Thieme, D.A., publisher.

De Wonderen van het Dierenrijk. Tafeleelen uit het Leven der Dieren in het Wild, vooral in de Nieuwe Wereld [Whaling in the South Shetland Islands].

Arnhem: D.A. Thieme & H.A. Tjeenk Willink, Ca. 1840. Hardcover. Translating as "The Wonders of the Animal Kingdom. Scenes from the Life of the Animals in the World, especially in the New World. With Colored Steel Plates", this unusual collection of natural history stories in settings from around the world [Brazil, the US, India] includes a remarkable unrecorded account of sealing in the South Shetland Islands in 1819, which is based in fact. The South Shetland adventure describes a sealing expedition lead by Capt. Gardiner on the ship "Oyster Pond", was accompanied by Capt. Daggett on the "Bineyarder". Both ships were out of Gardiners Bay, Long Island. They voyaged south of Cape Horn where they found excellent sealing grounds on the South Shetlands. One ship is quickly filled with oil, but the 2nd is delayed and they are eventually forced to winter over. As a consequence, the "Bineyarder" is destroyed in the ice, losing all but one hand. The suggestion that the story is more than apocryphal is supported in a book by Jeannette Rattray, "East Hampton History Including Genealogies of Early Families" (East Hampton, LI 1953). An account of the Gardiner family on p. 343 tells us that "Dr. Nathaniel Gardiner (1759-1804) and his brother Capt. Abraham (1763-1796) fitted out a ship & brig for a Whaling adventure; both unsuccessful, but this is said to have been the first expedition after whales from L.I. Sound into Southern latitudes." There is nothing recorded in Spence about their voyage, nor in the chronology of the many sealing voyages (mostly later, in 1820-22) of Stewart's "Antarctica. An Encyclopedia". OCLC: 71631598 cites only one copy at the Koninklijk Biblitheek in the Netherlands. The other stories are of Brazil, North America & India. 8vo, nd, ca. 1840. Square 8vo, 56pp, complete with 5 exquisitely hand-colored steel engraved plates. Original pictorial papered boards with applied gilt border strip; sympathetically rebacked. Supplied with an approximate translation of the South Shetlands episode. A very nice copy. Item #6316

Price: $1,750.00