National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 61 | February 2003


Recent Acquistions for the Map and Pictures Collections from Christie’s Auctions

Henri-Louis de Freycinet, 1775–1840. Voyage de découvertes du Capitaine de Vaisseau Mr Baudin cours d'une partie de la Rivière du Nord, Terre de Diemen  1802. Map Collection RM 3671
Henri-Louis de Freycinet, 1775–1840
Voyage de découvertes du Capitaine de Vaisseau Mr Baudin cours d'une partie de la Rivière du Nord, Terre de Diemen
 1802
col. map on sheet 35.4 x 73.5 cm
Map Collection RM 3671

Two very special auctions were conducted by Christie’s (London) in late September last year.

 The Freycinet Collection, auctioned on the morning of the 26 September received much publicity and fanfare beforehand, due in part to its ownership by Alan Bond.

While the maps of the Swan River and Sydney, including two manuscript maps by John Oxley, received considerable attention, the map of the Derwent River by Nicholas Baudin, acquired by the National Library, was virtually unnoticed.

The Freycinet collection comprised 13 manuscript maps as well as archival pictorial and printed items compiled on the Baudin voyage of 1800–04 and the Freycinet voyage of 1817–20.

The Baudin expedition was perhaps the most important of the early-19th century expeditions to explore Australia. Not only was it led by a highly experienced explorer, navigator, draughtsman and natural scientist in Nicolas Baudin, he also had on board the Freycinet brothers, Henri and Louis-Claude, cartographers to the voyage, as well as a team of 22 scientists, including a hydrographer, engineer, naturalist, and artists.

Plate 6 reproduced from F.F. Bellingshausen’s atlas Atlas K’Puteshestuya kapitana Bellingsgauzena v Yuzhnom ledovitam Okeana i vo Krug Sveta 1819 1820 i 1821 (Sanktpeterburg, 1831)

Plate 6 reproduced from F.F. Bellingshausen’s atlas Atlas K’Puteshestuya kapitana Bellingsgauzena v Yuzhnom ledovitam Okeana i vo Krug Sveta 1819 1820 i 1821 (Sanktpeterburg, 1831)

Baudin reached the Derwent River, Tasmania, on 23 January 1802. Henri de Freycinet commenced a survey and Baudin compiled the incomplete map, titled Cours d’une partie de la Rivière du Nord, Terre de Diemen , including soundings, showing the traverse of the river between Mt Direction and New Norfolk. The river was partly surveyed by D’Entrecasteaux in 1793. Baudin’s map is one of the earliest surveys of the river and is notable for its attention to detail, particularly on the health of the river. The notation of the rich black mud on the river floor ‘herbieu inu vase noire’ and the carefully depicted strands of giant kelp crossing the river at Bridgewater and also extending some distance downstream gives some insight into the careful observations executed by Baudin’s team throughout the voyage. The reduced and very modified reproduction of the map in Freycinet’s published atlas of 1812 ignores the kelp and somewhat dismisses the significance of one of the most important of Tasmania’s rivers.

In sharp contrast to the Freycinet Collection the sale of Antarctic material from the Silverman Collection later in the day attracted little, if any, attention by the Australian media. Included in the auction was Thaddeus Bellingshausen’s Atlas K’Puteshestuya kapitana Bellingsgauzena v Yuzhnom ledovitam Okeana i vo Krug Sveta 1819 1820 i 1821.

Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin Thaddeus von Bellingshausen’s voyage to the Pacific and Antarctica, 1819–21 was the second of two significant voyages made to the Pacific region by Russian explorers during the early part of the 19th century, the first being that of Kruzenstern.

Plate 27 reproduced from F.F. Bellingshausen’s atlas Atlas K’Puteshestuya kapitana Bellingsgauzena v Yuzhnom ledovitam Okeana i vo Krug Sveta 1819 1820 i 1821 (Sanktpeterburg, 1831)
Plate 27 reproduced from F.F. Bellingshausen’s atlas Atlas K’Puteshestuya kapitana Bellingsgauzena v Yuzhnom ledovitam Okeana i vo Krug Sveta 1819 1820 i 1821 (Sanktpeterburg, 1831)

James Cook’s exploration of the Pacific in search of the elusive southern continent, particularly his second voyage, which brought him to the Antarctic Circle, influenced the Russian Admiralty to instruct Bellingshausen to complement Cook’s voyage by travelling as far south as possible with particular emphasis on navigation and charting. Beginning at South Georgia he discovered the Traverse Islands and reached south of 69 degrees, the most southerly point gained by explorers at that time, and continued east, south of 65 degrees, to 87 degrees east, having followed the edge of the ice to the same point Cook had reached from the opposite direction. Almost sighting Enderby Land he headed north for Sydney, taking time to make sensitive portraits of Aboriginal people and to observe and record the native flora and fauna of the area before traversing the South Pacific. He travelled south again to below 60 degrees, crossing the Antarctic Circle three more times. He discovered and named Peter Island, the first land to be seen within the Antarctic Circle and also charted and named Alexander Island. In all he traversed 43 degrees of longitude, compared to Cook’s 24 degrees, of the Antarctic Circle.

Unlike Cook’s voyages, Bellingshausen’s voyage did not receive the same publishing interest or prominence and it was 1831 before the two travel volumes (not included in this auction) and the atlas were published, 10 years after the voyage.

The narrative was published in a limited run of 600 copies, although it is not known how many copies of the atlas were produced. In addition to the finely etched charts, showing the route of the voyage in its various stages, the atlas also features the sensitive portraits of Aboriginal people and carefully executed illustrations of flora and fauna encountered throughout the voyage.
—Maura O’Connor, Curator of Maps

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