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GEORG WILHELM STELLER (1709-1746) AND GERHARD FRIEDRICH MÜLLER (1705-1783)
Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka dessen Einwohnern, deren Sitten, Rahmen, Lebensart und verscheidenen Gewohnheiten. Edited by J.B.S. [?J.-B. Scherer]. Frankfurt and Leipzig: Johann Georg Fleischer, 1774. 8° (192 x 116mm). Engraved title vignette. 2 engraved folding maps and 12 engraved folding plates. Woodcut illustrations and head- and tailpieces. (Some very light dampstaining, occasional spotting, a few plates trimmed.) Contemporary glazed speckled-paper boards, gilt paper lettering-piece on spine, red edges (lightly rubbed causing small surface losses at extremities, spine-ends slightly chipped). Provenance: early manuscript pressmark label on spine -- early inscription on verso of title -- the Counts Holstein-Holsteinborg (inkstamp on title) -- Kaj Birket-Smith, 1926 (b. 1893, inscription on front free endpaper).
FIRST EDITION. AN IMPORTANT ACCOUNT BY 'THE FIRST SCIENTIST TO SET FOOT ON ALASKAN SOIL' (Lada-Mocarski). The German naturalist Steller joined Bering's second expedition part way through its survey, and was appointed to Bering's ship after the surgeon died, later taking command of the expedition after Bering's death in 1741. Steller surveyed Kamchatka and the surrounding areas, and his notes are followed by Müller's 'Geographie und Verfassung von Kamtschatka aus verscheidenen schriftlichen- und mündlichen Nachrichten, gesammlet zu Jakuzk, 1737' (which includes a 13-page vocabulary of the Koriak language), and 'gives a clear picture of the extent of knowledge regarding Alaska at that time' (Lada-Mocarski). The biography of Steller which precedes the text is probably the work of the editor, who is thought to be J.-B. Scherer. The present copy is from the library of the distinguished Danish ethnologist Kaj Birket-Smith, whose publications include The Caribou Eskimos (Copenhagen: 1929), Anthropological Observations on the Central Eskimos (Copenhagen: 1940), Ethnographical Collections from the Northwest Passage (Copenhagen: 1945), The Chugach Eskimo (Copenhagen: 1953), and The Eyak Indians of the Copper River Delta, Alaska (Copenhagen: 1938). In this copy the plate bound facing p.45 has not been bisected in order to bind part of it at p.200 (as called for by the instructions to the binder). Lada-Mocarski 21.
Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka dessen Einwohnern, deren Sitten, Rahmen, Lebensart und verscheidenen Gewohnheiten. Edited by J.B.S. [?J.-B. Scherer]. Frankfurt and Leipzig: Johann Georg Fleischer, 1774. 8° (192 x 116mm). Engraved title vignette. 2 engraved folding maps and 12 engraved folding plates. Woodcut illustrations and head- and tailpieces. (Some very light dampstaining, occasional spotting, a few plates trimmed.) Contemporary glazed speckled-paper boards, gilt paper lettering-piece on spine, red edges (lightly rubbed causing small surface losses at extremities, spine-ends slightly chipped). Provenance: early manuscript pressmark label on spine -- early inscription on verso of title -- the Counts Holstein-Holsteinborg (inkstamp on title) -- Kaj Birket-Smith, 1926 (b. 1893, inscription on front free endpaper).
FIRST EDITION. AN IMPORTANT ACCOUNT BY 'THE FIRST SCIENTIST TO SET FOOT ON ALASKAN SOIL' (Lada-Mocarski). The German naturalist Steller joined Bering's second expedition part way through its survey, and was appointed to Bering's ship after the surgeon died, later taking command of the expedition after Bering's death in 1741. Steller surveyed Kamchatka and the surrounding areas, and his notes are followed by Müller's 'Geographie und Verfassung von Kamtschatka aus verscheidenen schriftlichen- und mündlichen Nachrichten, gesammlet zu Jakuzk, 1737' (which includes a 13-page vocabulary of the Koriak language), and 'gives a clear picture of the extent of knowledge regarding Alaska at that time' (Lada-Mocarski). The biography of Steller which precedes the text is probably the work of the editor, who is thought to be J.-B. Scherer. The present copy is from the library of the distinguished Danish ethnologist Kaj Birket-Smith, whose publications include The Caribou Eskimos (Copenhagen: 1929), Anthropological Observations on the Central Eskimos (Copenhagen: 1940), Ethnographical Collections from the Northwest Passage (Copenhagen: 1945), The Chugach Eskimo (Copenhagen: 1953), and The Eyak Indians of the Copper River Delta, Alaska (Copenhagen: 1938). In this copy the plate bound facing p.45 has not been bisected in order to bind part of it at p.200 (as called for by the instructions to the binder). Lada-Mocarski 21.
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