Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific And Beering's Straight; To Co-operate with The Polar Expeditions: Performed in His Majesty's Ship Blossom, Under the Command of Captain F.W. Beechey...in the Years 1825,26, 27, 28
London: Heny Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831. Hardcover. "A New Edition", two volumes (complete), octavo size, a total of 950 pp. Very good +. Item #23010206
Frederic William Beechey (1796-1856) entered the Royal Navy at the early age of 10 years in 1806 and, by 1815, was already a 2nd Lieutenant. His career continued to blossom, and in 1825 he was given command of HMS Blossom.
This the "Octavo Edition", published the same year as the first ("Quarto") edition. Per the bibliography: "Beechey's book is one of the most valuable of modern voyages and relates extensive visits to Pitcairn Island, Easter Island, the Tuamotu Archipelago, the Society Islands, the Mangarva (Gambier) Islands,and Tahiti, Alaska, Hawaii, Macao, Ilinawa, and the coast of California....Beechey's work provides an important account of Monterey and San Francisco before the American conquest and gives his impressions of the missionaries in San Francisco...At Pitcairn Island, Beechey met with John Adams, last survivor of the mutiny on the Bounty, who gave Beechey an lengthy account" ("The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages", p. 33).
An important and fascinating account of one of the earliest of the pacific voyages.
___DESCRIPTION: Bound in period half brown leather over marbled boards, red leather spine labels with lettering in gilt, volume number and "1831" on the spine in gilt, text block edges speckled red, Volume I with thirteen plates and three charts (two folding, these linen-backed) and Volume II with ten plates; octavo size (8 3/8" by 5 5/8"), pagination: Volume I, frontispiece a folding map of showing the voyage of the Blossom (five panels folded once), double-page map of the Gambian Group (at pp. 180-181), bound in at the rear a folding map (three panels folded twice, located at pp. 458-459) of the North-West Coast of America, the plates bound in throughout, text pages [i-iii] iv-xxii [1] 2-472; Volume II, the plates bound in throughout, text pages [i-iii] iv [1] 2-452.
___CONDITION: Better than very good and could likely be deemed near fine, the leather smooth and supplie with minimal abraded areas (mostly at the corners), the marbled boards also with minimal rubbing, a strong, square text block, the interior text pages clean and bright, collated complete, and the sole prior owner marking we see a tasteful Ex-Libris on the front pastedown of Volume I; the aformentioned light rubbing to the leather, both front hinges lightly cracked but the boards still firmly attached, off-setting to the free endpapers from the leather turn-ins, a few light vertical creases to the front free endpaper and flyleaves in Volume I; both folding maps near fine, the frontis map with a few creases at the outer margin and some very small tears at the seams.
___CITATIONS: Hill Pacific Voyages no. 93, Sabin no. 4347.
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Price: $750.00