antiquarian bookseller - Peter Harrington

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller
126.NANSEN, Fridtjof.
2
In Northern Mists: Arctic
exploration in early times.
Translated by Arthur G. Chater.
London, William Heinemann, 1911 [33390] £675
2 volumes, large 8vo. Publisher’s grey-blue vertical-ribbed
cloth, spines lettered in gilt, front boards with semi-circular gilt
design of low sun over sea and mountains with approaching
Viking longship, lettered in gilt, double blind rules. Half-titles
printed in blue, titles in blue and black, each volume with
mounted colour woodcut frontispiece, woodcut illustrations
in the text throughout. Two nicks at head of spine of vol. I,
some corners very lightly bumped, faint browning to first
front free endpaper, else a fine copy, the cloth exceptionally
bright and fresh.
FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of this historical survey, which
includes an account of the Viking discovery of America.
127.O’REILLY, Bernard.
Greenland, The Adjacent Seas,
And The North-West Passage To
The Pacific Ocean, Illustrated In A
Voyage To Davis’s Strait, During The
Summer Of 1817. With Charts And
Numerous Plates, From Drawings Of
The Author Taken On The Spot.
London, for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1818 [20273] £2100
4to (263 × 208 mm). Skilfully rebound to style in full mottled
calf, green label, spine gilt in compartments between raised
bands. Frontispiece map, 2 folding maps and 18 plates, of
which 13 are uncoloured aquatints and 5 uncoloured lineengravings.
Inkstamp of Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh,
at head of title. Minor foxing to a few pages, a very good
copy.
FIRST EDITION, with uncoloured aquatint plates including
several of Arctic birds and animals. O’Reilly was ship’s doctor
on the Thomas, but was heavily criticized for plagiarizing
his book from lectures on the natural history of Greenland
given in Dublin by the Augsburg-born mineralogist and
collector Carl Ludwig Giesecke (1761–1833) based on his
experiences there during the Napoleonic Wars. The text
includes a few remarks on the language of Greenland,
pp. 60–61, 83–84; and a “Brief list of words [27] from the
language of the Greenlander,” pp. 84–85.
Abbey Travel 633; Sabin 57576; Staton & Tremaine 1125.
128.OLIPHANT, Laurence.
Minnesota and the Far West.
Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood and Sons, 1855 [40108]
£375
8vo. Original dun cloth, gilt, neatly rebacked with the
original spine laid down, new endpapers. Tinted lithographic
frontispiece with one tint, 6 wood-engraved plates and 8
similar vingetted illustrations to the text, folding map at the
rear. Some marginal foxing and browning, slight damage to
one leaf, no loss of text, otherwise a very good copy.
FIRST EDITION. “Oliphant acted as secretary to Lord Elgin
during the negotiation at Washington of the reciprocity
treaty with Canada, whose economy was in ruins as
a result of the repeal of the corn laws in 1846. Elgin’s
success in achieving free trade between Canada and the
USA saved what had been a desperate situation. Oliphant
afterwards accompanied Elgin to Quebec. He was soon
appointed ‘superintendent of Indian affairs’, and made a
journey to Lake Superior and back by the headwaters of
the Mississippi and Chicago, described soon afterwards in
Minnesota and the Far West .”
Howes O64; Sabin 57183.
129.PARRY, William Edward.
Journal of a voyage for the discovery
of a North-West Passage from the
Atlantic to the Pacific; performed in
the years 1819–20, in His Majesty’s
Catalogue 57: Travel Section 3: The Americas, Greenland and the Arctic
ships Hecla and Griper … With an
appendix, containing the scientific
and other observations.
London: John Murray, 1821 [17699] £1500
4to. Contemporary dark pink diced calf, rebacked to style
with black morocco label, gilt bands. 6 engraved maps and
charts (4 folding), 14 plates (of which 9 are aquatints), folding
table, text diagrams. Errata slip pasted on verso of dedication
leaf. With an ALs from Parry to Roger Kenison, Clerk to the
Corporation of Guardians, Norwich, dated 23 June 1835, with
conjugate address panel and seal, tipped in at front. Bookplate
of Henry A. De Long on front pastedown. Slight wear to
board edges, frontispiece chart rather clumsily folded, very
occasional spotting and offsetting, withal a very good copy.
FIRST EDITION of the account of the first of Parry’s three
attempts at the Northwest Passage. On this attempt
he reached longitude 110° West, earning the reward of
£5000 that had been offered by Parliament for the first
ship to reach that meridian, and was frozen in ice for ten
months. He also discovered Melville Island and others of
the Parry Islands, having first explored and named Barrow
Strait, Prince Regent Inlet and Wellington Channel. “The
immediate achievements of these voyages were the
charting of hundreds of miles of coastline in the Canadian
Arctic archipelago and the collecting of valuable data on
Arctic natural history” (Hill). Parry returned a hero; John
Murray paid him a thousand guineas for the rights to
publish this account.
Arctic Bib. 13145n; Hill 1311; Howgego P9; Sabin 58860; Smith 7964.
130.PEARY, Robert, E.
The North Pole. With an introduction
by Theodore Roosevelt.
Hodder and Stoughton, 1910 [30905] £350
4to. Recent full dark blue morocco, title and decoration to
spine gilt, raised bands, single rule to boards gilt, marbled
endpapers, top edge gilt. With 116 black and white plates. A
little scattered foxing otherwise a very good copy. Binding in
fine condition.
FIRST EDITION, First Impression.
With an
autograph
Parry letter
3