60 Great Books - 59 - Bauman Rare Books “The Finest Series Of Arctic Views Then Published”: First Edition Of Ross’ Voyage To Baffin Bay, 1819, With 15 Beautiful Hand-Colored Aquatint Plates 57. ROSS, John. A Voyage of Discovery… for the Purpose of Exploring Baffin’s Bay, and Inquiring into the Probability of a North-West Passage. London, 1819. Quarto, contemporary gray boards sympathetically respined, custom clamshell box. $11,500. First edition, illustrated with 32 engraved plates, charts and maps (13 folding), including 15 magnificent hand-colored aquatints by Havell & Son (four folding) depicting icebergs, a “bear plunging into the sea” and the ship’s “passage through the ice” among other dramatic images. “A famous, even notorious, voyage… Ross attempted to proceed westward through Lancaster Sound, but being deceived, presumably by a mirage, he described the passage as barred by a range of mountains, which he named the Croker Mountains… On returning to England in November, the report was, at first, accepted as conclusive, and Ross was promoted to post rank in December, 1818. In the following year he published this volume” (Hill 1488). “The voyage of John Ross into Baffin’s Bay in 1818 was a pioneering effort in high Arctic exploration, and his narrative… [featured] the finest series of Arctic views then published. One of the most striking plates was… [by] the expedition’s Inuit interpreter, John Sackheouse, depicting the successful meeting between the expedition and Inuits at Prince Regent’s Bay… certainly the earliest representational work by a native American artist to be so reproduced” (Beinecke Library). Abbey, Travel 634. Arctic Bibliography 14873. Sabin 73376. Faint pencil signature to title page. Booklabel in clamshell box. Some faint marginal dampstaining, most notable to last two folding charts, closed marginal tear to pp. 103-04, light wear to corners. An extremely good copy in contemporary boards.
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