Captain Cook’s Florilegium

A selection of engravings from the drawings of plants collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on Captain Cook’s first voyage to the islands of the Pacific, with accounts of the voyage by Wilfrid Blunt and of the botanical explorations and prints by W.T. Stearn. London : Lion and Unicorn Press, 1973. Elephant folio (615 mm tall), fine Zaehnsdorf binding of Nigerian goatskin over Japanese silk-bound boards (light wear), clamshell box (a little scuffed and marked), list of subscribers loosely inserted, thirty original copperplate engravings. Limited to 100 copies, sold out upon subscription. This is copy number 9, the list of subscribers indicates the original owner was Muir Dawson (1921 – 2005), noted Los Angeles bookseller and printer.

Upon the return of Cook’s first circumnavigation a series of fine large format copperplates were made under the supervision of the voyage’s botanist Joseph Banks. While a proof set of impressions were pulled at the time, no published version was made. In 1960 the Royal College of Art began to prepare a published edition struck from the original plates held in the British Museum. In 1973 this magnificent large scale publication was the result. The edition was fully subscribed before publication.

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