Lot 47. LANGSDORFF, Georg Heinrich von.

Handsomely bound example of the preferred issue on fine paper, with the first published view of San Francisco, not included in the English translation. A German naturalist and explorer, Langsdorff went on to become a Russian diplomat. He travelled as naturalist and physician on the first Russian scientific circumnavigation commanded by Krusenstern. Recording the Russian Embassy to Japan, the fur trade in Alaska, and the Russian settlement in California, Sabin credits him with giving the fullest account of Sitak and San Francisco to date. Langsdorff left the expedition at Kamchatka to explore the Aleutians, Kodiak and Sitka, returning from San Francisco to Saint Petersburg via Siberia. In 1813 he became Russian consul general at Rio de Janeiro, from where he planned the three-year expedition through Brazil which bears his name.

First edition. 2 vols, 4to, 355, 303pp., engraved portrait frontispieces in both volumes, 43 plates (1 folding), 1 folding leaf of music, light foxing as often, handsomely bound in contemporary green roan gilt, an attractive set.

[Borba de Moraes I, p455; Forbes 427; Hill 968; Howes L-81; Kroepelien 708; Lada-Mocarski 69; Sabin 38894; Wickersham 6245. ]