LAPLACE (Cyrille Pierre Théodore). Voyage autour du monde pa - Lot 234

LAPLACE (Cyrille Pierre Théodore). Voyage autour du monde par les mers de l'Inde et de la Chine exécuté sur la corvette de l'État la Favorite pendant les années 1830, 1831, et 1832. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, Arthus Bertrand, au dépôt général de la marine, 1833-1839. 5 vol. in-8 red half-sheepskin, spine ribbed and decorated (period binding) of I. [2] ff.-xli-558-[1] pp. ; II. [2] ff.-481-[1] pp. with large fold-out map (pitting, cuts at folds but not missing); III. [2] ff.-510-[1] pp. ; IV. [2] ff.- 480 pp. ; V. [2] ff. 195-200 pp. 60 plates, 51 of them carefully watercolored. Frequent foxing, mainly in the text and very little in the plates, with occasional light spotting in the text. Without the two large historical and hydrographic atlases, but complete with the very rare 5th volume of natural history, published at a later date, which is almost always missing. This fifth and last volume of text contains the report made to the Académie des Sciences on February 4, 1833, on the natural history collections collected during the voyage of the corvette La Favorite..., Recherches sur les marsupiaux by Fortuné Eydoux and Laurent, Part 2 Zoology by Fortuné Eydoux and Paul Gervais, and the supplement on new Lepidoptera by Feisthamel. Captain Laplace (1793-1875) left Toulon on December 30, 1829 for the Pacific aboard the corvette La Favorite. Commissioned by the French government, his round-the-world expedition took in Gibraltar and Gorée, before crossing the equator on February 4 and rounding the Cape of Good Hope on March 6. Laplace was then forced by 2 hurricanes to make a stopover in Mauritius before heading for Saint-Louis de la Réunion. In May 1830, he took to the Indies again, reaching Singapore, Manila and finally Canton (where he discussed the fate of French traders). After Indonesia, he finally reached New Zealand, where he found himself highly dissatisfied with the behavior of his crew, who traded in their rifles for the revelation of the haka, the famous ritual of the Maori warriors. The expedition returned via Valparaiso, Cape Horn and Rio de Janeiro to Toulon on April 21, 1832. Promoted to Captain on his return in 1834, Laplace repeated his voyage between 1837 and 1840 on the frigate L'Artémise. Sabin 38985 ("perhaps the finest series of plates to any of the picturesque voyages"); Borba de Moraes p. 458 ("This publication... is sumptuous... They are some of the most beautiful plates of the kind in existence... complete with all its parts [it] is rare"). Expert : Madame Elvire POULAIN-MARQUIS