Rare Books, Autographs & Coins of the world

July 10, 2022 12:00 PM AEST
Timed Auction

225 Lots

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Smalls Auctions

Location: Paddington, Sydney, Australia

Phone: +61 (0)2 9357 5492

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Welcome to Smalls Auctions Sale 177. In this Sale we pay tribute to the explorers from the Ancient and Old World who fearlessly set sail to the explore the uncharted corners of the New World. In the Ancient World mapmakers were usually desk jockeys who relied on returning mariners to provide them with details of the great unknown. It didn’t help that the early seafarers usually hugged the coast fearful of sailing off the edge of the World which compromised their perspectives of time, distance and size, or that their descriptions of foreign lands were exaggerated by the exotic trade for which they were famous. In the case of the mythical island of ‘Taprobana,’ this far-off land was known to the Ancient Greeks as a land of ‘elephants and spices’ not ‘milk and honey’ and, so when the Greco – Egyptian cartographer Claudius Ptolemy described it in 150 A.D. as a large island south of continental Asia there were a couple of potential candidates. Ptolemy’s map coordinates placed ‘Taprobana’ imprecisely to the left of a ‘miniature’ Indian sub-continent but closest to the position of Sri Lanka. It was thought that Ptolemy’s Map of the then known World was lost to posterity until versions of it were rediscovered in the Middle East in the late 13th Century, and a Florentine drafting of it in the mid -15th Century seemed to confirm that Sri Lanka was most likely the ancient island of ‘Taprobana.’ ‘Elephants,’ ‘Spices,’ ‘Island’ – it all seemed to fit and so problem solved then, except that the island drawn is huge being almost the actual size of India and placed to its ‘left’ not ‘right.’ Did the ancient mariners largely skirt India on their way further east and so were unaware of its size, or were Ptolemy’s dimensions inflated by the tall tales of the mariners? But what is also interesting is that the ‘miniature’ India in the 15th Century rendition of Ptolemy’s Map has a small protrusion at the bottom right, which is roughly in the position of Sri Lanka, thus echoing the Island of Tasmania when it was attached to continental Australia in its early maps. The Florentine version of Ptolemy’s Map using his coordinates finishes roughly at the Malay peninsula, which intriguingly is missing to its ‘left’ the very ‘unmissable’ island of Sumatra, also home to ‘elephants’ and ‘spices’ and sitting at the end of an ancient trade route. Was it these facts that convinced Sebastian Munster the revered 16th Century mapmaker to label “Sumatra, a large island” as Ptolemy’s “Taprobana” in his wood-cut map prints that were published in 1580s? Munster also interpreted Ptolemy’s coordinates to recreate the ancient maps in his own works, but these were now flavoured by later maritime journeys of discovery. Arguably Sri Lanka is the better candidate for the title of ‘Taprobana’ in terms of position but what about Sumatra’s size and it being missing in action in Ptolemy’s ancient map? Most modern scholars still pump for Sri Lanka as the mythical ‘Taprobana’, but others are not so sure. What is certain is that Munster’s colourful wood-cut map of ‘Taprobana’ is an exquisite piece of map-making – even if it might be wrongly labelled. This week Smalls Auctions offers a circa 1580s map of Munster’s ‘Taprobana.’ Eventually the penny dropped that like most celestial bodies the Earth was most likely round and so mariners chased the horizon in search of new lands to explore and conquer. Discoveries were always controversial as in most instances they were inhabited by other peoples and cultures that were viewed as inferior to the arriving Europeans. The British when discovering and claiming modern-day Australia declared the continent “terra nullius,” or uninhabited, even though it is now estimated the native Aboriginal population numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Colonisation brought at sometimes brutal displacement of the original peoples, but this should not discount the courage of these early explorers and their crews who set sail with no idea what lay ahead of them and with literally no support to save them if they ran into difficulty. One of the most important of the explorers was James Cook who undertook three Great voyages of Discovery. These days he is often looked at in contempt by the politically correct who disregard his courage and hold him responsible for all the ills but none of the benefits of colonisation. I guess the same fate awaits Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin once bases are established on the moon. In this Sale we include a Fourth Edition two volume set of Cook’s Official Journals from his Second Voyage. They are titled “a Voyage towards the South Pole and Round the World performed in His Majesty's ships the Resolution and Adventure, written by James Cook, Commander of the Resolution.” The British Admiralty expected that all its senior officers kept journals on these voyages, but to maintain a stranglehold on the official account these were collected from officers before the vessel returned to home port lest they contained controversial or conflicting information. But, sometimes an officer would secret their journal later publishing a less sanitised account of their personal experiences. One such published journal was titled “A Voyage Round the World in the Years MDCCLXXII, LXXIII, LXXIV, LXXV by Captain James Cook, Commander of his Majesty's Bark the Resolution.’ It is thought to have been penned by Lieutenant Richard Pickersgill of the Resolution and was rushed to print in 1776 to beat the release of the official account in the following year. The German naturalist George Forster who accompanied Cook on the Second Voyage was himself in the process of publishing his own account, and perhaps to bolster his own sales dismissed it in his prospectus as the work of a student of Cambridge University - but the intimacy of the account would appear to discount this. The copy on offer is a 1781 re-release of the First Edition with a new title page tipped in now identifying the emboldened author as an “Officer on Board.” The Mitchell Library, Sydney which holds a similar copy describes it as an “extreme rarity.” For variety we have also included In the Sale a wide selection of quality World Coins, a selection of Cuff Links and Earrings as well as some important autographed items. Smalls Auctions
Buyer's Premium
$0-99: 20.0%
$100-499: 20.0%
$500-999: 20.0%
$1,000-4,999: 20.0%
$5,000+: 20.0%
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A$5,000 A$9,999 A$50
A$10,000 + A$100

Conditions of Sale

VAT and taxes: The Buyer's Premium is inclusive of the Australian G(oods) & S(ervices T(ax) incurred by our service.

Shipping Terms: AUSTRALIA :

Purchases within Australia will be charged a MINIMUM SHIPPING FEE of $10.00 and will be sent by Registered Post.

Additional insurance is optional at the buyer's expense.

Larger lots may incur an additional charge.

OVERSEAS :

Overseas purchases will be charged a MINIMUM SHIPPING FEE of $35.00 and will be sent by standard International Post.

Additional insurance is optional at the buyer's expense

Larger lots may incur an additional charge.

If we are unsure of the bona fides of a successful bidder we may request identification such as a Passport Photo or Drivers's Licence that matches the Credit Card details registered with Invaluable before we despatch an item.

Both Australian and International packages are traceable in transit and may require a signature on delivery.

Buyers Premium: All purchases are subject to an all inclusive 20.0 % Buyer's Premium on the hammer price.

Tax Details: Taxes, Duties and Customs Charges that apply in the country of delivery are the express responsibility of the buyer.

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