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First edition. Hard cover, 4to, in original unsigned tree calf fine binding, the spine rebacked, with 5 raised bands. The second compartment bears a red morocco label with gilt title: WILSON/AN ACCOUNT/ OF THE /PELEW ISLANDS." Bands are double ruled in gilt, with remnants of gilt rolled to board edges. Cream endpapers, letterpress-printed upon mould made paper. Stiple-engraved frontispiece portrait engraving of Capt. Henry Wilson (1740-1810) with 2 engraved fold-outs (one map, one landscape elevation), and additional 15 engraved full page plates; i.e.17 illustrations, as called for in the First Edition. With twenty-seven chapters, Directions to Binders, Dictionary of the Pelew Language and errata page. Title page with one illegible owner signature in old ink, with another below in the name of TH-- TWYSDEN. Engraved armorial bookplate of Viscount Falmouth. (see below).*CONDITION: Very Good. Professionally rebacked, but now featuring some superficial scuffs to the spine, some heavy scratches to the rear board. Light wear to finish and edges with some later color correction. Corners repaired, and rubbed. Both hinges with old paper repairs. Front hinge having about a two inch rend at center of same. Inside, earlier quires with some toning, odd spots of fox or soiling. Offset from only a couple of the engravings upon text. Map with mild fold creasing, small polish offset. One small paper repair at fold on foldout landscape. COLLATION:[2] pp.,[i]-xxvii [xxviii is Direction to binders], [1] - 378pp. [379 pp. eratta].**SUBJECT: The British and Chinese crew aboard the East India Company's packet ship Antelope comes to harm in July, 1783 as their ship is blown off course in a gale off of Macau, stranding them upon the coral banks of a hitherto unexplored group of South Pacific (now Micronesian) islands between Guam and the Phillipines. The Captain, Henry Wilson, and crew pull off a remarkable feat of salvaging the remains of the ship to build a sloop, enabling the crew to set sail via Canton to England after only four months on Oroolong, the island gifted them by the Pelau King Abba Thulle. Compiler George Keate uses journals, interviews and the log to tell the human story of an unplanned yet remarkably fruitful voyage of exploration and anthropological discovery. The Pelew (Pelau, or Belau) kingdom of the chief Abba Thulle extends generous hospitality and friendship to the travelers, inviting mutual respect and kindness. In return, the British aid them in medical matters and several battles against rival islanders. They are gifted various Pelauan "ornaments"( which make up some of the illustrations) as they set off four months later to return to England, also bringing with them the King's nephew, Prince Lee Boo, who lives for a time with Mr. Keate and his family. Keate wrote a second title about Lee Boo's time in England, and his daughter Caroline provides a portrait from memory used here, when Lee Boo died from smallpox in Dec., 1784. **ILLUSTRATIONS: Arthur William Devis (1762-1822 ) shipped out as the official East India Company Artist in 1782, and by 1783 was aboard the shipwrecked "Antelope" in Palau. Trained as an academic painter and portraitist, he exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and other galleries. The British Museum has several of his original portrait drawings from the voyage which appear in the book, including that of the Prince Lee Boo (Lebu) and his father, Arra Kook (Arra Kooger), as well as a portrait of a Chinese lady drawn after the crew regrouped in Macau and Canton in 1784. (British Museum online). Luckily, there were numerous artistically-inclined sketchers on this voyage, including the Captain himself, making possible a thoroughly facinating pictorial record of the events, cultural history and people. The brother of artist Edwin Landseer, the engraver Thomas Landseer was also employed on this work, as prepared back in London. BIBLIOGRAPHERS cite five editions by 1804, including a pirated Irish edition and one in French; it has been an enduringly popular narative, variously abridged and translated into many languages in the ensuing years, due to the particularly well-told tale on a very human scale. **PROVENANCE: Viscount Falmouth, Mereworth Castle, Kent (engraved bookplate). This stunning early eighteenth-century Palladian home, designed by Scottish architect Colen Campbell, appeared in film as the residence of Agent 007, in the 1967 Sean Connery/ James Bond film, "Casino Royale," immortalized from the 1953 Ian Fleming novel. The book is presumed to have belonged to the 3rd Viscount Falmouth, George Evelyn Boscawen, (d.1808) whose family crest upon the bookplate features distinctive heraldry of lions rampant with the tail of a fish. (His father, the 2nd Viscount Falmouth, Hugh Boscawen, (d. 1782) was a naval Admiral. Also, THOMAS TWYSDEN, (d. 1801) whose name appears signed in old ink to the title page, also had a distinguished and lengthy naval career, entering service in 1781 as Fourth Lieut. of the 74-gun ship of the line, The Defense, in 1793. REFS: BDNB. J.-Ch. Brunet, "Manuel du Libraire et de L'Amateur de Livres." Vol.III, (Paris: Libraire de Firmin Didot Frères, Fils et Co., 1862) No. [21153], p. 647. J.R. Abbey, "Travel in Aquatint and Lithography 1770-1860 (Stoors-Mansfield, CT: M. Martino Publisher, 1995), note to No. 546. Cotton and Fawcett, "East Indiamen" (London: Batchworth Press, 1949), p. 138. Three Decks' dot org. (4.7 lbs.)
Ref: ADV 9470
$1650.00