only in this volume favors the latter explanation. This is probably John Henry Bax (1793–1863) of the Bombay Civil Service. Bax kept journals of his travels — mainly overland — between England and India between 1812 and 1825, now held at the British Library (Mss Eur F401) and digitized for the Qatar National Library.
Beddie 650 (first voyage), 1226 (second voyage), 1552 (third voyage).
[1] “At page 210 is the commencement of sheet no. 72 of Capt Cook’s Manuscript Journal -- / This sheet was presented to me by Mr Bennett of Merton near London –/ also sheet no. 73//see Gentleman’s Magazine of 1772 page 254”
[2] In the first voyage as “Elizabeth: Cotton.” except for 1.III: “Elibeth: Cotton.” In the second voyage she signs without punctuation; the year in 2.I has been corrected to 1785 from 1784.
Item #JLR0694
Price: $56,500