" ... Museum guide to works from the famous Schloss Ambras collection in Vienna, with the important appendix on items collected in the South Seas. The 'Ambrasian collection' was an important Imperial Austrian collection, begun by Archduke Ferdinand II, Count of Tyrol, in the sixteenth century. Major sections of the collection were brought to Vienna in 1806 by the curator Alois Primisser, author of the present work, which takes the form of a guide for visitors to the collection. Primisser here contributes a short introduction, followed by a room by room description of the collections on show. A lengthy appendix, 'Üeber die ethnographischen Sammlungen von Kleidern und Geräthschaften meist aus den Südsee-Inseln und aus Grönland' provides, as the title confirms, a descriptive catalogue of the ethnographic collections gathered in the South Sea islands and Greenland

"The collections were evidently relatively recent acquisitions for the collection (they do not appear to be mentioned in Primisser's longer catalogue of the collection, printed in 1819). The items were gathered by one Professor Giesecke, undoubtably Charles Lewis Giesecke, the German-born mineralogist who spent many years in Greenland, and is known to have given large collection to museums in England, Ireland, and Europe

"The South Seas items are noted as having been originally collected by Captain Cook and other voyagers. Primisser discusses the fate of the Leverian collection in particular, noting its sale in 1806, and the acquisition of any number of items by Leopold von Fichtel. Primisser then lists no fewer than 207 items from the South Seas being displayed, with notes on where each was gathered. The bulk are from Tahiti, New Zealand and Hawaii, but there are several from locations including Nootka Sound, the northwest coast of America, New Caledonia, and Unalaska, amongst others ..."--Bookseller's catalogue (for the supplier of the copy owned by the State Library of New South Wales)

Asher Rare Books & Antiquariaat Forum;

SCNHRB copy 39088017896499 has bookplate: Smithsonian Libraries. Purchased from the Cullman Endowment

SCNHRB copy has stamp on title page: Bibl. Coll. Kalksburg S.I

SCNHRB copy is unbound, except for a narrow strip of old blue paper mounted on the spine. Housed in an archival envelope for preservation

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews