[Rarebooks] fa: 1754 Gentleman's Magazine: MAP of AMERICA + De Lisle's "NORTHWEST PASSAGE" MAP + FIRST MENTION of GEORGE WASHINGTON, &c. - w/ 23 PLATES

[ArCh]

Auction ending Sunday, September 25. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/2ok9x2l2

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. Volume XXIV [24]. For the Year MDCCLIV [1754]. London: Printed for D. Henry and R. Cave at St. John's Gate, [1754]. Twelve monthly issues, plus supplement, volume title, indices and preface. Thick 8vo (21 cm) bound in full early/period vellum; [4] + 603 + [21] pp.; with charts and tables, in-text woodcut diagrams and illustrations, musical notation, plus 23 engraved plates, eight of which are folding.
Notable for containing two significant MAPS:

	- A Map of the British American Plantations, extending from Boston in New England to Georgia; including all the back Settlements in the respective Provinces as far as the Mississipi [sic]. By Eman[uel] Bowen. Colonies, cities, towns, forts, outposts, French possessions, rivers, inlets, and other physical landmarks are depicted and named, and the locations of Indian tribes are shown. The title-piece at lower right is flanked by images of Native Americans. An important map that greatly influenced British perceptions of the Colonies before the Treaty of 1763 (split to the fold at lower-left)
	- A General Map of the Discoveries of Admiral de Fonte & others by M. [Joseph-Nicolas] De l'Isle. Among other spectacular flights of fancy, De l'Isle depicts a vast "West Sea" north of California, as well as the mythical Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific. Other oddities include "De Fonte's Lake" (west of Hudson's Bay); a "Suppos'd great current of Water" plunging southward through Canada from a gargantuan "Lake Bernarda"; a huge island in the Atlantic east of Kamchatka; and a "Vast Tract of Land [in the Arctic] discovered in 1722 to which the Tzutzy fled when they were pursued by the Russes who have not yet subdued them.". The voyages of Captains Tchirikow, Beering (Bering?), de Fuca, Bernarda and others are shown as well as those of the imaginary Admiral De Fonte. First published in Paris in 1752, this is the first English printing.
The contents include:
	- The magazine's first mention of GEORGE WASHINGTON, in the June issue, in a detailed "Account of the Journey of Maj. Washington from Williamsburg, to the French Fort, near Lake Erri[sic], in Virginia," and in the September issue, an account of what proved to be the opening battle of the French and Indian War at Fort Necessity and the surrender of Washington (now "Col. Washington") to the French.
	- A poem addressed "To BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Esq; of Philadelphia, on his Experiments and Discoveries in Electricity," which begins: "Let others muse on sublunary things, / The rise of empires and fall of kings; / Thine is the praise with bolder flight to soar, / And airy regions, yet untrack'd, explore...").
	- On the present Troubles in America (re. the French and Indian War).
	- Account of... Russian Discoveries to the North-East.
	- Several contributions by SAMUEL JOHNSON, including An Account of the Life of the late Mr Edward Cave (the magazine's founder and publisher).
	- Reprints of two articles by the EARL OF CHESTERFIELD on the imminent publication of "Mr. Johnson's English Dictionary."
	- An Account of a Journey to Edinburgh, undertaken to trace the Meridian of the Castle.
	- An Account of a new invented Air-Pump. By Mr J. Smeaton, F.R.S.
	- Extract of a new Method of opening the Cornea in order to extract the chrystalline Humour [of the Eye] for the Cure of a Cataract (accompanied by an illustration).
	- Surprizing electricity of cats.
	- plus monthly Prices of Stocks and Goods, Account of Theatrical Performances, Register of Books published, Bills of Mortality, Obituaries, listing of Bankrupts; newspaper extracts; and much more.

Other PLATES include:
	- A Portrait of Edward Cave
	- View of the Arch or Grand Entrance to the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra (folding).
	- The Elevation of the Centre Arch of Westminster Bridge (splitting at the fold).
	- A new invented Air-Pump (creases and a short tear).
	- A new invented Carriage and Waggon.
	- HOROLOGY: A new Scaping for Clocks [and a] Machine for winding up Clocks (2 plates, 1 folding)
	- View of Christenbury Craigs [Christianbury Crag].
	- Captain Savery's Fire Engine.
	- A Plan and Elevation of the beautiful Bridge built over the River Loire, at Blois in France.
Bound without the plates of Guildford Bridge, London, and Baronets' Arms. Binding rubbed and soiled, joints starting at the bottom but secure; contents trimmed a little close, affecting a few captions, intermittent mostly light browning to the leaves and plates, occasional offsetting, spots and touches of soiling, else clean and sound, firmly bound. Early ownership signatures and bookplate of R. Lumley Kingston of Dorchester, presumably Robert Lumley Kingston (1712-1774), attorney and mayor of Dorchester; engraved (by Johannes Britze) twentieth-century bookplate of Marius Nielsen.