Details
GAVRIIL ANDREEVICH SARYCHEV (1763-1831)
Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the North-East of Siberia, the Frozen Ocean, and the North-East Sea. London: J.G. Barnard for R. Phillips, 1806-1807. 2 volumes bound in one, 8° (202 x 124mm). 2 hand-coloured engraved plates and 3 folding engraved plates. Index leaf signed M bound in after part i. (Variable light spotting and browning, short tear to fold of one plate, one plate trimmed at fore-edge, without the final leaf called for by Howes at the end of part ii.) Late 19th/early 20th-century half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, others decorated with floral tools, red-speckled edges (lightly rubbed, splitting on upper hinge). Provenance: Museum Bookstore, London (bookseller's ticket) -- James Wickersham (1857-1939, bookplate dated 1916).
FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. THE JAMES WICKERSHAM COPY. Sarychev was deputy to Captain Joseph Billings, the leader of the Russian expedition of 1785 to 1793, which was sent by Empress Catherine II to explore the Arctic and North Pacific Oceans, during which 'Alaska and the Aleutians, especially Unalaska, were first carefully charted' (Hill). Sarychev's account was first published in Russian as Puteshestvie Flota Kapitana Sarycheva (St Petersburg: 1802), of which this edition is an abridged translation, omitting the vocabularies of the Russian edition. The present copy is from the library of James Wickersham, who attained distinction both as a lawyer and a politician, and as a historian and bibliographer of Alaska. Born in Illinois, Wickersham moved to Washington Territory and was appointed the District Judge for Alaska's Third Judicial District by President McKinley, thus becoming the first judge to sit in the Interior of Alaska. He resigned his position in 1908 when he was elected to Congress, where he represented Alaska for many of the following years, introducing (amongst others), the Alaskan Railroad and first Alaska Statehood Bills, and founding the modern-day University of Alaska. Hew published extensively on Alaska's history -- most famously his A Bibliography of Alaskan Literature 1724-1924 (Cordova, Alaska: 1927) and Old Yukon (Washington, D.C.: 1938) -- and also upon current political concerns. Hill 1527; Howes S-115; Sabin 77126.
Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the North-East of Siberia, the Frozen Ocean, and the North-East Sea. London: J.G. Barnard for R. Phillips, 1806-1807. 2 volumes bound in one, 8° (202 x 124mm). 2 hand-coloured engraved plates and 3 folding engraved plates. Index leaf signed M bound in after part i. (Variable light spotting and browning, short tear to fold of one plate, one plate trimmed at fore-edge, without the final leaf called for by Howes at the end of part ii.) Late 19th/early 20th-century half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, others decorated with floral tools, red-speckled edges (lightly rubbed, splitting on upper hinge). Provenance: Museum Bookstore, London (bookseller's ticket) -- James Wickersham (1857-1939, bookplate dated 1916).
FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. THE JAMES WICKERSHAM COPY. Sarychev was deputy to Captain Joseph Billings, the leader of the Russian expedition of 1785 to 1793, which was sent by Empress Catherine II to explore the Arctic and North Pacific Oceans, during which 'Alaska and the Aleutians, especially Unalaska, were first carefully charted' (Hill). Sarychev's account was first published in Russian as Puteshestvie Flota Kapitana Sarycheva (St Petersburg: 1802), of which this edition is an abridged translation, omitting the vocabularies of the Russian edition. The present copy is from the library of James Wickersham, who attained distinction both as a lawyer and a politician, and as a historian and bibliographer of Alaska. Born in Illinois, Wickersham moved to Washington Territory and was appointed the District Judge for Alaska's Third Judicial District by President McKinley, thus becoming the first judge to sit in the Interior of Alaska. He resigned his position in 1908 when he was elected to Congress, where he represented Alaska for many of the following years, introducing (amongst others), the Alaskan Railroad and first Alaska Statehood Bills, and founding the modern-day University of Alaska. Hew published extensively on Alaska's history -- most famously his A Bibliography of Alaskan Literature 1724-1924 (Cordova, Alaska: 1927) and Old Yukon (Washington, D.C.: 1938) -- and also upon current political concerns. Hill 1527; Howes S-115; Sabin 77126.
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