Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers explored and surveyed during the Voyages of H.M.S. 'Beagle', in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43... Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea
London, T. and W. Boone, 1846.
Octavo, two volumes, [2] (inserted advertising leaf for this work), xii, [ii] (list of charts, verso blank), [ii] (errata, verso blank), 522 (last blank), 8 (publisher's catalogue) pages [first volume]; and [iv] (inserted prospectus for Siborne's 'History of the War ... in 1815'), viii, [ii] (list of charts, verso blank), 544 (last blank), 8 (publisher's catalogue) pages [second volume], plus 26 engraved or lithographed plates and 7 (of 8) folding maps (lacking the chart of Bass Strait); all advertising leaves, and the slip for Eyre (at the end of the second volume), are present, but the one for Francis Dutton's 'South Australia and its Mines' is missing.
Original cloth later rebacked, retaining the original backstrips, with new endpapers (but retaining all but the original front free endpaper as well); new endpocket in the second volume (containing five of the maps); cloth a little bumped and rubbed at the extremities; spine sunned, with a few blemishes; plates generally a little foxed and offset, with occasional foxing elsewhere; the leading edge of one plate and an adjacent leaf are slightly proud of the rest, and now a little chipped; small (discoloured) tape repair to the gutter of the first title page; relevant newspaper cuttings on three advertising pages and the rear pastedown of the first volume; basically a decent uncut set.
'As the official account of the last major expedition of Australian discovery, [Stokes'] book is essential to a collection relating to coastal voyages. It is also of considerable interest to collectors of inland exploration journals, since Stokes and the crew of the "Beagle" undertook many expeditions inland from the coast which are recorded in his book. It is a very scarce book, especially with all eight folding charts ...' (Wantrup, page 215). Provenance: E. Angas Johnson, with his facsimile signature inkstamp on both title pages. Edward Angas Johnson (1873-1951) was an Adelaide medical practitioner, prominent in public health circles; his grandmother was a daughter of George Fife Angas; he was a significant collector of books, curios and historical relics ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). Wantrup 89a. See also his 'Thomas & William Boone's Library of Australian Travels' (2019); the text here is in his state B. [2 items].
Item #105220
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