The volume opens with anoversized, folding map, engraved by M.M. Peabody, which Graff describes as “the earliest map of the Oregon interior with a pretense to accuracy”; includes an account of Parker'svoyage to Hawaii and Tahiti; and closes with avocabulary of Indian languages (Nez Perce, Klicatat, Calapooa, and Chenook). The plate depicts “Basaltic Formations on the Columbia River.”

•  Flake & Draper, Mormon Bibliography, 6100; Graff 3193; Hill, Collection of Pacific Voyages, 1306; Howes P89; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2907; Sabin 58729; Wagner-Camp, Plains & Rockies, 70:3.   Publisher's charcoal-colored ribbed cloth, covers with blind-stamped arabesque frame, spine with gilt-stamped title; cloth chipped at spine extremities and front joint, corners rubbed. Mild to moderate foxing. Map with faint spotting, a pinpoint hole at one corner, and one very short tear from inner edge; foxing and soiling, never dark/nasty but present throughout. A comfortably solid copy.  (29273)

The Journal was first published in London in 1826 and shortly followed by this first American edition. It includes a fold-out map showing Parry's route, in this case bound in upside down!

Provenance:  Signature of “B. Rush McConnell, 1827.”

•  Shoemaker 25670; Sabin 58867. On Parry, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XLIII, 392–93.   Quarter cloth over paper with paper spine label, antique style. Map a bit tattered on the edges, affecting ruled border, and with closed tears repaired from rear; paper overall a bit brittle at gutter, and first leaves wanting to separate from binding. Lightly cockled with bumped corners; foxing and old damp-staining. A leaf of advertisements has been bound in at front. Ownership inscription on title-page.  (4580)

This first American printing followed a London edition of the same year and was part of Putnam's "Library for the People."

•  Textured red cloth, covers stamped in blind with an attractive branch and leaf pattern, spine gilt-stamped; spine faded. Sewing starting to loosen. Lacking map. Front free endpaper with inscription “Rachel Wiston / 1887 / Aunt Sarah Hunt.” Scattered spots of foxing, mostly to first and last few pages.

The views begin along the Caribbean coast, move inland to Mexico City, then north, and then back to the Gulf Coast. Scenes include Campeche, Jalapa, Orizaba, Perote, Puebla, Popocatepetl, the Valley of Mexico, the Cathedral of Mexico, Veracruz, Zacatecas, a battle scene of Chapultec Castle, el Paseo, and several others.

Provenance:  Bookplate (early 20th-century) of Almeric Hugh Paget, 1st and sole Baron Queenborough (1861–1949). Among his many and remarkably various interests, in all senses of that word, Lord Queenborough in a Mexican connection was president of the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacifico (Chihuahua and Pacific Railroad).

•  Palau 224780; Sabin 62498; Abbey, Travel, II, 671; Mayer, México ilustrado, 13–21.   The portfolio is intact and strong in good++ condition, with the plates expertly conserved and rehinged so that the volume now safely opens perfectly flat for better appreciation of the contents. Binding with some rubbing to expectable places, and spine with small rectangular area of rubbing/discoloration one inch from the bottom, possibly from an old label; corners bumped with some loss of cloth and cloth generally with light soil, a scattering of small spots, and (to back cover) a patch of old waterstaining not reaching inward. Queenborough bookplate as described to front pastedown; old abrasions and adhesions to rear endpapers. Lithographic title-page and margins of some other plates with small marginal tears at edges, nicely repaired; printed title-page with blank portion at bottom right corner (6" by 9") excised and replaced long ago; one leaf of letterpress description with similar (blank) portion excised and replaced. Text leaves and plates with only the very occasional spot of foxing or “other”; in fact a copy that isnotably appealing, and suitable both for study and for exhibition.  (27591)

François Raymond Joseph de Pons (1751–1812) was archivist for the French Navy. This work also appeared in English, German, and Spanish editions; this is its first edition, and the sole French edition.

Provenance: Engraved armorial bookplates of Thomas Munro on front pastedowns. Unattributed note in pencil in top margin of half-title of vol. I (repeated in substance in the other volumes): “This was Talleyrand’s copy.”

The first edition (1811–21) was printed by several different hands, all in Wales, and one was a woman printer: Vol. I was done by George North of Brecknock, vol. II by Henry Hughes of Brecon, and vols. III and IV by Priscilla Hughes, also of Brecon and presumably heir to Henry. This appears to be a new issue, or, at least, the same issue with new title-pages; the preface to the first volume is dated 1811, and a note to the binder at the end of vol. III, part 2, reads, “The amended title pages to be substituted for those at present annexed to this volume” (p. 998). Vol. I has a hand-colored oversized, very large folding map..

The editor's advertisement, type-signed by Sophia Raffles (Sir Thomas's second wife), notes that the plates from the first edition and some additional plates were published in “a separate quarto volume, detached entirely from the present work” (p. xi). This did not actually appear until 1844 and so is not present here.

•  Brunet, IV, 1088; Graesse, VI, 17; Lowndes 2037. On Raffles, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary calf, covers framed in blind triple fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and with gilt-stamped and blind-tooled compartment decorations; board edges with blind roll. Binding rubbed at joints/edges and with small scuffs, portions of boards variously stained/sunned; still quite attractive. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and inked call number on each front pastedown, title-pages pressure- and lightly rubber-stamped; no other markings. Fore-edge of vol. I shows signs of old water exposure, without actual waterstaining to pages themselves save in a few cases where upper or outer margins are touched; pages clean. A pleasant old pair of books.  (26379)

The work was also published in the same year under the title The Romance of American Landscape, and bears that running title here. This copy has an intriguing early pencilled inscription: “The 1st book my Father gave me came out of his book store - C.L.”

Binding:  Publisher's brown sheep in imitation of morocco, covers with embossed grapevine and latticework border stamped in black and with decorative gilt-stamped title (“LANDSCAPE ANNUAL”); spine with same gilt-stamped title and gilt- and black-stamped decorations. All edges gilt.

•  Sabin 70958; Wright, II, 2030. Not in BAL.   Binding as above, light wear to edges and extremities. Hinges (inside) starting. Front fly-leaf with inscription as above; additional engraved title-page with vignette of Mt. Vernon, lacking. Intermittent light to moderate foxing, mostly to margins of plates. Lovely book, lovely copy.  (26679)

Binding:  Publisher's scarlet morocco, covers framed in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons surrounding a central gilt-stamped wreath, spine with gilt-stamped title within decorative wreath/cartouche. All edges gilt.

The Fore-edge Paintings: This presents a double fore-edge painting, one view of Dieppe and one of Le Havre, each maritime scene captioned within the image by the artist. The Havre portscape is rendered in particularly pleasing sunset colors.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of collector John Train, and with small ticket of binder F. Westley.

•  NSTC 2S36004.   Binding as above, spine slightly darkened, light mottling to sides, joints skillfully repaired, minor leather losses refurbished with toned long-fiber tissue and (reversible) polyvinyl adhesive. In later plain terra-cotta cloth slipcase, case showing light shelf wear. Some plates with foxing offset onto tissue guards and added engraved title-page showing offsetting from frontispiece; pages clean. Evocative both textually and visually.  (30211)

•  American Imprints 52683; Sabin 71961. This edition not in Palau. Publisher's pebbled brown cloth bindings: black tape at top of one spine and onto the covers. Bindings show modest wear, publisher's paper spine labels slightly chipped; text blocks slightly skewed in bindings and light waterstaining in lower inner margins of vol. I. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. (28891)

Binding:  Publisher's dark red ribbon-embossed cloth of an abstract pattern on a textured (pebbled) background not found in Krupp's Bookcloth in England and America, 1823–50.

•  American Imprints 58260; Sabin 71962. This edition not in Palau.   Bindings as above: black tape at top of spines and onto the covers. Bindings show modest wear; publisher's paper spine labels slightly chipped and text blocks slightly skewed in bindings. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings.  (28890)

A very handsomely printed book in Arabic and Latin.

•  Lambrecht 1129. 19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper, boards and spine abraded; paper spine-label with hand-lettering. Institutional bookplate on front pastedown. Four-digit number in ink at base of first p. V. Housed in a modern quarter brown morocco tray case with raised bands on spine, each accented above and below with gilt beading (our last image shows the volume lying in its box). One spine compartment with title, another with publication place and dates, all others with gilt center device. A very acceptable copy of a scarce and important work for Arabic studies.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

We find only two U.S. locations and a copy at the British Library.

•  Publisher’s printed paper wrappers; edges nicked, paper split and chipping along spine, text block cracked. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate. Lower margins of title-page and preface waterstained, inner margin of frontispiece waterstained; upper margin of title-page with portion torn away. Some plates lightly foxed or browned, one with waterstaining in lower margin. Pages untrimmed. One’s sense is that this was USED as a guidebook!

This is an untrimmed copy in original boards, with 24 pages of advertising for Carey publications bound in at the front of the volume. The preliminary map, engraved by John Bower, has hand-colored border lines; this American edition does not call for the plates found in the English first, but does include in-text depictions of several “Ethiopic inscriptions.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 33864; NSTC 2S3118. Publisher’s quarter tan paper over light blue paper–covered sides; front cover detached and back joint cracked, binding spotted, paper cracked and split along spine, spine label now absent and replaced with hand-inked title, spine with later paper shelving label. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1829. Half-title with portion of outer margin torn away (not touching text) and laid in. Map lightly foxed, with two short tears along folds. Pages age-toned, with occasional spots of foxing.

Provenance:  Ownership stamp of John Carter Brown on title-page; later in the John Carter Brown Library (bookplate); note at end “Collated with G.G. Church copy. July 31, 1912. dup.” Deaccessioned 2008.

Evidence of readership: Scattered marginalia in French through p. 50, almost invariably giving the French for obscure words and phrases in Spanish in the text. Perhaps owned by someone living in the Haitian area of the island?

•  Palau 296409; Medina, BHA, 5154; Sabin 76309.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards, vellum split at fore-edge of front one exposing the substrate; vellum cockled and old, faint inked writing on it. Front hinge (inside) open; without the map; stamp as noted above. A good copy.  (28324)

Provenance:  Private bookplate on pastedowns and ownership stamp of John Carter Brown on first leaf of preliminaries and elsewhere. On his death to his son John Nicholas Brown (1861–1900). On his death deeded to the John Carter Brown Library. Deaccessioned 2008.

•  Howes S200; Library Company, Afro-Americana, 9182; Sabin 77989.   19th-century half brown morocco and marbled paper–covered boards, spines with gilt-stamped titles and bands; moderately rubbed. Front pastedowns each with private bookplate of John Carter Brown as above, subsequently rubber-stamped by the library bearing his name (properly deaccessioned), title-pages each with faded early inked inscription (dated 1752 and 1753), sectional title-page of vol. I and first text page of vol. II each with Brown's red signature rubber-stamp. Lacking four maps and 58 plates. Scattered faint foxing and spotting, vol. II with lower portions of front endpapers and first few leaves waterstained, pages overall generally clean. Priced to reflect plate absences — but this is a worthwhile text, complete, solidly bound, and with an interesting association.  (29149)

The work is illustrated with a frontispiece portrait, a folding map of the coast of Greenland and part of the Arctic Circle, and five plates in color (notably “ice blue”) of snow flakes, ice floes, an atmospheric phenomenon, and two views of different parts of the Greenland coast.

•  Sabin 35452 & 78184.   Publisher's purple textured cloth, boards blind embossed and front one with a gilt center device; spine sunned; lettered in gilt. Top of spine with small loss of cloth and an excellent repair; one plate with a separated sliver of tissue-guard adhered to it. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, very light rubber- and pressure-stamp on title-page, pressure-stamp on another page, light rubber stamp on map, no other markings. A good++ copy.  (26822)

This is numbered copy 146 of 425 printed, signed at the colophon by the author and additionally inscribed by him to “Professor Harry” on the half-title.

•  Publisher's half tan cloth and orange paper–covered sides, front cover with design printed in black, spine with printed paper label; lacking the slipcase, binding with old smudges and areas of discoloration, front cover with small scrape, back outer edge with small dent. Minor offsetting from illustrations, pages otherwise clean.  (28213)

All images were drawn and etched by the author himself.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked inscription of Fairman R. Furness, of the prominent Furness-Bullitt family. Title-page with earlier signature of “A.G. Findlay.”

•  Hill, Collection of Pacific Voyages, 1563; Howgego, Encyclopedia of Exploration, II, S42; Sabin 80483; NSTC 2S19683.   Contemporary half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding rubbed and abraded overall, spine head and label chipped. Front pastedown with small booklplate bearing no name; ownership inscriptions as above. Lower outer corner of title-page torn away; list of Briton officers with small tear repaired some time ago, tissue now lifting from repair. Pages and plates browned at edges with moderate spotting, staining, and dust-soiling; four pages with ink blurred from press. A fascinating book, an interesting copy.  (28374)

An appendix of examples of Hottentot and Caffre language is also supplied.

The engraved plates include illustrations of a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, dwarf mice, and Hottentot weaponry, as well as an oversized folding landscape and a map of the territory covered by the author.

•  ESTC T131019. Recently rebound in quarter calf over marbled paper sides, spines with gilt-stamped title labels. Title-page and two others of vol. I stamped by a now-defunct institution; one page with outer margin reinforced. Small hole to map. Title-page of vol. II with topmost left portion of title repaired and replaced in facsimile; title-page and five others stamped. Pagination skips in vol. II from 136 to 139. A few minor spots of foxing to plates; one plate with short edge tear carefully repaired.

Binding:  Publisher's ribbon-embossed green floral-patterned cloth of Krupp's style Ft6.

•  American Imprints 53109; Palau 322394; Sabin 91388. Not in Smith, American Travellers Abroad. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50.   Publisher's green floral-patterned cloth, spine with printed paper label; corners and spine foot rubbed, spine head pulled, paper label darkened with edges chipped. Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription; occasional pencilled annotations and marks of emphasis. Light to moderate foxing.  (25425)

Click the images for enlargements.

A pencilled annotation in one margin of this copy reads “The author is not aware that the people in the Southern States are not called Yankees”; one particularly anti-American remark later in the volume has been lined through in pencil.

•  Sabin 27570; Howes S1115.   Publisher's speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; covers sunned unevenly, edge/extremities rubbed, head of spine showing traces of now-absent label. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, front free endpaper lacking, pressure-stamp on title-page. Title-page with supposed author's name inked in upper margin. Waterstaining to lower outer corners of first few leaves; scattered spots of foxing and staining; one signature much browned, showing the different effects of time and “life” on different papers.  (26376)

The six pages of advertisements offer multiplereviews of the Harper works listed, not just publication information!

Provenance: Front free endpaper with ex libris inscription initialed “GRW”: William [Guillelmus] R. Whittingham, Bishop of Baltimore.

•  Shoemaker 40623; NSTC 2E8969. Publisher’s quarter cloth and paper-covered sides, spine with printed paper label; binding faded and worn, spine label chipped and darkened. Front pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp, no other markings; pages untrimmed, and foxed throughout.

Many sources, including OCLC, attribute this work to de Jouy himself, but the Monthly Review of May, 1825 admits that the “similarity of title, of decorum, of form, and of manner,” as well as the title-page’s claim that this is a continuation of de Jouy’s work, all misled their reviewer and a number of others into that incorrect and much-perpetuated citation. The travelogue has more recently been attributed to Louet de Chaumont, among others, while Barbier and Quérard suggest that it may have been compiled by de Villemarest from de Chaumont’s notes and manuscripts.

•  NSTC 2H18614. Publisher’s plain paper-covered boards, sometime rebacked with speckled paper and old printed paper labels laid on, the set now in a recent case with sides covered in blue cloth and speckled paper; extremities rubbed, covers with spots of discoloration, retained spine labels chipped and darkened. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate (no other markings). Hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago. Vol. II with one signature separated. Pages untrimmed and clean save for scattered small spots of foxing. A strong, agreeable set.

Click the image for an enlargement.

After a brief respite back in the U.S., where he was welcomed as a hero, Walker, the quintessential filibusterer, returned to Central America wanting to capture Honduras. He died there trying.

The map (14" x 16") is in four colors and is titled “Colton's Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador & Costa Rica.

•  Publisher's brick colored textured cloth stamped in blind. Top and bottom of spine pulled and frayed. Some foxing at front and rear. Newspaper articles at front and rear of volume. Some added owner's notes about Walker on blanks. Clean.  (21372)

After staying in Cadiz for several months (a sojourn left undetailed here, with a teasingly blank gap of three pages), Walton departed for London aboard the Cross Isle, under Capt. Robert Leake. That passage was more dramatic than the first, involving sightings of Spanish and French ships of war and a collision between the brigantine Betsy of Hull and the Crescent.

Many entries in this journal are dedicated to the weather (including the types and directions of wind encountered) and to record of Walton's dining companions at various points along the way (“Capt. Silvester, onboard the General Washington,” among others). Others mention the commemoration of the birthday of “the late unfortunate Queen of France . . . celebrated with all the Splendor of Cadiz,” the cargo rescued from the unfortunate Betsy (“very valuable, being of Silks & choice Goods of Leghorn”), and a stop at Cork.

Walton's serviceable script is generally decipherable throughout. The paper bears a Britannia watermark, sans motto or initials, resembling but not identical to Britannia examples in Churchill's Watermarks in Paper.

•  Sewn, with pencilled annotation on front wrapper; front wrapper tattered and with an ink-spill along outer edge of front wrapper and on first text page partially obscuring a few words of text. Folded, with short tears starting along some folds; light waterstaining to upper outer corners and on a couple of leaves elsewhere; lower corners bumped. An evocative “read”!  (25689)

•  Garrison A28.I.a. Publisher’s green cloth, front cover stamped with a French country in white, red, and gold, spine with gilt-stamped title; original box lacking, cloth a bit rubbed over corners and spine extremities, with spine title dimmed. Front free endpaper with inked owner’s inscription dated 1919. Faint waterstaining to outer margins of pp. 21–35.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 39807; Smith, Americans Abroad, W66. Contemporary paper-covered boards, spines with printed paper labels; darkened and worn, vol. I with covers detached and paper cracked over spine, vol. II with front joint open though presently holding Front pastedowns with bookplates of the Salem Library Company; vol. I with early inked inscriptions to endpapers and half-title. Light to moderate foxing, no other stains.

Fifth edition of the Voyage from London and second edition of the Continuation.

•  Voyage from London: Sabin 103534; Alden & Landis 739/343; ESTC T29204. Continuation: Sabin 103535 & 103538; Alden & Landis 739/340; ESTC T34033 & T34025.   Recent full calf antique-style with gilt concentric panels on covers and gilt corner-devices on same; round spine with raised bands, each accented by gilt rules. 19th-century wood-engraved portrait of Whitefield added as a frontispiece. A very pleasing volume.  (21775)

Click the images for enlargements.

Whitworth was perhaps the most effective English ambassador to Russia in the first half of the 18th century. His Account was originally written for the foreign office and remained in manuscript till Walpole printed it. The DNB (on-line) writes of it, “Succinct and perceptive, it was a survey of Petrine Russia which held its readership through to the century's end and beyond.”

Horace Walpole (1717–97), the 4th earl of Orford, is best remembered as the author of the Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto. Among bibliophiles he is also remembered for his private press, variously known as the Officina Arbutana or the Strawberry Hill Press. Walpole's almost fantastic wealth allowed him the connoisseur's luxury of maintaining this noble enterprise, which he operated in the arena of the rebirth of fine printing in Great Britain that was being carried on by the Foulis brothers, Baskerville, and others.

Provenance:  20th-century bookplate of William & Helena Hand.

•  Hazen (1973 ed.), Bibliography of the Strawberry Hill Press, 5; ESTC T138827; Rothschild 2560; Cox, I, 195.   Contemporary sprinkled calf, gilt spine extra, gilt dull; joints and hinges with good repairs. Two old booksellers' descriptions taped to front pastedown. Off-setting from the turn-ins on the front and rear free endpapers and fly-leaves, title-page, and errata leaf; else, quite clean. A handsome book.  (26862)

Willis himself was the founder of the magazine that became the Home Journal, and was celebrated in his day for his essays and travel writings as well as several collections of his journalistic work. The Cambridge History of American Literature calls him the “prince of magazinists,” and remarks on “the evanescent sparkle and glancing brilliance” of A L'abri, later known as Letters from under a Bridge. These charming, witty essays touch on Willis's Yale education (and its lack of practical application!); fishing; a dinner with Lady Blessington, Benjamin Disraeli, Count D'Orsay, and Lord Durham; the possibility of local railroad construction to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie; the relationship of American to British literature, etc. Whatever the ostensible topics of the individual letters, each touches in affectionate and amusing fashion on some aspect of life in the Susquehanna region.

A publishing practice, demonstrated: Bound in at the back of this volume are yellow printed paper wrappers for John Smith's Letters, and the title-page and preface for Fireside Education — both items published by Colman in the same year as the present work.

•  BAL 22752 (spine label in first state, cloth described as “Brown S cloth “); American Imprints 59260; Fearing, Check List of Books on Angling, Fishing, Fisheries, Fish-Culture, etc., 135; Sabin 104504. On Willis, see: Cambridge History of American Literature online.   Publisher's brown cloth embossed with floret and dash pattern, spine with printed paper label; corners rubbed, and spine cloth chipped with paper label chipped and darkened. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Foxing throughout; occasional pencilled marginalia and marks of emphasis.  (25806)

•  NSTC 2W33589. Recent plain paper-covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Frontispiece, title-page, and several other pages stamped by a now-defunct institution. Lacking all but one plate (the frontispiece). Page edges untrimmed.

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Appended to Xerez's account (fols. [43v] to [55r]) is a translation of Miguel de Estete's account of Pizarro's army's journey from Cajamarca to Pachacamac and then to Jauja. Estete too was present at Cajamarca and is said to have been the first Spaniard to lay hands on Atahuallpa.