Beschreibung:

CHORIS, Louis (1795-1828 ). Voyage pittoresque autour du monde, avec des portraits de sauvages d'Amérique, d'Asie, d'Afrique, et des iles du Grand Ocean; des paysages, des vues maritimes, et plusieurs objets d'histoire naturelle. Paris: Imprimerie de Firmin Didot 1820-1822. The first edition, with imperial Russian provenance, of "the great colorplate book of the Northern Pacific" (Forbes). The plates in this book, “one of the very valuable and fundamental works on Alaska, California, and the Hawaiian Islands,” are after drawings by Louis Choris made on Kotzebue’s world voyage of 1815-1818 (Lada-Mocarski). Choris, a German-Russian artist, was appointed the official draughtsman of the expedition when he was only twenty. Essentially, this is an album of illustrations; the text records the most memorable episodes of the voyage and full explanations of the plates—more of which relate to California, Hawaii, Kamchatka and Alaska than any other work of the period—and the Philippines, Chile and Easter Island. It is arranged in 8 sections which were first sold in 22 livraisons, 1820-1822 (although both Brunet and Howes state that publication ended in 1823). Two title pages were printed, dated 1820 to accompany the first livraison, and 1822 for the successive parts. There was only one issue of the text and plates, according to Forbes, and although a lithographic portrait of the artist is found in a few copies, its presence does not constitute an issue point. Indeed, it may have been produced only after the work was completed. The text was written and edited by J.B. Eyries and the list of subscribers (present in this copy) accounts for 188 copies. Choris supervised the execution of the plates himself and reworked several to his liking. Four variant plates are noted by Forbes as the most important. This copy has state B of the dance at the mission in San Francisco (IV.III), state C of the portrait of King Kamehameha (V.II), state B of Queen Kaahmanu with the spelling of her name corrected to “Cahoumanou” (V.III), and state A of the dance of the Hawaiian women (V.XVI). The manuscript text of the voyage was never published but his album is highly prized for its beauty and its historical record. Forbes writes that it contains "a final and very beautiful pictorial examination of the Hawaiian Islands and of Hawaiian culture as it existed prior to the death of Kamehameha I in 1819, and prior to the abolition of the 'kapu' or feudal system following the king's death" and considers it “the great colorplate book of the Northern Pacific.” This copy was once part of the Imperial Public Library, founded by order of Catherine II in 1795. The arms preserved from the first binding suggest that the book was probably earlier in a Russian imperial collection, perhaps that of Empress Consort Maria Fedorovna, mother of tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I (for a similar stamp see Christie’s, 29 November 2012, lot 50, and Christie’s, 27 November 2008, lot 10). The regions visited by Kotzebue’s expedition were vital to Russian economic interests—particularly the Pacific coastline of Northern California and Alaska—and the voyage was financed by Count Nikolai Rumyantsev, Chancellor of the Russian Empire. Brunet I:1851 (calling for 110 plates); Forbes 541; Hill 290; Howes C-397; Lada-Mocarski 84; Peters California on Stone pp. 97-98; Sabin 12884; Streeter sale 2461; Tourville 925; Wickersham 6676. Folio (404 x 257mm). 2 letterpress title pages, lithographic portrait frontispiece, 104 hand-colored lithographed plates after drawings by the author; folding map hand-colored outline and 2 further maps on one leaf (toned with some scattered light spotting, a few plates with pale marginal dampstaining). Rebound in modern calf over original marbled boards (front flyleaf loosening). Provenance : Imperial Public Library, St. Petersburg (case label, press mark, arms on spine preserved from an earlier binding; de-accessioned c.1950s, with stamp) – Beatrice Simpson Volkmann