BOXING MATCH BEFORE CAPTAIN COOK AT OWHYHEE

Extremely rare photogravure print in sepia "Boxing Match before Captain Cook at Owhyhee"; the boxing match originally took place on January 28th, 1779 at Owhyhee, Sandwich Islands, present day Hawaii, and was captured in a field drawing by John Webber, draughtsman to the expedition

This drawing was never published and scholars remain puzzled that such a dramatic scene should have been omitted from the plates illustrating Cook's Third Voyage; two points of interest are worthy of note, firstly the date shows as 1770 with a hand amendment to 1779; secondly, it reads "James Webber" rather than the proper John Webber, and one speculation is that these engraving errors could not be rectified in time for their publication in June, 1784

The famous London booksellers, Francis Edwards Ltd., discovered the drawing in 1919 and offered it for sale at the time for 700 British Pounds, and published photogravure prints of it in sepia, 50 copies on India paper at 4 guineas, and 100 copies at 2 guineas; the original Webber watercolour is now located in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii; it is unknown how many images survived but this is a very important and historic piece, highly prized by serious collectors and rarely appears for sale; the rarity and importance of the Boxing Match is also demonstrated by its representation on the slip cover of the significant 1978 publication first trade edition "Captain Cook in Hawaii" by Dr. Terence Barrow, former curator at the National Museum of New Zealand (image attached, not included with this lot), responsible anthropologist for Pacific ethnographical collections at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu, and recognized author of several books and scientific papers on Polynesian subjects; the Boxing Match also features as a double page spread with the book

The presentation is stunningly framed in Koa wood and is of flawless museum quality - image size 38.1 x 67.3cm (15 x 26 1/2in); frame outside dimensions 90.2cm x 1.14m (35 1/2 x 45in); the original purchase price in 1993 was $9500 US, and Lahaina Printsellers (specialists in Pacific explorer antique maps) offered their second only ever copy in over 30 years for $18,000 US (approximately $25,000 CAD), only a few years ago