Audebert (Jean Baptiste)

Paris, H.J. Jansen, 1799.
illustration of the Eastern Ground Parrot, by Jean Baptiste Audebert (1759-1806), engraved by Jacques Louis Perée for the Atlas volume of ‘Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse’, by Jacques Labillardière (1715-1834), who was the naturalist aboard the 1792 expedition led by Bruni d’Entrecastaux. Although the nominal purpose was an unsuccessful mission to find the lost ships of the earlier explorer, Jean François le Galoup, comte de la Pérouse, it succeeded in making an extensive survey of parts of Australia and New Zealand. As hostilities had broken out between England and France during this time, Labillardière’s large collection of specimens was seized by the British fleet in Java on their homeward journey. However, following the successful appeal of his friend, Joseph Banks, the collection was returned to him, and he was able to publish the results in Paris, in 1799, ‘An VIII de la République’..