SARYCHEV, Gavriil Andreevich. Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the North-East of Siberia, The Frozen Ocean, And The North-East Sea. London, Richard Phillips, 1806-7.
Two volumes in one, 8vo. Modern half-calf, retaining the 19th-century marbled boards, morocco label and endpapers; pp. 70; 80, [4, index], three folding engraved plates, two hand-coloured costume plates; these latter two cropped at outer margins, toning to folding plates, otherwise very good.
First English edition of this expedition report, abridged from the Russian edition of 1802. Joseph Billings, who had accompanied Captain Cook on his last voyage, entered the Russian Navy and was chosen by Catherine II to chart the coast of Eastern Siberia and beyond resultin in 'one of the fundamental and early books on the Aleutian Islands, and particularly on Unalashka' (Lada-Mocarski 57). It was the first Russian exploration of these regions after Bering's in 1741. Sarychev was the surveyor on these voyages, which stretched over nine years from 1785 to 1794. The publisher Richard Phillips specialized in first English translations of travelogues from foreign languages, and published a series of these, sometimes several titles bound together. This volume contains three further one-volume titles from this series (bound after Sarychev): Reinbeck's Travels from St. Petersburgh (1807), Reuilly's Travels in the Crimea (1807), and Campenhausen's Travels through several Provinces of the Russian Empire of 1808. All additional titles in this sammelband, apart from the last, are illustrated; however, they have not been taken into account when picing the Sarychev. The index leaves for the two Sarychev volumes are found at the end on the volume, and are rarely found bound in at all.
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