Item #6817 [Important Large and One of the Earliest Maps of Honolulu Harbour from the Famous and Exceedingly Rare Atlas to Kotzebue’s First Circumnavigation on board brig “Rurik” in 1815-1818, Map Titled:] Ploskaya Karta Gavani Ganaruru. Dekabrya 1816 [Plain Chart of Honolulu Harbour, December 1816]. HAWAII, Otto von KOTZEBUE.
[Important Large and One of the Earliest Maps of Honolulu Harbour from the Famous and Exceedingly Rare Atlas to Kotzebue’s First Circumnavigation on board brig “Rurik” in 1815-1818, Map Titled:] Ploskaya Karta Gavani Ganaruru. Dekabrya 1816 [Plain Chart of Honolulu Harbour, December 1816]
[Important Large and One of the Earliest Maps of Honolulu Harbour from the Famous and Exceedingly Rare Atlas to Kotzebue’s First Circumnavigation on board brig “Rurik” in 1815-1818, Map Titled:] Ploskaya Karta Gavani Ganaruru. Dekabrya 1816 [Plain Chart of Honolulu Harbour, December 1816]
[Important Large and One of the Earliest Maps of Honolulu Harbour from the Famous and Exceedingly Rare Atlas to Kotzebue’s First Circumnavigation on board brig “Rurik” in 1815-1818, Map Titled:] Ploskaya Karta Gavani Ganaruru. Dekabrya 1816 [Plain Chart of Honolulu Harbour, December 1816]

[Important Large and One of the Earliest Maps of Honolulu Harbour from the Famous and Exceedingly Rare Atlas to Kotzebue’s First Circumnavigation on board brig “Rurik” in 1815-1818, Map Titled:] Ploskaya Karta Gavani Ganaruru. Dekabrya 1816 [Plain Chart of Honolulu Harbour, December 1816]

Saint Petersburg: Morskaya Typ. 1821-1823.

Item #6817



[Important Large and One of the Earliest Maps of Honolulu Harbour from the Famous and Exceedingly Rare Atlas to Kotzebue’s First Circumnavigation on board brig “Rurik” in 1815-1818, Map Titled:] Ploskaya Karta Gavani Ganaruru. Dekabrya 1816 [Plain Chart of Honolulu Harbour, December 1816].

[Saint Petersburg: Morskaya Typ., 1821-1823]. Copper engraved map: printed area size ca. 116x65,5 cm (45 ½ x 25 ¾ in); plate size ca. 127x98 cm (50 x 38 ¼ in). Copper engraved title in Russian in the cartouche on the lower part of the map. Several minor stains on the left margin, but overall a very good copper engraved map with wide margins.

Large beautiful map of Honolulu harbour and one of the most important maps from the exceedingly rare atlas to the official account of Otto von Kotzebue’s first circumnavigation on board brig “Rurik” in 1815-1818.

“The two Hawaiian maps [in this atlas, the present being double page and thus the much larger and detailed one] provide the first detailed mapping of Honolulu and are preceded in publication only by the Golovnin map published in St. Petersburg, 1822 (see No. 545) <…> Map [19] depicts what is today central Honolulu from Iwilei (here a fish pond) to roughly what is now the Kewalo basin. The fish ponds and cultivated areas marked “Garden where grow Taro, sugar cane & bananas” are at the top, then Honolulu fort and “Royal Magazine.” An irregularly shaped heiau (here called a “Morai or Mosque”) is in the centre of the plate, with more fish ponds and a burial place. As in the previous maps, great attention is paid to detailed sounding measurements and reefs” (Forbes 527). The map also indicates the type of seafloor (coral, sand, or mud).

Although Forbes notes that Kotzebue’s map of Honolulu harbour was published later than the map from Golovnin’s account of circumnavigation on sloop Kamchatka (Golovnin, V. Puteshestviye vokrug sveta… na voennom shlupe Kamchatke v 1817, 1818 i 1819 godakh. 2 vols, SPb.: Naval typ., 1822), Kotzebue’s map was in fact drawn earlier (in December 1816, unlike Golovnin’s map, which could not have been drawn before he arrived to Oahu in October 1818). Kotzebue’s map is also much more detailed (for comparison, see the e-copy of Golovnin’s map from the Russian State Library: https://dlib.rsl.ru/viewer/01010069131#?page=581&view=list).

Kotzebue’s map of Honolulu was never reissued in such detail and quality. It was not included in the German edition of Kotzebue’s account (Kotzebue, O. v. Endeckungsreise in die Süd-See und nach Berings-Strasse: 3 vols., Weimar, 1821). The second Russian edition of Kotzebue’s circumnavigation on “Rurik” was published in 1948 and includes only the diminished copy of the map of the southern coast of Oahu Island (Kotzebue, O. Puteshestviya vokrug sveta. 2nd ed. M.: Gos. Izd. Geogr. Lit., 1948).

The Kotzebue expedition is known for important discoveries in the South Pacific (new islands in the Tuamotus and Marshall Islands archipelagos), along the coasts of Alaska (Kotzebue Sound and Eschscholtz Bay), Chukotka (St. Lawrence Bay) and in the Bering Strait, as well as for one of the earliest Russian accounts and maps of the Kingdom of Hawaii, which Rurik visited twice – in the autumns of 1816 and 1817. The official account of the circumnavigation was published in Saint Petersburg under the title “Puteshestviye v Yuzhny Okean i v Beringov Proliv… na korable Riurike pon nachalstvom flota leitenanta Kotzebue” (3 vols., typ. of N. Grech, 1821 and 1823). The text was accompanied by a beautiful elephant folio collection of 21 maps and charts, titled “Atlas k Puteshestviyu Leytenanta Kotzebue na Korablie Rurike v Yuzhnoye More i Beringov Proliv” (Atlas to the Voyage of Lieutenant Kotzebue on the ship Rurik to the Southern Sea and Bering Strait. SPb., Naval typ., ca. 1821-1823). Both the text and the atlas were published privately, at the expense of the Russian State Chancellor Nikolay Rumyantsev (1754-1826), who also sponsored the construction of “Rurik” and the whole expedition, so the print run of both publications was very small. Worldcat registers only eight paper copies of the atlas in the western libraries (Library of Congress, British Library, New York Public Library, Alaska State Library, Hawaii State Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Warsaw University, Darmstadt University).

Overall one of the earliest (earliest drawn) and exceedingly rare and important large Russian copper engraved maps of Honolulu Harbour.

Selected bibliography of Kotzebue’s atlas:

Sabin 38289, Wickersham 6195 (incorrectly described), Howes 258, Arctic Bibliography 9192, Obolyaninov 1317, Svodny Katalog Russkoy Knigi (1801-1825) 3985, Lemus (Russkiye Geograficheskiye Atlasy, XIX vek) 61.

“This was one of the most important and fruitful Russian circumnavigations of the globe. Many discoveries were made in the South Pacific, as well as in the North Pacific, along Alaska’s northern frontiers. A number of scientists – and an artist – collected and published valuable scientific data” (Lada-Mocarski 79).

Sold

Notify Me Ask a Question
See all items in Rare Books
See all items by ,