44. ENTRECASTEAUX (Joseph-Antoine de Bruni, chevalier... Lot 44

44. ENTRECASTEAUX (Joseph-Antoine de Bruni, chevalier d'). Voyage de Dentrecasteaux, envoyé à la recherche de La Pérouse, publié par ordre de Sa Majesté l'Empereur et Roi, sous le ministère de H. E. le vice-amiral Decrès, comte de l'Empire. Paris, Imprimerie impériale, 1808. 2 strong volumes in-4, lvi, 704 p., 33 pl. ; viii, 692 p., half black cloth, smooth spine and gilt title on the back. First edition illustrated with 33 folded plates. Copy partly on blue paper, complete with its illustration but without its map atlas. Antoine Reymond Joseph de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux (1737-1793) left in 1791 on the orders of Louis XVI in search of the expedition of Jean-François de La Pérouse, exploring in turn the shores of New Zealand, New Caledonia, the Tonga Islands and the Australian coast. The account of the expedition was finally published under the Empire and dedicated to Napoleon, by the astronomer and rear-admiral Élisabeth-Paul-Édouard de Rossel (1765-1829), one of the few survivors of the expedition. Modest and slightly rubbed binding, angular wetness on the first 12 plates, some foxing, especially on the plates, other minor defects. (Ferguson, 461; Sabin, 22671 who announces too many plates; Chadenat, 5056).