The History of Kamtschatka and the Kurilski Islands with the Countries Adjacent; Illustrated with Maps and Cuts.
Glocester: R. Raikes for T. Jefferys, Geographer to His Majesty, 1764. First Edition. Leather bound. 4to. Pp. (4), vii, 280, (8). English Translation by James Grieve. With all five plates accounted for, with four of them folding, and the two folding maps. Index. Bound in three-quarter brown morocco over contemporary calf boards with new endpapers. Spine with red morocco label with gilt lettering, gilt flourishes in compartments. The preliminaries with dampstaining to bottom edge, and lower fore-edge, picking up sporadically through text block, but not affecting plates or maps. Binders tag and armorial bookplate of Edward Davenport on the front pastedown. Boards with marks and staining commensurate with age. Good+. Item #1877 Krascheninnikov was assistant to George Steller on the second Bering expedition to the North Pacific. Referring to the French edition (1767), Hill credits this work's "primary importance" as one of the "earliest accounts of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands." EBERSTADT (Northwest Coast), 17 ("[this] examination of the Russian exploits in the history of the furthest outpost is essential"); HILL (Vol. I), p. 166 ("the first scientific account of those regions"); HOWES K265 ("contains one of the earliest descriptions of Russian America"); WICKERSHAM 5942. Noted in LADA-MOCARSKI 12.
Price: $3,250.00