A pair of significant albums of Rio de Janeiro by Steinmann and Moreau, the later published in Rio de Janeiro and one of the earliest lithographed albums to come out of Brazilian presses, along with an original pencil sketch by Joseph Dalton Hooker.
The albums:
I. The Rio de Janeiro Pitoresco is one of the rarest and earliest albums of views published in Rio de Janeiro, so rare that it was unknown to Borba de Moraes, and few copies are known, which also makes the collation hard to establish, presumably on account of the albums being assembled to the liking of the customer. Copies range from 6 to 24 plates:
The copy at the collection Itau contains 18 plates, further, the same collection holds another copy with 10 plates;
Two copies are held at UCLA, one, the Oliveira Lima Library copy contains 8 leaves of plates, and the second copy, a more recent acquisition, only 6 plates, but adding the illustrated title page;
The copy held at NYPL is given as 24 plates, however we have not checked this, and is probably a mistake, perhaps, like here, it is found with the Steinmann, as the prints are rather similar;
The copy at the National Library of Australia contains only 6 plates, the same as the second copy acquired by the Oliveira Lima library;
University of Sao Paulo, SIBI, 12 plates;
We do not know the collation of the copies held in Brazil from the Geyer collection and now at institutions;
A copy was offered by rare book dealer Otto Lange in 1908, also containing 12 plates, and another copy in 1962 by Francis Edwards, also containing 12 plates, for 300 GBP, both accompanied with original wrappers, perhaps the same copy.
UCLA gives the following note in their record “Album of plates containing lithographs of cityscapes and popular scenes of Rio de Janeiro by Louis Buvelot and Auguste Moreau. According to the Dicionário brasileiro de artistas plásticos, the plates began to be published singly in 1842, were 18 in number and were brought together and published as an album in 1845.”
“Trata-se do primeiro álbum de gravuras impresso no Brasil e, sem dúvida, caracteriza um marco na evolução técnica em artes gráficas da firma Heaton & Rensburg.” (Pedro Correa do Lago, Brasiliana Itau, p. 308,
Correa do Lago, who calls it “O mais raro dos albums impressos no Rio de Janeiro, tanto na versão colorida quanto em preto-e-branco”.
II. Steinmann’s (1800-1844) Souvenirs de Rio de Janeiro is one of the finest albums of the city ever published, often seen in contemporary color and heightened in gum arabic, this is actually an odd example of the views uncolored, presumably what a young botanist in an expedition could afford to pay for. The album was a success, and several editions appeared (1834, 1836, and 1839), all issued without dates, leaving the booksellers to date and color to their liking. The album contains the following views: Botta-Fogo; Vista tomada de Sa. Thereza; St. Joao de Caralhy; Praya d'Ajuda; Novo Fribourgo, Colonia Suissa; Praya Vermelha; Largo do Paço; Ilha das Cobras; Plantaçaó de Café; Corminho dos Orgaós; Entrada da Barra do Rio Janiero; St. Christovao.
“All bookdealers who bought it could print their names on the cover where a space had been left blank for that purpose” (Borba de moraes).
Regarding the rarity of copies in black and white, though admittedly less attractive, Borba de Moraes, p. 839, states “The majority of the albums are coloured in very bright tones. Those that contain black and white lithographs are very rare, and I have only seen one or two copies.”
The copy:
This copy came from the family of Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), a British explorer and botanist, well known for being Charles Darwin’s close friend, and as the Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew; in 1839-1843 he joined the polar explorer Captain James Clark Ross’ Antartic expedition to the South Magnetic Pole, aboard the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, here he was granted access to the private library of Richard Clement Moody, the Governor of the Falkland Islands, on the way there they stopped briefly in Brazil, however his acquisition of these albums most have occurred on the way back to England, in 1843.
Presumably, both albums were acquired by Hooker at the same time he drew the sketch accompanying this group, and has been kept together since then in the same family.
“Hooker was Charles Darwin's greatest friend and confidant” (Richard Broke Freeman, Charles Darwin, a Companion, 1978).
Provenance: the Property of the Hooker Family, by descent; Sotheby’s, 2023.
