Dumont D'Urville's Voyage au pole sud et dans l'océnie

DUMONT D’URVILLE, Jules Sébastien César, Comte (1790-1842).
Voyage au pole sud et dans l’océnie sur les corvettes l’Astrolabe et la Zélée.
Paris: Gide, 1841-1846. First edition.
Comparables: Christie's, 2007 - $10,800; Australian Book Auctions, 2016 - AUD 53,088.

10 text volumes in five, octavo (8 3/8" x 5 1/4"). Half-titles. 9 engraved folding maps (some pale dampstaining in third and fourth volumes). Contemporary calf-backed boards (some light wear at extremities, pale dampstain at the spine-edges of the third and fourth volumes).

Provenance: with the bookplate of Frank Sherwin Streeter (1918-2006), his sale Collection of Important Navigation, Pacific Voyages, Cartography and Science, Christie's New York, 17th April 2007, lot 172.

First edition of the first 10 volumes of this important exploratory expedition to the Pacific and southern Polar region. The complete record of the voyage was issued over thirteen years, from 1841[2]-1855. These first 10 volumes comprise the official textual record of the voyage and including all those published during Dumont d'Urville's lifetime. After his accidental death in 1842, the work was continued and supplemented under the supervision of M. Dumoulin, who added sections on anthropology, botany, geology, hydrography, zoology and physics. The fine folding maps show the routes of the Astolabe and Zelee through the Straits of Magellan, the New South Shetland and Orkney islands, the Manga-Reva islands, the Viti Archipelago, the Solomon islands, Borneo, the Coast of Southwest New Guinea, the South Polar region, and the Torres Straits. Dumont D'Urcille's expedition reached the ice pack of the South Polar region in January of 1838 but was unable to penetrate it. So, returning eastward, the ships visited the South Orkney and South Shetland Islands, discovered Joinville Island and Louis Philippe Land and proceeded to Valparaiso and Juan Fernandez Island. They then sailed to Mangareva, the Marquesas, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Guam, Palau and they circumnavigated Borneo. In 1840, from Tasmania, they returned to the Antarctic region where Adelie Land was discovered and an extensive visit to New Zealand was made.