An Interview with Frederik Delas
Oslo auction house Sagen & Delås will be selling the Polar Library of Otto Norland on the 2nd April 2022. We have spoken to Fredrik Delås to find out more about the man behind the collection and some of the highlights.
Otto Realf Norland was born in 1930 in Oslo. He studied in Bergen and started working for Hambros Bank in London in 1953 as a trainee, but managed to work his way up the ranks rapidly and ended up being the Managing Director and Partner. In 2021 his book The Magic of Merchant Banking – My Years in the City of London was published in Oslo. In 1982 Norland was made a fellow of The Royal Geographic Society by Lord Shackleton. In 1992 at age 62 he was himself given the opportunity to attend an Expedition to the North Pole. At 92 he is the oldest among the 33 members of the Norwegian Bibliophile Club, which celebrated its 100th anniversary on the 15th March.
The Polar Library of Otto R. Norland consists of c. 3000 objects, including books, polar postage stamps & letters, manuscripts and letters by Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and others. His material has been acquired from many corners of the world and we are sure that many booksellers have admired him for his deep knowledge, strong passion and a strategy on how to create an important collection. Through the sale he wants to share his passion for Polar explorations by creating a special opportunity for collectors and institutions to acquire rare, important and exciting Polar books and manuscripts.
Norland’s profound passion for Polar exploration, both in the Antarctic and the Arctic, started at the age of eight when he got a nice copy of Fridtjof Nansen’s Farthest North from his grandmother. For a period Otto’s father Realph Norland had worked for Nansen and shortly before the Polar hero died in 1930, Otto had been sitting on Nansen’s knee during a visit to their home.
Otto Norland is one of the few people still alive who can say that he met Nansen - please tell us a bit about the highlights of Nansen related items.
Firstly, if it wasn’t for Nansen, there would probably not be an Otto Norland Polar Library. The fact that he met Nansen and reading the book ”Fram over Polhavet” (Farthest North) by his grandmother triggered his interest to find more information on polar exploration. The rest is history.
What is special about the Nansen-part of the material, is that Norland has collected all translations of Nansen’s work that he has come across. Nansen represents a large part of the library, ranging from articles, books of him and about him, together with a nice collection of manuscript material.
Among the highlights is the deluxe set of ”Fram over Polhavet” from 1897 in a beautiful clamshell box, which was inscribed by Nansen to the great Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (1832-1901), who inspired Nansen to cross Greenland on skis. This is one of the 200 copies, which were produced as a luxury edition of this book. Many of these were presented to friends and contacts of Nansen. This title is one of two Norwegian contributions to Printing and the Mind of Man (PMM). [and close to The Book Collector's heart as Ian Fleming contributed part of his collection to the exhibition in Earls Court]
Of course Nansen's Expedition diary May 20. 1888 – August 14. 1888 is another highlight. From his first expedition, crossing the Greenland ice from east to west in 1888. This first actual expedition of Fridtjof Nansen became very important in many ways. He gained extensive experience in Arctic conditions, not least by spending the winter among the Inuit people. Nansen wrote several diaries on the expedition. He has in principle divided the diaries according to stages of the journey. This diary runs from the end of May to the middle of August 1888, the period from the stay in Dynafjord in Iceland to the landing on the east coast of Greenland. The diary begins at the entrance to Isafjord in Iceland. Several beautiful sketches and descriptions can be found from the geological reconnaissance trip in Dynafjord. The crossing of the ice mass off the east coast of Greenland is perhaps the largest achievement on this expedition.
It is also interesting to look at the connection with the Norwegian business man Jonas Lied, who in 1913 invited Nansen to take part in an expedition to the mouth of the Yenisei. Nansen writes about this trip in ”Through Siberia”, 1914. Quite a few objects are related to Nansen/Lied, of which lot 142 stands out, being Lieds diaries from this trip, but there is also a fascinating photo album.
His collection covers all the important polar explorers, which lots are particularly rare?
We can't avoid mentioning The South Polar Times (lot 253) or The Heart of the Antarctic (lot 252), but most people have of course heard about these. The thing is, though, that the condition is exceptional for both titles. The South Polar Times having the original prospect included is a rare thing. The Heart of the Antarctic has a very nice provenance, having belonged to and bearing the book plate of Sir Philip Lee Brocklehurst, member of the Nimrod Expedition. The Antarctic Book. Winter quarters 1907-1909, one of 300 copies but signed by all 16 members of the shore party of Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition.
If I were to pick out some more not so well known, but still quite rare titles, I would mention lot 238, James Clark Ross's An Explanation of Captain Sabine’s remarks on the last Voyage of Discovery to Baffin’s Bay. (John Murray, 1819).
One of my personal picks would be lot 247, Griffith Taylor’s With Scott: The silver lining, in the publisher’s jacket.
Letters by Scott are rare, but to read the letter of his mother to the mother of Apsley Cherry-Garrard gives me goose bumps (lot 344).
Norland had a wide approach to collecting - what stands out at both ends?
This is quite characteristic for the collection, showing the deep interest of the polar regions and the exploration of these. The highlights played as prominent a part in the library as the cheaper publications. So we can draw the line from Munk/Shackleton on one end to the general polar, antarctic and arctic lots 228-229, 301-308.
It must have been very exciting to spend some time with such a prolific collector- do you know which one was his favourite item in the collection? Did he share any stories about how he discovered some of the pieces?
Norlands favourite is not a big surprise: The Nansen-diary. It speaks for itself.
BUT: He recently told me how he got hold of the Brocklehurst-copy of The Heart of the Antarctic. In 1953 Mr. Norland started working for Hambros Bank in London, where he was the managing director from 1970. One day in the mid 1970s, a representative from Sotherans rang him in his office. They had been contacted by the widow of Sir Philip Lee Brocklehurst, who had been the last living member of the Nimrod Expedition. Sotherans were asked to find a proper client for the set, without letting it out on the open market. Norland left his office, took a taxi down to Sotherans and bought the set.
ANOTHER STORY: Norland has told me that he acquired some of the more important manuscript material from Winifred Alice Myers (1909-1985). He contacted her after hearing rumours about her work. She contacted Norland frequently when having objects she thought would interest him. He tells me that entering her office was like entering an office back in the days of the great explorers, seeing her silhouette in the room through a fog of cigar smoke. Messy desks with bundles and rolls of papers, behind which sat a very nice woman.
Tell us a bit more about the top lot and oldest item in the collection, the Jens Munk book from 1624, describing the first Scandinavian attempt to find the North-West passage.
Norland has always been interested in the Exploration of the Northwest Passage in particular, and this book is iconic in this context.
This specific copy has an exceptional provenance seen with the eyes of Norwegian Bibliophiles. It is from the collections of two of Norway’s most prominent book collectors: Jonas Skougaard [1896-1968] and Per Meyer [1918-2000], both members of Bibliofilklubben (the Norwegian Club for Bibliophiles). The high end part of Skougaards collection was auctioned off over 4 full day auctions in 1969-1971, including also international highlights such as a large collection of Charles Dickens A.L.S.s, a pristine set of David Copperfield in parts etc. Prior to this auction a very small, but carefully selected, set of books were sold directly to Per Meyer. Among these books was this copy of Munk’s Navigatio Septentrionalis.
This is the dramatic account of the first Scandinavian attempt to find the North-West Passage. Jens Munk was born in Southern Norway in 1579. He left Norway and travelled to Brasil before returning to Copenhagen with the idea for this voyage. Both the king and the court were fully aware of what a shorter route north of America to China and India would mean for the trade, and were enthusiastic about Munk’s plans. There was prestige in this project and no doubt there was also some envy in looking at the recent English attempts in the region. Not least regarding Hudson’s attempt, whose map of 1612 Munk probably used. His voyage was fatal though - the two ships, with 65 persons, left Copenhagen in 1619, but in Hudson Bay 62 members of the crew died and only Munk and two of his men survived. These three men made an astonishing deed in sailing the small vessel ”Laprenen” back to Norway where it arrived on September 25th, 1620.
Is there a story behind, what I assume must be one of the newest additions to the collection - the Wally Herbert photographs?
Norland met Wally Herbert the first time in the Royal Geographic Society, where Norland was made a fellow by Lord Shackleton in 1982. Herbert was then in his wheelchair, and Norland remembers they had a long talk on polar exploration. Norland also met Wally Herbert’s daughter Kari. He cannot remember exactly how he got hold of the Wally Herbert photographs, but it must have been due to his contact with the Herberts.