RARE COMPLETE SET OF SPARRMAN'S TRAVELS TO THE CAPE OF THE GOOD HOPE. 2 VOLUMES.

(2).SPARRMAN, ANDERS. Resa till Goda Hopps-Udden, södra pol-kretsen och omkring jordklotet, samt till Hottentott- och Caffer-landen, åren 1772-76. I-II:1-2. Stockholm. A. J. Nordström - C. Deleen, 1783-1818.

8vo (about 174x108 mm.). (7), VIII-XV (misprint for XIV), (1)-704, 701-766; (12), (11), 12-179, (1); (2), (1)-234, (4) pp. 2 folding engraved maps (one with mendings in the folding), 25 partly folding engraved plates,of which 2 in aquatint (one plate with small mended tears in the folding, a few plates with some light dampstaining) and 2 mounted fabrics (of Tapa cloth, after p. 178 in vol, II:1 and after p. 234 in vol. II:2), complete.
Early 20th century brown half calf, richly gilt spines in six compartments, red edges. Pages 227-28 .in vol. I with small tear in upper margin, pp. 9-22 in vol. II: somewhat cut in the margins. Some minor spotting and foxing, a few leaves with minor dampstaining.. 2 volumes.

VERY RARE COMPLETE.
Pritzel 9784 (regarding vol. I); Du Rietz, Bibliotheca Polynesiana 1218, 1228.
The aquatinta plates engraved by F. Acrel, the other plates engraved by E. Åkerland.

This account of Cook’s second voyage describes his travels inland from the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope and as an assistent to naturalist Johann Forster on board the Resolution between September 1772 and March 1775.
A English edition of Sparrman’s voyage was published in 1785.

Anders Sparrman (1748-1820) was a Swedish naturalist, abolitionist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. He accompanied James Cook on his second voyage, a mulit-year expedition to map the Southern Ocean and search for the great continent, Terra Australias, hypothesised to exist at the South Pole. He joined the voyage as a botanist during its stop in Cape Town. In addition to visiting, naming, and mapping many Southern Islands, the voyage achieved a new "farthest south, " when the Resolution became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle.

Provenance: Karl Joar Westman (1939-2022), Swedish lawyer and banker, also an entrepreneur in India and Sri Lanka. He was a devoted collector of antiques, paintings, sculpture, arts and crafts and not least of books. He was the son of the minister and professor K. G. Westman and his wife Margit, née Printz.

See text.