Jun 27, 2024 - Sale 2675

Sale 2675 - Lot 52

Price Realized: $ 585
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(ARCTIC.) Sir John Ross. Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage, and of a Residence in the Arctic Regions / Appendix to the Narrative of a Second Voyage. 6 maps, 24 (of 25) engraved or lithographed plates (including 8 hand-colored). [6], xxxiii, [3] including errata leaf, 740 pages. 4to, publisher's cloth, moderate wear, rebacked with original backstrip laid down; moderate wear and several repairs to contents, intermittent dampstaining and foxing, lacking plate 13 ("Shulanina, Tulluachiu, Tirikshiu"); binder's original ad slip tipped to front free endpaper * Engraved frontispiece portrait of Ross, 16 lithographed plates (including 12 hand-colored), 3 uncolored engraved plates. xii, 120, cxliv, cii pages. 4to, publisher's cloth, crudely rebacked in sheep, moderate wear; moderate wear and foxing to contents; partially unopened. London, 1835
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Additional Details

First editions of the accounts of Ross's privately funded second Arctic voyage, resulting in the most extensive exploration of the Boothia Peninsula to date, during which Ross's nephew James Clark Ross became the first to reach the North Magnetic Pole. Both volumes contain some early pencil corrections, generally following the errata.

The appendix volume contains long descriptions of all of the expedition members, and of many of the Inuit they met. On page cxxiii of the appendix volume is a short biography of Third Mate George Taylor, describing how he lost part of his foot to frostbite, but did his best to remain a useful member of the crew. Ross concludes: "When he returned home I provided for him a situation in the Dock-yard, but he preferred going to Liverpool." Ross makes the man sound just a bit ungrateful. Somebody--we are guessing it was Third Mate Taylor--has noted in pencil with an exclamation point that the charity position was only 12 shillings a week, while he was getting 25 in Liverpool.

Abbey Travel 636, Arctic Bibliography 14866, Books on Ice 2.6, Hill 1490, McGill/Lande 1426, TPL 1808. Provenance: the main volume bought by the consignor at a Swann sale, 26 July 1979, lot 322, one of the first of his many purchases at Swann.