[Rarebooks] fa: LORD BYRON - THE PRISONER OF CHILLON 1816 - Riviere Binding

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 5. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/d9c5pye

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Sir George Mackenzie: Travels in the Island of Iceland, During the Summer of MDCCCX. Edinburgh: Printed by Thomas Allan and Company, for Archibald Constable [etc.], 1811. FIRST EDITION. Early/period quarter calf over buckram, rebacked with the original spine laid down; 4to (28 cm); xvii, [3], 483, [1] pp.; with the half-title; 32 engraved illustrations and maps, some hand-colored and/or folding, most with tissue-guards. Abbey Travel 160; Tooley 313.

COMPLETE with 3 maps (including one folding and hand-colored), 8 colored aquatints (mounted as issued), 6 uncolored full-page plates (one folding), and 15 in-text engravings, plus 4 folding letterpress tables. Considered the best early illustrated work on Iceland. Mackenzie's excursions were intended primarily for mineralogical research, but his narrative is of greater interest for its descriptions of the zoology, botany and "natural history of the island, and the history, literature, and diseases of the people" (ODNB). "Although the scientific portions of the book have long been superseded, it contains much information of permanent interest on the social and economic condition of Iceland" (DNB). Contains a folding view of the sleepy little hamlet of Reikiavik (Reykjavík). A second, somewhat abridged, edition was issued in of 1812.

Light wear and soiling to the binding; early/original owner's signature ("Wm. Hancock") to the title-page; professional paper repairs to the folding map and one text leaf (horizontal tear); some scattered foxing and small stains, toning/darkening to the edges of some plates and the leaves on which the aquatints are mounted; the exquisitely colored aquatints themselves are generally quite clean and fresh.