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JEFFERSON, Thomas.
Notes on the State of Virginia … Illustrated with A Map, including the States of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. 1787
£50,000
The first London edition, following the first Paris edition - of 1785, "a few copies … printed to present to some of his friends and to some estimable characters beyond that...
Octavo. Original boards. Large folding map, hand-coloured in outline, mounted as frontispiece, large woodcut of Madison's Cave to p32, folding letterpress table of... Read more
VANCOUVER, Captain George.
A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World; 1798
£47,500
First edition. "Vancouver, who had served on Captain Cook's second and third voyages, was made commander of a grand-scale expedition… This voyage became one of the most...
3 quarto text volumes (285 × 234 mm) and folio atlas (575 × 455 mm). Text volumes in contemporary sprinkled calf, double black morocco lettering-pieces to... Read more
OGILBY, John.
America; being the latest and most Accurate Description of the New World… 1671
£45,000
First edition. In common with all of Ogilby's travel works (it is the second in a series which also included Africa, Asia, and Britannia), the book is a well-produced compilation of...
Folio in sixes (410 × 270 mm). Contemporary mottled calf, rebacked to style with spine elaborately gilt in compartments, red morocco label, corners repaired.... Read more
LEWIS, Meriwether & William Clark.
Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. 1814
£17,500
First English edition of the authorized account of the travels of Lewis and Clark, the "definitive account of the most important exploration of the North American continent"...
Quarto (270 × 210 mm). Contemporary streaked calf, neatly rebacked, red morocco labels, undulating rolled gilt panel to the boards, marbled endpapers. Large... Read more
MEDINA, Pedro de.
L'Arte del navegar, in laqual si contengonolere gole, dechiarationi, secreti, & avisi, 1554
£15,000
First edition in Italian, first issue with title dated 1554. First published in Valladolid in 1545, Medina's Arte del navegar was the first practical treatise on navigation and the...
Small quarto (215 x 149 mm). Contemporary limp vellum, manuscript title on spine, lacking ties, remnants of paper label at bottom of spine. Housed in a black quarter... Read more
ACOSTA, Jose de.
The Naturall and Morall Historie of the East and West Indies. 1604
£14,000
First edition in English. "The most convincing, detailed, and reliable account of the riches and new things of America" (Hill). Acosta's De Natura Novi Orbis was first published in...
Small quarto (184 × 128 mm). Later sprinkled calf, neatly rebacked to style, vermillion morocco label to the spine, raised bands, double gilt rules to the... Read more
(COOK, James) HAWKESWORTH, John.
An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the order of his Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, 1773
£9,750
Hawkesworth's account of Cook's first voyage was first published earlier in the same year. This, the second, "is considered the best one" (Hill), containing a new preface with the...
3 volumes quarto (279 × 220 mm). Contemporary calf, red and black morocco labels, raised bands, spines attractively gilt in compartments, single gilt fillet panel... Read more
VANCOUVER, Captain George.
A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World; In which the Coast of North-West America has been Carefully Examined and Accurately Surveyed, 1801
£9,500
First octavo edition. "This voyage became one of the most important ever made in the interests of geographical knowledge" (Hill). George Vancouver (1758-1798) had accompanied Cook...
7 volumes, 6 octavo text volumes (220 × 138 mm) and quarto atlas of plates and maps (284 × 235 mm). Early twentieth-century red half morocco on matching... Read more
MEARES, John.
Voyages Made in the Years 1788 and 1789, from China to the North West Coast of America. 1790
£8,750
First edition, with the extra plate of the Philippines which Streeter notes as missing in most copies. John Meares (?1756–1809) "was sent out in 1786 from Calcutta, by a group...
Large quarto (287 × 230 mm). Contemporary tree calf, skilfully rebacked and relined, smooth spine gilt in compartments, red morocco label, edges sprinkled blue.... Read more
DARWIN, Charles.
Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by the H.M.S. Beagle, 1839
£8,500
First edition, first separate issue of Darwin's first published book, written up from his manuscript journal and the small notebooks forming the memoranda on which the journal itself...
Octavo (221 × 135 mm). Contemporary brown half calf, titles to spine and rules to raised bands gilt, marbled sides, grey endpapers, speckled edges. 2 folding... Read more
DALRYMPLE, Alexander.
A Collection of Voyages chiefly in the Southern Atlantick Ocean. Published from Original M.S.S. 1775
£8,500
First edition. Important collection of earlier accounts of Pacific voyages. Dalrymple had done much research to promote the "counterpoise" theory of a great southern continent, and...
Quarto (260 × 202 mm) later tan half morocco on nineteenth-century marbled boards, green morocco label. 3 folding engraved coastal profiles or charts. Bound... Read more
(MÜLLER, Gerhard Friedrich) JEFFREYS, Thomas.
Voyages from Asia to America, for Completing the Discoveries of the North West Coast of America. 1761
£8,000
First edition in English of Müller's Nachrichten von Seereisen und zur See gemachten Entdeckungen, published in vol. III, pt I, of Sammlung Russischer Geschichte, 1758, "the...
Quarto (272 × 203 mm). Modern dark blue half morocco by Weeks & Co., marbled boards, title gilt direct to the spine, raised bands, compartments with double-fillet... Read more
BANCROFT, Hubert Howe.
The Works. 1886
£7,500
First edition, the complete set of what is still considered by historians to be the most important single source of early Western American history. "Colossal co-operative...
39 vols., octavo. Recent tan morocco, spines gilt in compartments, light and dark brown morocco labels, marbled endpapers, floral roll to boards and all edges gilt.... Read more
BROWNE, Patrick.
The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica. 1756
£7,500
First edition, one of only 250 copies according to Sabin. Patrick Browne (c.1720-1790) was an Irish physician and botanist who went to the West Indies in 1737 and again about 1746,...
Folio (357 × 239 mm). Contemporary calf (perhaps Spanish), morocco label gilt lettered in English, spine gilt in compartments, marbled pastedowns, mottled edges.... Read more
RAMSAY, David.
The History of the American Revolution. 1789
£5,500
First edition. A superb copy of this, "almost the first and very probably the most accomplished of the many histories of the American Revolution and making of the Federal...
2 volumes, octavo (210 × 124 mm). Contemporary, probably Philadelphia, marbled sheep, red morocco lettering pieces, and black morocco roundel numbering pieces,... Read more
BARROW, John.
A Voyage to Cochinchina, in the Years 1792 and 1793: 1806
£5,250
First edition of the "first illustrated English work on … Vietnam"(Hill). A description of the outward voyage of Lord Macartney's embassy to China. "The voyage visited Madeira,...
Quarto (263 × 209 mm) Contemporary blue straight-grained morocco on drab boards, title gilt direct to the spine, double-ruled compartments with attractive roundel... Read more
FOOTE, Shelby.
The Civil War. A Narrative. 1958-74
£5,000
First editions. Signed by the author on publisher's blank of volume I. A superb work of narrative history, uncommon signed, here handsomely presented. Originally a novelist, Foote...
3 volumes, octavo. Finely bound by The Chelsea Bindery in black morocco, titles and decoration to spines, raised bands, single rule to boards, twin rule to turn-ins,... Read more
COOK, Captain James, & Captain James King.
A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 1784
£5,000
First Dublin edition of Cook's fatal third voyage, another attempt to find a north-west passage, during which he "discovered" Oahu and Kauai at the western end of the Hawaiian...
3 volumes octavo (206 × 118 mm) contemporary streaked calf, red and green labels to the spines, flat spines densely gilt with a repeated cinquefoil and ribbon... Read more
LEE, Guy Carleton; Francis Newton Thorpe, eds.
The History of North America. 1903–7
£4,750
Library Edition, number 701. "There is no comprehensive history of America from the discovery to the present time." - Professor Hart (Harvard University) 1896. This scholarly work,...
20 volumes, octavo. Recent tan morocco, double morocco labels in terracotta and brown, decoration to spines, raised bands, single rule to boards, marbled endpapers,... Read more
ROOSEVELT, Franklin D.
Inaugural address of Franklin D. Roosevelt President of the United States. 1933
£4,750
The advance issue, first published version of FDR's inaugural address, annotated in pencil on the upper cover as one of the White House file copies, with the signature of Stephen T....
Octavo. Wire-stitched in the original wraps. In quarter dark blue cloth on patterned paper portfolio, typed label to upper panel, black silk ties. Rockwell Kent... Read more
PORTLOCK, Nathaniel.
A Voyage Round the World; 1789
£4,500
First edition of Portlock's interesting circumnavigation, the principal, and successful, object of which was the opening of the fur trade in northwest America. Expedition leader...
Quarto (284 × 222 mm). Contemporary calf-backed sprinkled boards, leather tips, red morocco label. With engraved portrait frontispiece of Portlock by Mazell after... Read more
GORDON, William.
The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment, of the Independence of the United States of America: 1788
£4,250
First edition. "First full-scale history of this war by an American" (Howes). Born in Hertfordshire in 1727/8, Gordon was educated for the dissenting ministry and ordained in 1754....
4 volumes octavo (214 × 130 mm) Modern sprinkled half sheep on old marbled boards to style, red morocco labels, volume numbers in small gilt roundels,... Read more
BACON, Francis.
Considerations touching a Warre with Spaine. 1629
£4,000
First edition, uncommon, just a handful of copies at auction in the last 30 years. Written in 1624, this essay is dedicated to Charles I, as prince of Wales ("Your Maiestie hath an...
Small quarto (183 × 134 mm). Early twentieth-century dark blue morocco for W.H. Smith, title gilt to spine, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments with foliate... Read more
(COOK, James) ANDERSON, George William.
A New, Authentic, and Complete Account of Voyages Round the World, 1790
£3,750
First large octavo edition of this omnibus compilation of Cook, Byron, Wallis, Carteret, Mulgrave, Anson and Drake. Originally published in folio (1784-6) in 80 sixpenny parts with...
6 volumes, octavo (212 × 122 mm) contemporary sprinkled calf, rebacked, tan and green morocco labels. 129 engraved plates and maps, 65 of them folding.... Read more
CATLIN, George.
North American Indians. 1876
£3,500
First edition to be printed in colour of Catlin's classic work. George Catlin (1796-1872), spent many years among the Indians in North and South America. He lived with them, acquired...
2 volumes, octavo. Finely bound by The Chelsea Bindery in full crimson morocco, titles and decoration to spine gilt, raised bands, single rule to boards gilt, twin... Read more
