Hordern House Rare Books
Member of ANZAAB - Australia
-
Art: Colonial
Manuscripts
Natural History
Pacific
Voyages & Exploration
Voyages to Australia
Since 1985 Hordern House has been a centre for antiquarian material in all forms, especially dealing with voyages and travels, discovery and exploration, as well as Australiana, and classic fields of rare book collecting.
We are now located in a former warehouse in Surry Hills, Sydney. Visitors are welcome by appointment.
We issue catalogues and lists online.
Explore our website to see a wide range of stock in various fields.
Highlights
Conrad Martens. View of Elizabeth Bay and Sydney… c.1845
$68750
A superb Sydney Harbour scene, sweeping from Elizabeth Bay House in the middle-ground around to the lower north shore, showcasing Martens’s remarkable talent at capturing the shimmering waters and the intense light of the city.
View More
Sir Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology...,1832-33
$7850
A good early set of this classic by ‘the father of modern geology’, composed of the second edition of the first volume, and first editions of the other two volumes. Principles of Geology “has been called the most important scientific book ever... [it] shook prevailing views of how the earth had been formed" (Cambridge).
View More
Sarah Stone. Original watercolour of a Salmon Crested Cockatoo. c. 1790s
$48500
A splendid watercolour study of the salmon-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua moluccensis), in a characteristically alert pose, by the great bird-artist Sarah Smith, née Stone.
View More
James Magra (attrib). A Journal of a Voyage round the World in His Majesty’s Ship Endeavour...1771
$48500
First edition of the earliest published account of Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific: the rare first issue, with the leaf of dedication to ‘The Right Honourable Lords of the Admiralty, and to Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander’ inserted by the publishers to add authenticity. This was the first of a series of so-called “surreptitious accounts” of Cook’s various voyages to appear in print: the Admiralty found it practically impossible to enforce their ruling that no unofficial publications should pre-empt the official and lengthier accounts of the voyages, naturally much slower in the press.
View More
Christopher Cortese (attrib). Large illuminated leaf from an Antiphonal centred on the word Jerusalem. c. 1430
$7500
A leaf of exceptional quality from an early fifteenth century Venetian Antiphonal. The extravagantly illuminated initial “I”, which includes a wolf’s head in the decoration, introduces the text “Ierusalem cito veni”, a Responsory at Matins for the Second Sunday in Advent.
View More
George Barrington. The History of New South Wales…1802
$2750
A handsome copy of this important “Barrington” title, now famous as the first book to contain a suite of coloured illustrations of Sydney, the views in David Collins’ Account, on which they are based, having been published in black and white.
View More
James Cook. The Method taken for preserving the Health of the Crew of His Majesty’s Ship the Resolution…1776
$5500
This collective publication of Transactions of the Royal Society for 1776, running to altogether 53 articles on a rich variety of subjects, includes two original works by James Cook, who appeared in print surprisingly little during his illustrious career. The first piece (pp. 402-6) is Cook’s famous account of the measures taken on the Resolution during the second voyage to combat scurvy, in which he discusses the merits of malt, “Sour Krout”, “portable soup” and citrus fruit. Cook’s piece is addressed to the Royal Society’s president, Sir John Pringle, who read it on Cook’s behalf.
View More
John Henry Moor. Notices of the Indian Archipelago, and adjacent countries…1837
$46500
First edition: a great Singapore rarity, one of the first books to be published there, and including the earliest detailed map of Singapore Town and its surroundings, "The Town and environs of Singapore”, based on a survey by G.D. Coleman. Published just after the island had become the capital of the Straits Settlements, it marks the beginning of the colony’s enormous growth as a regional trading hub and the centre of the rubber industry.
View More