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 Alexr. Hogg, at the Kings Arms, No.16,
Paternoster Row.”; (below the image borderline at centre) “View of the ICE ISLANDS as seen in COOK'S Second Voyage on
Jany, 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.
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