Collection Jean-Paul Morin
Sale #PF0033
Jean-Paul Morin, an avid reader, knowledgeable bibliophile and astute collector, has, over the course of several decades, compiled an important collection of books, manuscripts, drawings, engravings, and objects - all reminiscent of his many trips around the world.
This autumn, he will be offering over a hundred of his books and manuscripts at auction. The sale is a veritable circumnavigation across North and South America, the Arctic, Antarctica, and Oceania, following in the wake of navigators, explorers, privateers, missionaries, scientists, artists, and anthropologists (Catlin, Chabert, Dumont d'Urville, Freycinet, Gargot, Kerguelen, Labillardière, Laborde, Laplace, d'Orbigny, Duc d'Orléans, Péron, Parry, Scott, Thevet, etc.) who crossed the seas from the Renaissance to Modern Times to discover distant lands.
These accounts, most of them abundantly illustrated and accompanied by atlases, reveal new territories as they were discovered from one century to the next. Little by little, the map of the world was taking shape as scientific expeditions enriched the knowledge of these emerging civilizations.
Among the highlights of this collection are two important works by André Thevet, geographer to the king of France, Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique and La Cosmographie Universelle (published in 1557 and 1575 respectively), and the essential work, Grands Voyages by Théodore de Bry (published between 1590 and 1625), one of the very first iconographic accounts of America and its indigenous peoples, illustrated with over 300 engravings.
Along with printed books dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries are several manuscripts, including the fascinating account of a prison escape of a convict from the penal colony of Nou Island (New Caledonia). There are also drawings, such as an important group by Maximilien Radiguet, secretary to Admiral Dupetit-Thouars during the Reine Blanche campaign in South America and Oceania from 1841 to 1845. The drawings depict tools, utensils, weapons, and ornaments belonging to the inhabitants of the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, Gambier Island, Wallis Island, and New Zealand as well as Patagonia, Brazil, Guyana and more.
The artworks from these regions, carefully collected by Jean-Paul Morin, provide a masterful response to the globes, prints, and travelogues. The arts of North America are represented by an exceptional set of Kachina dolls that illustrate the impressive diversity and delicate poetry of these creations. The Oceanic art in the collection includes a varied selection of weapons, models of ships, prestigious artifacts, and a rare group of lime spatulas from Papua New Guinea, including a remarkable example previously from the Kerchache collection.
8:30am
EXHIBITIONS
Fri, Oct 9th 10am - 6pm
Sat, Oct 10th 10am - 6pm
Mon, Oct 12th 10am - 6pm
Tue, Oct 13th 10am - 6pm
Sotheby's Auctions - Paris
76 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
Paris, France, UK
48.8705429, 2.3177764
Sotheby's Auctions - Paris
