75 With Large Folding Map Of “North West America,” Folding Maps And Engraved Illustrations 95PORTLOCK, Nathaniel. A Voyage Round the World; but more particularly to the NorthWest Coast of America. London, 1789. Large quarto, contemporary full marbled calf sympathetically rebacked. $11,000 First edition of Portlock’s account of his voyage to explore and survey America’s northwest coast, featuring six folding maps and 14 copper-engraved plates, including frontispiece portrait of Portlock. “After the reports of the lucrative fur trade on the northwest American coast had reached England, two ships under the commands of Portlock and Dixon were sent out. After visiting the Falkland Islands, the two ships made a long stay at the Hawaiian Islands, then proceeded to America and surveyed the coast” (Hill I:239). Portlock explored the Alaskan coast while Dixon headed for Nootka Sound, gathering valuable information on the geography, native inhabitants, and natural history of the region. Text generally clean. Large folding map and one other folding chart with professional repairs to versos; one natural history plate repaired on verso, another remargined. Very good in handsomely rebacked marbled calf. With 16 Handsome ChromoLithographic Plates After Drawings By Edward L. Moss 94MOSS, Edward L. Shores of the Polar Sea. A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875-6. London, 1878. Folio, original black- and gilt-stamped blue cloth rebacked with original spine laid down. $7800 First edition, with 16 handsome mounted chromolithographic plates and numerous engravings after illustrations made on the spot by Edward L. Moss, and a map of the expedition route, in beautiful publisher’s cloth. “Moss was a naval surgeon aboard Nares’ flagship, Alert, but also served as artist for the expedition, producing this sumptuous volume two years after the expedition returned. Although his Preface disclaims a narrative intent for the book and places his emphasis on pictorial efforts, the book still provides a substantial and engaging account of the Nares expedition (1875-76). He is a quiet observer, noticing the literacy of young Greenlanders, the details of shipboard rituals, the ‘disappointingly limited’ open seas within the ice, ‘the complicated hieroglyphic savouring of Freemasonry’” (Stam & Stam 4.7). Faint scattered foxing and soiling to text and plates, only light wear and soiling to original cloth. An exceptional copy, nicer than usually found.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDg3OTM=