Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Cook's Voyages

Some time ago I had the good fortune to meet a man through my Mac computer recycling efforts.  He, like me, was in the W.A. Education system and we have since found that we both know quite a few of the characters of the local teaching profession.   At the time of our first meeting, he mentioned that one of his hobbies was bookbinding and I immediately pressed him for advice about our copy of a 1790 publication of Cook’s voyages which was in bad repair and falling to pieces.  Yesterday I collected the rebound book and it is a great restoration of this valuable record of Cook’s voyages in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.  Thank you Merv; great job!
Of course 1790 was quite some time before photography and photolithography and so the illustrations are ‘woodcuts’.

A friend who lives in Sydney,  Albert, suggests that woodcuts are not of a print standard of those in the book.  He has a graphics background and thinks they are more likely 'steel cuts'.  They could also be copper plate etchings.










A full group shot of the attendees at the Papua New Guinea ex-Pats gathering a few days ago. This is one photo of me that I am happy to own up to.  Rear 2nd from left next to the giant.


1 comment:

Richard said...

KEVIN --- as someone from a family of large-ish size (my maternal Grandpa was 6 ft 1 way back in 1901, so a ruckman in central Victorian footy) --- I'm often amused by observations by the tiddlers.
How big is that bloke next to you?? I'm 6 ft. 3 but a long way short of our English son-in-law. He's 6 ft. 10 ins and when 19 tried out for the Carolina side in Americas's Nat. Basketball Assoc.