[Rarebooks] fa: 1751 Gentleman's Magazine NIAGARA FALLS - INCAS &c. - 49 PLATES

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, September 28. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/ng4g4xr

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. Volume XXI [21]. For the Year MDCCLI [1751]. London: Printed for Edw. Cave, at St. John's Gate, [1751]. Twelve monthly issues (Jan.-Dec.), plus the supplement, volume title, indices and preface. Tall 8vo (22 cm) in early plain boards with leather spine; [4] + 612 + [18] pp; with numerous in-text charts and tables, woodcut diagrams and illustrations, plus 49 copper-engraved plates, nine of which are folding.

Rather crude early binding is rough and worn at the edges and the extremities. It appears that some moisture or biopredation (or a combination of both) has been at work, resulting in some chipping to the fore-edges of the early and late leaves, with losses to two early plates (Guildhall and Niagara Falls) and to a few of the plates of Baronets' Arms at the rear of the volume; frontispiece and front endpapers detached and worn/chipped at the fore-edges; a few folding plates are protruding slightly from the text block, resulting in wear and bumping to their fore-edges; two other plates (churches of St. Mary-le-Bow and St. Bride's) laid in loose; two text leaves (lists of promotions and books) with long, closed vertical tears; lacking one plate (Pont du Garde at Nimes). These defects aside, the bulk of the volume is unusually clean and bright, with only occasional very light toning and spotting.

The volume contains the first account of NIAGARA FALLS written by a scientifically trained observer, "A Letter from Mr. Kalm, a Gentleman of Sweden, now on his Travels in America, to his Friend in Philadelphia, containing a particular Account of the Grat[sic] Fall of Niagara," accompanied by one of the earliest published depictions, "A View of the Fall of Niagara" (loss to the top margin and upper-right corner). Pehr, or Peter, Kalm was a Swedish botanist and naturalist who, in 1747, was commissioned by Linnaeus and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to explore North America for plants and seeds that might prove useful in agriculture or industry. The account printed here of Kalm's travels to the "vast and terrifying Fall of Water" predates the appearance of his full work, En Resa til Norra America, which was published in Stockholm 1753-1761. Also of American interest in this volume are woodcuts, with accompanying descriptions, of Rice Birds of Carolina and the great black Wasp of Pennsylvania.

Other features of note include:

	- A large folding Bird's-eye View of GOSPORT HOSPITAL.
	- A handsome folding view of the Interior of the PANTHEON IN ROME.
	- A folding map of the BLACKLEAD OR WAD MINES in Cumberland.
	- 18TH-CENTURY TECHNOLOGY. Plates and woodcuts (with accompanying text) of: a Machine to make a Watch serve as an Alarum; an Instrument for examining Timekeepers; a Botanic Thermometer; a Wheel used in Persia for drawing Water; a Self-moving Engine; a Weaving Engine; Filtering Machines; a Self-moving Wheel; etc.
	- Folding views of St, Mary le Bow Steeple, St. Bride's Church and Steeple, the west end of Westminster Abbey.
	- HENRY FIELDING: an extract from his Enquiry into the Cause of the late Increase of Robbers, &c.
	- Portraits of the FIRST FIVE INCAS OF PERU.
	- Twenty-nine plates of the ARMS OF BARONETS (several with loss to the fore-edges).
	- Woodcut portraits and accompanying accounts of Edmund Bright, of Malden, notable for his bulk, and Mr Manpferdt, the surprising Centaur, the greatest Wonder produced by Nature these 3000 Years, lately proposed to be exhibited to public View.
	- Additional PLATES depicting: Six Views of Bridges; the Aqueduct at Aleantra in Portugal; the plant Anhtelmia or Worm Grass of Jamaica, and the Cockroach or Blatta Americana; Roman Lamps (two plates); Frederick Prince of Wales and his consort. WOODCUTS of: a double-headed Snake; the Madagascar Bat; the Maucauco of Madagascar; etc.
	- Plus monthly Prices of Stocks and Goods, Accounts of Theatrical Performances, Register of Books published, Bills of Mortality, Obituaries, lists of Bankrupts and Promotions; and much more.