NEW ZEALAND

Antique Views and Prints of New Zealand

This category brings together original antique engravings, lithographs and illustrations depicting New Zealand, produced from the late 18th century through the 19th century. These works represent the visual record of European encounter with, and settlement of, the islands of Aotearoa — a record produced by artists accompanying voyages of exploration, by illustrators working from field sketches and by the publishers who translated this material into prints for audiences in Britain, Europe and the colonies themselves.

The earliest antique views of New Zealand derive from the voyages of James Cook and his contemporaries, whose artists — among them Sydney Parkinson and William Hodges — produced drawings that were subsequently engraved and published in the official accounts of the expeditions. These images represent the first systematic visual documentation of New Zealand’s landscape, its Maori inhabitants and the natural world of the southern Pacific, and they retain exceptional historical significance as records of a world encountered for the first time by European observers.

The 19th century produced a substantial body of antique New Zealand views as colonisation extended and the demand for illustrated information about the new colony grew. Artists including Charles Heaphy, William Fox and others documented the landscape, settlements and Maori culture of both the North and South Islands, their work appearing in illustrated periodicals, geographical publications and the accounts of official surveys. Views of the Bay of Islands, Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and the dramatic scenery of the South Island appear alongside images of Maori villages, pa and daily life.

Antique prints of New Zealand are highly sought by collectors in New Zealand, Australia and beyond for their historical importance, their documentary value as records of a formative period, and the rarity that characterises works produced in limited numbers for a specialist market. As original period works on paper, they offer an irreplaceable visual connection to New Zealand’s colonial and pre-colonial history.