KOTZEBUE, Otto von (1787-1846). A Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Beering's Strait. London, 1821. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH.
3 volumes, 8vo (218 x 127 mm). 7 charts (4 folding), 8 hand-colored aquatint plates, and one uncolored plate; half-titles to volumes I and III. (Some minor spotting.) Later half tan calf gilt by Sangorski and Sutcliffe. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF KOTZEBUE'S FIRST VOYAGE. Kotzebue details the second Russian circumnavigation; this English edition includes maps and plates not present if the first Russian edition of 1821-1823. Count Romanoff, one of Russia's greatest patrons of science, sponsored the circumnavigation, which was the first Russian voyage undertaken for scientific purposes in the Pacific. Though unsuccessful in their search for a North-East passage, it proved to be one of the most important and fruitful of all Russian circumnavigations, contributing greatly to knowledge of the Pacific and the northwestern coast of America. Abbey Travel 596; Arctic Bibliography 9195; Borba de Moraes I:439; Forbes 528; Hill 944; Howes K-258; Lada-Mocarski 80; Sabin 38291.
Provenance: Edwin Stanton Fickes (1872-1943) Engineer and Vice President of Alcoa Aluminium (bookplate).
