Flinders, Matthew

FIRST EDITION, 3 volumes, 2 volumes text, 4to (text 292 x 225mm.), and atlas, elephant folio (740 x 525mm.), text with half-titles, dedication leaf, list of plates/errata leaf, 9 engraved plates in the text, atlas with 18 engraved maps charts and coastal profiles, most double-page, 10 engraved plates of botanical subjects, antique-style calf gilt by Aquarius (atlas half calf), TEXT UNCUT, some dampstaining to plates in text, last two plates in the atlas creased

Christie's London, 11 November 1992, lot 46

Ferguson 576; Nissen ZBI 637; Tooley, Mapping of Australia, pp.77-79; Wantrup 67a

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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ONE OF THE MONUMENTAL WORKS OF AUSTRALIAN DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION, DOCUMENTING THE FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF AUSTRALIA. Flinders's (1774-1814) voyage in the Investigator showed that New South Wales and New Holland were parts of the same continent, and that there was no obvious waterway leading into the interior. "Such is the historical importance of this monumental work that no general collection of Australian books could be considered complete without it" (Wantrup). The first part of the work is a history of Australian discovery, including an account of Flinders's expedition with Bass in which Tasmania was circumnavigated for the first time, and of his experiences on Bligh's second expedition in 1792. The remainder comprises a narrative of the voyage, sailing directions for the coasts explored, descriptions of areas visited, particulars of geology, botany, fauna, also of Aborigines encountered. The first proposals to establish a colony on the south coast and a new penal settlement on the east coast were based on Flinders's descriptions of the country.

The expedition, instigated and patronised by Sir Joseph Banks, met with much misfortune (including a six and a half-year imprisonment of Flinders by the French on Mauritius) and Flinders's complete account was eventually published only a day before his death. The naturalist Robert Brown had accompanied Flinders on the expedition, together with the natural history artist Ferdinand Bauer who drew the ten botanical plates in the atlas, and William Westall who drew the topographical views.