Following in Louis Freycinet's "footsteps"
By DUPERREY, Louis-Isidor , 1828
£250
BUY

Plan de l'ile St. Augustin (de Maurelle). Levé par M. Lottin, Officer de la Marin [and] Plan de l'ile Rotouma.

Australasia & the Pacific Pacific
  • Author: DUPERREY, Louis-Isidor
  • Publication place: [Paris,
  • Publisher: Firmin Didot for Arthus Bertrand,
  • Publication date: after 1828].
  • Physical description: 2 engraved charts on one full-page sheet.
  • Dimensions: 550 by 425mm (21.75 by 16.75 inches).
  • Inventory reference: 22660

Notes

A pair of charts of the islands of St. Augustin and Rotuma from the Rotuma group of the Fiji in Micronesia. The earliest confirmed European sighting of Rotuma was in 1791, when HMS 'Pandora' landed on the island in search of the mutineers from the 'Bounty'.

Plate number 21 from the Atlas volume to the 'Hydrographie' of Duperrey's 'Voyage autour du Monde, executé per ordre du Roi, sur la Corvette La Coquille de sa Majesté, pendant les annies 1822, 1823, 1824 et 1825'.

The mapmaker
At seventeen, Louis-Isidore Duperrey (1786-1865) was a young sub-lieutenant on Louis Freycinet's voyage of 1817-1820, during which the 'Uranie' was wrecked in the Falklands. His own circumnavigation in the 'Coquille' (1822-1825) with its focus on science enabled observations of magnetic variation complementing those made earlier in the Pacific ocean by Freycinet.

Provenance

Provenance
1. Probably Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet;
2. Freycinet family archives

Bibliography

  1. Hill 'Pacific', 517.
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