The US statesman Governor Morris´ copy
Klubbat för:
15000 SEK
Estimate
12 000-15 000 SEK
Description
RUSSIA. (2). MÜLLER, G(ERHARD FRIEDRICH). Voyages et découvertes faites par les Russes le long des côtes de la Mer Glaciale & sur l'Océan Oriental tant vers le Japon que vers l'Amerique. On y a joint l'histoire du fleuve Amur et des pays adjacens, depuis la conquête des Russes... Ouvrage traduits de l'Allemand... par C. G. F. Dumas. I-II. Amsterdam (chez Marc-Michel Rey) 1766.
8:o. (3), IV-X, (2), (1)-388, (3), IV, (1)-207, (25) pp. 1 large folding engraved map "Nouvelle carte des découvertes faites par des vaisseaux russiens aux côtes inconnues de l'Amérique Septentrionale avec les pais adiacents" (minor foxing).
Contemporary brown mottled calf, partly worn, cracks and mendings in the joints, gilt spines with acorn and floral motifs, spine labels partly damaged, spines partly repaired, marbled edges. Some foxing. Bookplate of "Gouverneure Morris". In a later brown cloth slipcase. 2 volumes.
Provenance: US statesman Governor (Gouverneur) Morris (1752-1816), with his armorial engraved bookplate on front pastedowns. He was an important figure in the independence of the United States and author of large parts of the US constitution.
"Voyages et découvertes faites par les Russes... Pour servir d'éclaircissement à la carte publiée par l'Académie des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg" (vol. I, pp. 1-388) was translates by C. G. F. Dumas from "Sammlung russischer Geschichte (3 parts 1-3, 1758), and "Histoire du fleuve Amur et des pays adjacens, depuis la conquête des Russes (vol. 2, pp. 1-207) from vol. 2 of the same work.
The map (about 675x530 mm) was re-engraved by L. Schenk Jansz. after the separately published (1758) original. It shows Russian Alaska and also eastern Siberia, Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. Chirikov's and Bering's landing sites in Alaska are mapped, as are the routes of their voyages, including Bering's first passage through the strait 1728. The route of Semen Dezhnev's 1648 voyage is also mapped: ir was rediscovered in a Siberian archive soon after Bering's second passage. Mikhail Gvodsev's discovery is here, dated 1730.
From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013).
Auktionsnummer:
6116
Date:
2015-12-15