1842 D Urville & Le Breton Antique Print Church & Chief Tupou I Hut Vavau, Tonga

Publisher : Jules Sébastien César Dumont d Urville

Description:
This magnificent, large original antique lithograph print of the interior of the Protestant Church & Chief George Tupou I Hut both on the Tongan Island of Vavau , visited in October 1838 by Dumont D Urville in the ship The Astrolabe, was drawn by Louis Le Breton, asst. surgeon & artist/draftsman aboard the Astrolabe, during D Urvilles second voyage to the South Seas between 1837 - 1840, was engraved by Pharamond Blanchard and was published in the 1842 1st edition of Dumont d Urvilles Voyage au Pole Sud et dans l Océanie sur les corvettes l Astrolabe et la Zélée : Exécuté par ordre du roi pendant les années 1837-1838-1839-1840.
These large magnificent lithographs from the 1st edition are extremely hard to find, most only found in museums or in private hands, and due to the artistry are a must for any collection.

Louis Le Breton 1818 – 1866 was a French painter who specialised in marine paintings.
Le Breton studied medicine and took part in Dumont d Urville\'s second voyage aboard the Astrolabe. After the official illustrator of the expedition, Goupil, died, Le Breton replaced him.
From 1847 he devoted himself mainly to depicting marine subjects for the French Navy.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 21in x 15in (535mm x 380mm)
Plate size: - 21in x 15in (535mm x 380mm)
Margins: - Min 2in (50mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background: 
Vavau is the island group of one large island (Utu Vavau) and 40 smaller ones in Tonga. It is part of Vavau District which includes several other individual islands. According to tradition the Maui god fished up both Tongatapu and Vavau but put a little more effort into the former. Vavau rises 204 metres (669 ft) above sea level at Mount Talau. The capital is Neiafu, which is the fifth largest city in Tonga, situated at the Port of Refuge (Puatalefusi or Lolo-a-Halaevalu).
Don Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa, commanding Spanish frigate Princesa was the first European to come to Vavau, on 4 March 1781. He charted Vavau as Martín de Mayorga who was the Viceroy of New Spain at the time. Captain James Cook knew about the islands a decade before, but the people in Haapai told him it would be no good for him to go there as there was no harbour. Apparently they did not want him to go there, and Cook heeded their advice anyway.
But Mourelle found excellent anchoring, of which he was in desperate need after having failed on Fonualei (Bitterness island) and Late, and he gave the spot the name Port of Refuge. But his original Port of Refuge was the bay on the west coast of the main island, near Longomapu. In 1793 Alessandro Malaspina visited for a month, following up on Mourelle and claiming the islands for Spain.
Tuʻi Tonga George Tupou I instituted the Vavau Code in Vavaʻu in 1839.

$235.00