Lot 263: KLINCKOWSTROM, Axel Leonhard (1775-1837). Bref Om De Forenta Staterna, Forfattade Under En Resa Till Amerika Aren 1818, 1819, 1820 . Stockholm: Eckstein, 1824.

KLINCKOWSTROM, Axel Leonhard (1775-1837). Bref Om De Forenta Staterna, Forfattade Under En Resa Till Amerika Aren 1818, 1819, 1820. Stockholm: Eckstein, 1824.

Atlas only, 2o (410 x 535 mm and smaller). Letterpress list of plates, one leaf text. (Without the text volumes.) Lithographed title and 16 maps and plates. Contemporary half calf with marbled-paper boards.

The atlas, including "one of the most picturesque and interesting early views of Broadway and City Hall" (Stokes), contains engraved maps of the northern and southern part of the United States by C. F. Himberg after John Mellish (dated 1816), an unsigned engraved map of New York city and its environs, a street plan of Philadelphia lithographed by C. Muller, three aquatint views of Philadelphia and its environs, three of New York (including the view of Broadway and City Hall), all signed by Akrell after Klinckowstrom, and an unsigned aquatint view in vignette form of the Capitol in Washington, as it looked before and after rebuilding in 1819. "One of the European artists to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for their skillful rendering of scenes in the young American republic is Baron Axel Leonhard Klinckowstrom. A Swedish aristocrat, Klinckowstrom spent three years in the United States (1818-1820) as an official emissary of his country, traveling widely and taking a lively interest in all he saw" (NYPL/Deak). This interest is made manifest in the present work, where the detailed and highly informative text is ably supported by the picturesque and historically important plates. Deak 310, 322; Howes K-201; Sabin 38053; Stokes 3:563.