Blakeney, William (1835-1912) On the Coasts of Cathay and Cipango Forty Years Ago.
London: Elliot Stock, 1902.
First edition, octavo, profusely illustrated throughout with folding, full-paged, and text vignettes, in addition to many folding maps, half-title present, bound in publisher's yellow cloth with pictorial covers stamped in black and red, spine and portions of front and back boards sun faded, 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.
Blakeney served as a civilian surveying officer on an expedition aboard the frigate H.M.S. Actaeon to better chart parts of the South China Sea in the late 1850s. The British were concerned with Russia's better naval knowledge of the area, and their strategic infringements in the region.
