Lot 2140: BEECHEY, FREDERICK WILLIAM. 1796-1856.

Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait, to Co-Operate with the Polar Expeditions: Performed in His Majesty's Ship Blossom ... in the Years 1825, 26, 27, 28. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831. 2 parts in one volume. 4to (272 x 200 mm). xxi, [1 errata], [iii]-vii, [1], 742 pp, errata slip. Preliminaries of second part bound at front, bound without second part title. 23 engraved and lithographed plates, 3 maps (2 folding). Period calf, edges marbled. Foxing and offsetting to some plates, skillfully rebacked. FIRST EDITION, THE LARGE-PAPER ADMIRALITY EDITION. "[Beechey's] book provides an important account of Monterey and San Francisco before the American conquest ... Beechey described the Eskimos of the north and relates his meeting with John Adams, last survivor of the mutiny on the Bounty, who gave Beechey a lengthy account. In the course of this voyage Beechey discovered several islands in the Pacific" (Hill). "Captain Beechey and Sir John Franklin had arrived within fifty leagues of each other, when the latter was compelled by the weather to return. One of the most valuable of modern voyages, containing a most interesting visit to Pitcairn's Island, the coast of California, etc" (Sabin 4347). Hill p 18; Howes B309.