Lot 109: SIR JOHN ROSS (1777-1856)

A Voyage of Discovery... for the Purpose of Exploring Baffin's Bay, and Inquiring into the Probability of a North-West Passage. London: W. Clowes for John Murray, 1819. 4° (266 x 209mm). Engraved folding frontispiece chart and 2 engraved folding maps by J. Walker after J. Bushnan et al., 25 aquatint or engraved plates and coastal profiles by D. Havell, R. Havell & Son, Thomas Lewin after A.M. Skene, Ross, H.P. Hoppner, Thomas Lewin et al., 15 hand-coloured, 7 folding, and 4 engraved tables, 3 folding. Woodcut illustrations, one full-page, and letterpress tables in the text. Errata slip tipped onto 1/1r. (Occasional light spotting and offsetting clean tear, reinforced at margin, on Z2.) Contemporary tree calf, boards with blind-tooled borders and cornerpieces, spine gilt in compartments, lettered in one (lightly rubbed and scratched, corners bumped, rebacked retaining original spine). Provenance: Charles Wright (early ownership inscription on front free endpaper and inkstamp on title margin) -- Américo F. Marques, Lisbon (bookseller's ticket on upper pastedown). FIRST EDITION. Abbey Travel 634; Arctic Bibliography 14873; Hill 1488; Sabin 73376.

Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage, and of a Residence in the Arctic Regions During the Years 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833. London: C. Whiting for A.W. Webster, 1835. 4° (296 x 244mm). Engraved frontispiece, 3 colour-printed mezzotint plates finished by hand, 15 engraved plates, and 6 hand-coloured lithographic plates after Ross. 5 lithographic maps, one printed in 2 colours and one hand-coloured engraved folding map. Letterpress tables in the text. Errata leaf. (Some variable spotting and offsetting, folding map creased and with short tears.) Contemporary half calf over marbled boards (board edges rubbed causing small losses, rebacked and with gilt morocco lettering-piece). FIRST EDITION, without the Appendix. Abbey Travel 636; Arctic Bibliography 14866; Hill 1490; Sabin 73381.

Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage... London: Orlando Hodgson, [n.d., 1836-1844]. 4° (278 x 214mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece and 20 aquatint and engraved plates. Letterpress tables in the text. Text printed in double columns. (Some light offsetting and browning, a few plates slightly creased.) 20th-century pigskin, retaining 19th-century gilt morocco lettering-piece, slipcase. Provenance: Geoffrey Gilbert, June 1938 (bookplate). RARE. Abbey Travel 636 (note).

FIRST EDITIONS OF ROSS'S VOYAGES, WITH HODGSON'S RARE EDITION OF THE SECOND. Ross's first voyage described his attempts to travel through Lancaster Sound, and his erroneous belief that it was blocked by a range of mountains which he named the Croker Mountains; the subsequent disproval of this statement led to the discrediting of the whole work and Ross's reputation, and the withdrawal of the Admiralty's support for further explorations. It was only in 1829 that Ross was able to lead a second expedition, during which his nephew and second-in-command James Clark Ross discovered the North Magnetic Pole. Although Abbey dates the quarto Hodgson edition of Narrative of a Second Voyage '[1834]' and describes it as the first publication of the account, this appears to be incorrect; Hodgson's address was 10 Cloth Fair between 1832 and 1835, and then 111 Fleet Street -- the address given on the title of this copy -- from 1836-1844 (cf. P.A.H. Brown London Publishers and Printers, c. 1800-1870 (London: 1982), p. 91). The Hodgson edition, quite possibly a piracy, reprints the text of the first edition (but omits the Introduction and Addenda) and is illustrated with engraved copies of 20 of the 25 plates of the first edition and a portrait of Ross after Faulkner's 1834 painting (which was not included in the first edition). A Hodgson duodecimo edition dated '[183?]' is recorded by Sabin 73381. (3)

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