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Natives at Dorei. Birds of Paradise. Dumont d'Urville, c1834.

Natives at Dorei. Birds of Paradise. Dumont d'Urville, c1834.

by D'Urville, Dumont

Chants et Repas funébres a Dorei. Oiseaux de Paradis, male et femelle. Singing and Funeral Repast at Dorei. Bird of Paradise, male and female. This pair of engravings is from Voyages Pittoresque Autour de Monde (Picturesque Voyages around the World) published in Paris circa 1835, under the direction of Dumont d'Urville. With his own voyage Urville included previous information and engravings from the voyages of discoveries of Magellan, Tasman, Dampier, Anson, Byron, Wallis, Carteret, Bougainville, Cook, Laperouse, G. Bligh, Vancouver, D'Entrecasteaux, Wilson, Baudin, Flinders, Krunsenstern, Porter, Kotzebue, Freycinet, Bellinghausen, Basil Hall, Duperrey, Paulding, Beechey, Lutke, Dillon, Laplace, B.Morrel, etc.

Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842), was physically weak but an avid student who loved nature, learned many foreign languages, and was captivated by news of discoveries from around the world. He became a naval officer and explorer, and ultimately, a Rear Admiral. From 1822 to 1825, with Lieutenant Louis Isidore Duperrey in command of Coquille, D'Urville explored the Pacific, including Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica. On his first voyage he named hundreds of new botanical specimens, and insects. Because of his good memory and capacity for languages, he also acquired a knowledge of native dialects around Polynesia and Melanesia and was fascinated by the different cultures of the region. Dumont d'Urville was the explorer who differentiated and named the groups of Pacific islands. From 1826 to 1829 D'Urville returned to the Pacific in command of Coquille, renamed Astrolabe in honour of La Perouse.

This is one of the wonderful engravings from the drawings by his official expedition artist Louis Auguste de Sainson (1801-1887). Most of the engravings were printed two on a page, one above the other, but a few, on their sides, occupied the whole page. The page measures 265 x 175mm (approximately 10.5 x 7 inches). This page has fine later hand-colour.

Stock Number: apPNG4Price: $40.00

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