SHARK

Original lithographic engraving by Dupare, from a drawing by Arago, of 'Nouvelle Hollande. Vue d'une partie de la presqu'île Péron, et 1re entrevue avec les sauvages', depicting a meeting of Aborigines and Frenchmen at Shark Bay, Western Australia.

Author: 
[Jacques Etienne Victor Arago (1790-1855), artist; Louis Claude Desaulses de Freycinet (1779-1842), Paris publisher; [Dupare, French engraver; Australian aborigines; Shark Bay, Peron Peninsula]
Publication details: 
[Paris: de Freycinet. Circa 1825.]
£80.00

Dimensions: 18.5 x 25.5 cm. Laid down on a piece of 19.5 x 26.5 cm grey paper. The print has been trimmed, so that there is no margin. In good condition, lightly-aged and ruckled. Against a rocky backdrop, with aborigines viewing from the top of a hill, a group of six aborigines are shown to the right, naked and waving sticks and spears. To the left are the five Frenchmen, with a stack of rifles in front of a tent at far left. In the centre of the image the leading Frenchman places gifts on the end of a long stick held by one of the aborigines.

Contemporary manuscript copy of a letter from Captain John Bower, 84th Regiment, to his father Alexander Bower of Kincaldrum House, Kinnettles, describing how he saved the life of the future Sir James Carmichael-Smyth while shark fishing off the Cape

Author: 
Captain John Bower (d.1800), 84th Regiment of Foot, eldest son of Alexander Bower of Kincaldrum House, Kinnettles, near Dundee [Sir James Carmichael-Smyth (1779-1838)]
Publication details: 
Letter 'dated Cape Town May 10th 1797', on paper also with watermarked date '1797'.
£120.00

2pp., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged laid paper. Bower begins by stating that he is sending 'a Copy of a Letter which I have received from Dr Carm Smyth [James Carmichael Smyth (1742-1821) of the Middlesex Hospital]'. Smyth's son (the future Sir James Carmichael-Smyth) is 'a very fine handsome young man Lieut in the Engineers come out a Passanger [sic] in the same ship with us'. Bower and Smyth 'wisely went into the Boat which was lashed to the Stern Gallery to fish sharks which were following the ship - the Boat suddenly canted round in the slings, upon which poor Smyth went plump into the sea'.

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