LIEUTENANT WILLIAM JAMES BURNEY, ROYAL MARINES, HMS TALBOT, PACIFIC

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more

Details

LIEUTENANT WILLIAM JAMES BURNEY, ROYAL MARINES, HMS TALBOT, PACIFIC

Pacific coast sketches. 1845-46. An album including 34 watercolours and 1 pen and ink drawing, comprising 25 studies of types and costumes of Peru (by a Lima School artist), the remainder by Burney comprising 4 of Mexico, 1 of a Chileno (a Chilean horseman, Valparaïso), 4 of the Sandwich Islands [Hawaii] ('A Sandwich Islander carrying Tarro and Poe'; 'A Hawaiian Girl. Sandwich Islands'; 'Sandwich Island canoe'; and 'Sandwich Island canoes'), and one pen and ink sketch of Napoleon, the watercolours titled in ink beneath the image, and further captioned, numbered and dated by Burney on the verso, the sketches window mounted to size in a 4° (202 x 145mm.) album bound in late 19th/early 20th century half tan morocco over marbled paper boards, the spine titled in gilt. Extremities very slightly rubbed.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

The album includes a selection of the standard 'types and costumes of Lima' (see for example Dr. Archibald Smith's album, Christie's, 25 Sept. 2003, lot 432 for identical subjects by the same local hand), as well as a rare selection of Hawaiian subjects by Burney, the study of one of the Sandwich Island canoes, including an elevation, suggests Burney was a Woolwich-trained draughtsman.

Burney visited the Hawaiian islands in the years immediately following their independence, guaranteed in 1844 by the main powers active in the Pacific -- France, Great Britain and the United States of America.

More from Exploration and Travel with The Polar Sale

View All