2 volumes in 1, as issued. [iii]-xxi, [3], 392; vii, [1], 742 pp. With 3 engraved maps & charts, 2 of them folding; 23 engraved or lithographed plates. (4to) 27.5x21 cm (10¾x8¼"), period gilt-ruled calf, rebacked with modern calf, spine lettered in gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. First Edition, "Admiralty Edition."
Presentation copy of the sought-after Admiralty Edition of Beechey's Narrative, printed on large paper, inscribed in ink at the top of the title page, "Viscount Melville - From the Author." Viscount Melville was a First Lord of the Admiralty. His bookplate is on the front pastedown, along with the small leather bookplate of Neva and Guy Littell. The present copy is of the issue where both parts are bound together, less common than the two volume issue, and apparently with typographical differences. It does not have the errata leaf and leaf of advertisements found in the two-volumes issue; this copy lacking the half-title of the first part. Beechey's expedition went to Bering Strait and beyond to meet and assist the Franklin and Parry parties, which Beechey expected to arrive from the east, with the expedition based at Kotzebue Sound. Franklin's team made it to within fifty leagues of Beechey's encampment, but was forced by weather to return. This work is "one of the most valuable of modern voyages" (Hill). Included are accounts of visits to Pitcairn Island, Tahiti, Alaska, Hawaii, Macao, Okinawa, and the coast of California. On Pitcairn Island, Beechey met John Adams, the last survivor of the Bounty mutiny. He gives an important account of Monterey and San Francisco before the American conquest, with much on the missionaries in California. The maps are "Chart shewing the track of H.M.S. Blossom" (36x48 cm); "Gambier's Group (Inhabited)" (20.4x18 cm); and "Chart of Part of the North West Coast of America" (44.5x33 cm). The larger charts are folding, and have light offsetting and very short stub tears.
Provenance: Brick Row, 10/85
References: Hill, 93; Smith 704; Lada-Mocarski 95; Zamorano 80, 4; Streeter Sale 3517; Sabin 4347; Howes B309