Alexander Hogg, “View of the Ice Islands”, c.1776

Alexander Hogg (1778–1824)

“View of the Ice Islands” (aka “View of the ICE ISLANDS as seen in COOK'S Second Voyage on Jany, 9. 1773”), c.1776, published in London by Alexander Hogg in 1778.

Engraving with etching on laid paper, trimmed with a small margin around the image borderline and a replenished upper-right corner of the margin, backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 23.4 x 37 cm; (image borderline) 20.5 x 33.8 cm.

Lettered in plate: (above the image borderline at centre) “London : Published as the Act directs, by Alex^r. Hogg, at the Kings Arms, N^o.16, Paternoster Row.”; (below the image borderline at centre) “View of the ICE ISLANDS as seen in COOK'S Second Voyage on Jan^y, 9. 1773.”

The Captain Cook Society offers the following explanation of the circumstances behind the portrayed scene: “On 9 January, Johann Reinhold Forster in Resolution [the sloop in which James Cook was the commander] ‘saw several Islands of Ice & a Procellaria antarctica’, which he named the Antarctic Petrel (nowadays Thalassoica antarctica)./ Forster continued, ‘We altered our Course in order to come up again with a large Island of Ice, off of which we saw a good deal of small Ice, which we intended to take up, after having hoisted out all boats’.  According to Cooper [Robert Palliser Cooper was the First Lieutenant of the Resolution], they ‘hoisted out the Pinnace & 2 Cutters to take up the Small Ice’.  The men in the boats obtained ‘about 15 Tons of Fresh Water’, wrote Cook, ‘the Adventure at the same time got about 8 or 9 and all this done in 5 or 6 hours.’  Some pieces of ice were so large ‘that we were obliged to break them with our Ice Axes before they could be taken into the Boats... part of the Ice we packed in Casks and the rest we Melted in the Copper and filled the Casks up with the Water; the Melting of the Ice is a little tedious and takes up some time, otherwise this is the most expeditious way of Watering I ever met with’” (https://www.captaincooksociety.com/cooks-voyages/second-pacific-voyage/january-march-1773).

Adina Sommer (Antique and Contemporary Art) offers the following insights about this print: “View shows how James Cook first encountered icebergs on his second voyage on the 51st parallel (South Atlantic) on January 9, 1773. This was about five degrees south than the mainland discovered by Bouvet. Not seeing the Bouvet Island, Cook assumed that Bouvet had mistaken an iceberg for mainland” (https://www.asommer.de/en/karte/view-of-the-ice-islands-as-seen-in-cooks-second-voyage-on-jan-9-1773/).

Note that J Phillips executed an engraving of the same scene (with minor differences), published by B Smith & Co., in 1815 (see https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/595707).

Condition: a strong and well-printed (near faultless) early impression (based on the quality of line showing no sign of wear to the printing plate). Beyond a replenished upper-right corner and marks in the margin, the sheet is in a very good condition for its large size and considerable age with no tears, holes, folds or significant stains and has been laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this historically important engraving—note that the engraving not only shows James Cook’s view of icebergs and (interesting for me) a view of brown-and-white petrels (Thalassoica Antarctica) in flight, but also what must have been the difficult (and dangerous) practice of collecting fresh water in unwieldy chunks of ice by early explorers (see for example the boulder-like pieces in the rowboat at right), for the total cost of AU$288 (currently US$195.81/EUR178.46/GBP1149.25 at the time of posting this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries. Note that payment is in Australian dollars (AU$288) as this is my currency.

If you are interested in purchasing this very rare engraving, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.