| | Thumbnail | | Creator | Date | Title / Author / Date / Location | Price | | | Description |
| 1150 |  | Details | Narbrough, John | 1694 |
| Early 17th century engraved whaling scene |
|
Narbrough, John |
|
| 1694 |
| LOC:1 |
| $300.00 | Narbrough--John | Early-17th-century-engraved-whaling-scene | Early foldout engraved bookplate (1697) depicting a whaling scene to illustrate Friedrich Martens' observations on northern whaling. Attractive antique print shows multiple whaling ships and ships boats engaged in harpooning, fighting, and flensing whales. A fine gift.
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The view lends insight into the methods used to hunt whales in the early 17th century in the whaling grounds of the far northern latitudes like Greenland and the island of Spitsbergen, Norway. For example the ship at far right is shown tied off to an iceberg, a practice noted by Narbrough in the text. <div class="indenttextblock"> "When they sail some Miles into the Ice, where there is pretty large Ice-fields, they joyn their Ships to them with great Ice-hooks, fastned to strong Cables, where they lie at Anchor, several Ships about the same Ice-field, but they rather chose to be alone, because they are an hindrance to one another in Whale catching, and the hunting of them from one to another maketh them shie. (Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/Ancillary/BeagleLibrary/1694_Narborough_A813.html")</div>
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Originally published in 1694 to accompany "The First Part of the Voyage into Spitsbergen and Greenland.", this record of recent voyages made by Sir John Narborough, Abel Tasman, John Wood and Friderich Martens. Narborough's journal records his voyage to the Straits of Magellan and his interest in the lands and peoples he encountered from 1669 to 1671.
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This fine antique print illuminates Friedrich Martens' (1635 - 1699) observations on Spitsbergen and whaling in northern waters in 1671. |