Sep 28, 2023 - Sale 2646
/

Sale 2646 - Lot 65

Unsold
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(CALIFORNIA.) János Xántus. Utazás Kalifornia déli Részeiben [Travels in Southern California]. Folding map, 8 tinted lithograph plates, text illustrations. [10], 191, [3] pages. 8vo, publisher's cloth, minor wear; minor foxing; early owner's signature on front free endpaper, later small inked stamp from the same family on front pastedown and title page. Pesten [Budapest], 1860
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Jánus or John Xántus (1825-1894) was a Hungarian exile who found himself employed as a scientist in southern California and Baja California in the late 1850s, collecting natural history specimens for what became the Smithsonian Institution. This is the authorized edition of his letters from California. A vocabulary of the Tejon language spoken north of Los Angeles appears on pages 58-60. A typed translation of the book is held by the Bancroft Library in Berkeley.

The plates (adapted from Sitgreaves' report on the Zuni and Colorado Rivers) depict American Indian workshops, the Sierra Nevadas, San Fernando, and more. The map shows the coast from San Francisco down to the tip of Baja California. Cowan 1933, page 697; Graff 4785; Howes X2 ("aa"); Sabin 105714; Streeter sale V:2860; Wagner-Camp 316n; Wheat, Gold Rush 237.