2 parts in 1 volume + Atlas. [6], xii, [2], 187, [9]; [6], 192 pp.; folding table. Atlas with 51 engraved maps and views, 21 of them folding out. Text is (4to) 24.5x18.5 cm (9½x7¼"), period leather-backed mottled boards. Atlas is (oblong folio) 34x42.5 cm (13¼x16½"), leather-backed boards, the spine possibly more recent. Each housed in custom-made folding blue cloth box with with leather label. First Edition.
Rare first edition of Sarychev's account of the Billings expedition to explore the shores of north eastern Siberia, the Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka, the Aleutian Islands, and part of the American continent, complete with the desirable and important atlas volume. Sarychev describes the geographical and natural features of the places visited as well as the local inhabitants and their customs. Nearly all of the second part of the text volume relates to Unalaska, and also includes important linguistic material on the dialect of Russian America. The expedition was sponsored by Catherine II and led by Joseph Billings who had accompanied Captain Cook on his third voyage. The party sailed from Okhotsk in 1787. The atlas contains portraits, views, maps and coastal outlines engraved by some of the most noted Russian engravers of the time, particularly the brothers Ivan and Konstantin Cheskkii. Many of the engravings with pencil captions in English, translating the engraved captions in Russian. As noted by Bill Reese in is New York Book Fair list of May 2004, "there is considerable confusion over what constitutes the atlas." The Library of Congress card calls for 56 plates and maps in the atlas, but "Recent research... would seem to demonstrate conclusively many copies of the atlas have 51 plates and maps. Several copies are known in a 48 plates issue..." With bookplate in the text volume, "From the collection of Laura K. and Valerian Lada-Mocarski," and Yale University Library bookplate noting Gift of Mrs. Valerian Mocarski. There is a withdrawn rubberstamp from Yale on the back of the title-page, and also a number of old inkstamps in Russian on the title-page and various places within.
Provenance: Remington, LA Book Fair, 2/96
References: L-M 57. Howes S 115. Obolianinov 2406 (from Reese list). Tourville 3965 (from Reese list).
Condition:
Text volume with top 1ΒΌ" of spine strip detached but present, edge wear to boards, dampstain to last 50 or so pages mostly affecting margins but intruding into some text; Atlas covers with wear, some plates with edge wear, a few with vertical creases, two with 8- and 6-inch tears into images, one plate with margin restored; overall a very good set, quite rare.