3 vols. xvii, [1], 537; [6], [2], 414, [4], 14, xi, [2]; xliii, 705 pp. Vol. I illustrated with 89 lithograph plates, most color, including 3 "facsimiles" of Japanese woodblock prints, 2 folding; 6 maps & charts, 2 folding; numerous woodcuts in the text. Vol. II with 4 color lithographs of Chinese scenes; 2 uncolored natural history engraved plates; 4 (of 6) hand-colored lithographs of birds; 10 hand-colored steel engravings of fish; 5 lithographs of shells, 2 hand-colored; 16 diagram plates of winds & currents; 14-page facsimile of Japanese language version of the U.S. Japan treaty; 16 (of 17) folding charts on 15 (of 16) sheets; numerous woodcuts in the text. Vol. III with woodcut star charts throughout. 11¼x8¾, original cloth, spines lettered in gilt. First Edition.
Inscribed & signed in ink by M[athew] C. Perry at top of title-page of Vol. I.; pencil inscription on front endpaper of Vol. III, "From M.C. Perry," apparently also in Perry's hand. Detailed & profusely illustrated account of Perry's expedition to open Japan to the West; as the Dictionary of American Biography describes it, "In January 1852 he [Perry] was selected to undertake the most important diplomatic mission ever intrusted to an American naval officer, the negotiation of a treaty with Japan, a country at this time sealed against intercourse with the Occidental powers." By March 31, 1854, the treaty granting the U.S. trading rights had been signed by the Japanese. Upon his return to the U.S., his chief duty for the following year was to compile his reports of the expedition, aided by Francis Hawks. The importance of Perry's mission to Japan cannot be overstated. Not only did Perry open Japan to Western trade and influences which she would soon master, thrusting her into the forefront of nations during the 20th century, but the accounts of the country and culture, and the pictorial representations, were some of the earliest to be readily available to the public, being superseded only by the cumbersome tomes of earlier missionaries. In addition to the artist W. Heine, from whose drawings a great number of the lithographs were made, the daguerreotypist E. Brown, Jr., went on the expedition, taking what were undoubtedly the earliest photographic images of Japan, many of them reproduced lithographically in this work. This copy without the nude bathing plate, which was not issued in all copies, being suppressed, but does contain the oft-removed photographer plate. Lacking, however, are two hand-colored bird plates and the track chart of the world.
Condition:
Some rubbing, fading, wear & light staining to covers; several hinges cracked or cracking few of the folding charts with crease tears, else very good, contents generally clean & unfoxed.