Cook Engraving – An Offering Before Captain Cook in the Sandwich Islands

‘An Offering Before Captain Cook in the Sandwich Islands’ We have acquired a large collection of more than 40 of the original 61 plates and 2 maps which were published in the first edition of Captain Cook’s account of his voyages in the South Pacific in 1784. These plates were purchased by one of our collectors who obtained the entire folio from an antiquarian book/map dealer several years ago. They fit the guidelines of the engravings which were created for the first edition, as each leaf measures 23″ x 17″ and the paper is of the period. Many of the leaves show light rips, tears and the occasional paper loss around the edges. These are perfect for framing, as nearly all of the engravings are clean and bright.

The full title of the original edition of the book was “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Undertaken, by the Command of His Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere, to Determine the Position and Extent of the West Side of North America; Its Distance from Asia; and the Practicability of a Northern Passage to Europe. Performed under the Direction of Captains Cook, Clerke, and Gore, in His Majesty’s Ships the Resolution and Discovery, in the Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780”. The atlas volume is the most desirable because the plates were exquisite and were the first exposure the English had to images of the South Pacific.