Apr 16, 2013 - Sale 2310

Sale 2310 - Lot 47

Price Realized: $ 7,920
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
GIFT FROM SABINE TO PARRY ON THE EVE OF HIS SECOND VOYAGE (ARCTIC.) Robson, Joseph. An Account of Six Years Residence in Hudson's Bay. 2 folding maps, folding plate. 8vo, contemporary calf, worn, front board detached; small ink stain in upper margin, a few marginal pencil notes; signature of William Edward Parry ("WParry") and inscription "from Edw'd Sabine, April 1821" on title page, bookplate of Parry's grandson John Franklin Parry on front pastedown. London, 1752

Additional Details

first edition. "One of the earliest, and certainly the fullest, of the works that had hitherto been published on the Hudson Bay Territory"--Hill 1477. "With an intimate knowledge of the locality and of the personnel of the Company, he condemned its failure to promote fishing and mining enterprise, the exploration and settlement of the interior"--TPL 217.
The first major command in the Arctic career of Sir William Edward Parry (1790-1855) was his 1819 voyage in search of the Northwest Passage. Serving as a scientist on that journey was Sir Edward Sabine (1788-1883), an Arctic explorer in his own right. They returned in October 1820. Sabine gave this book to his commander in April 1821, shortly before Parry left for another expedition to explore the northwestern corner of Hudson's Bay--a timely gift which must have been well-appreciated.
The volume includes a few marginal pencil notes, hardly worth noting except that they would seem to have been made by someone with a practical interest in the topic at hand. For example, a line is drawn alongside passages on pages 47 and 48 which discuss safety from bears. The last words in the book are underlined, in an appendix discussing high tides caused by "hard gales in the N.W. quarter." The only textual note appears on page 6 of the appendix, which discusses a chart made by Captain Middleton. The words are underlined, with a note reading "Where is this chart?" The handwriting has not been identified. Field 1312; Graff 3532; Lande 1418; Sabin 72259; Streeter sale VI:3648.