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First edition. Two volumes. Octavo (8 ¾" x 5 9/16", 222mm x 142mm). [Full collation available.] Bound in half brown calf over red marbled boards by J. Carss & Co., Glasgow (tickets in the upper fore-corner of the front paste-down of each volume). Triple blind fillets at the edges of the calf. On the spine, five raised bands with gilt rolls. Double blind fillets top-and-bottom in the panels. Title gilt to red morocco in the second panel, number gilt to brown morocco in the fourth panel. Edges of the text-block speckled red. Some rubbing to the extremities and boards. A couple of nicks to the spines. A few tears to the folds of the maps in vol. I. Otherwise a lovely sturdy and clean set. On the front paste-down of each volume, the circular armorial bookplate of Campbell of Stonefield. The Samarang, which served for 61 years (1822-1883) - first for the East India Company - is perhaps best known for its voyages surveying from the Sea of Japan to the South China Sea. Belcher, its captain and later made an Admiral, is perhaps better known for his command of a fleet of five ships on an expedition to save the arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (see Skelton, Explorers' Maps 315); the timbers one of those ships, the Resolute, were used to build the Resolute Desk, a gift from Queen Victoria to the Rutherford B. Hayes, which is used by most presidents as the Oval Office desk. Belcher's anthropological explorations are marked by a greater-than-usual degree of scientific inquiry; this is underscored by the quite useful vocabulary at the end of vol. II, which encompasses English, Spanish, Malay, Bisayan, Sooloo (Tausug), Iloco, Batan, Cagayan, Tagala (Tagalog), Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Adams's natural-historical account, a bit over half of volume II, was the underpinning for his 1850 monograph on the zoology of the voyage; it is particularly esteemed for its work on mollusks. The plates are various in subject - including some lovely proper portraits (rather than caricatures) of those Belcher met in his travels - and demonstrate the success of good tinted rather than colored lithographs. The bookplate is likely that of John Campbell of Stonefield (1790â 1857), grandson of the more famous Lord Stonefield. John built Stonefield Castle in Argyll & Bute in Western Scotland; his uncle, Colonel John, was distinguished for his service at Mangalore on the west coast of India - perhaps this is the origin of the family interest in the exploration of southeast Asia. Abbey, Travel 528; Hill, Pacific Voyages 105. Seller Inventory # 6JLR0006
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