Beschreibung:

Undersøgelses-Reise til Østkysten af Grønland Author: Graah, Wilhelm August Place: Copenhagen Publisher: J.D. Qvist Date: 1832 Description: xvii, [1], 216 pp. Text in Danish. Large folding map and 8 hand-colored engraved plates. (4to) 26.6x21.5 cm (10½x8½"), marbled paper-covered boards rebacked with earlier calf spine strip laid down, spine tooled and lettered in gilt. First Edition. A scarce first edition copy of Graah's Exploration of the East Coast of Greenland, first printed in Danish in 1832 and published in English in 1837. In 1828 a Danish expedition was sent out from Copenhagen under the command of the naval officer and explorer Wilhelm August Graah (1793-1863). Its goal was to locate lost Norse settlements on the coast of Greenland, which had existed in certain places from around the turn of the millennium until their collapse some centuries later. The Danes did not find any settlement where they searched on the eastern coast, and the men endured harrowing conditions and near starvation during three winters. Graah's work opens with a brief history of the exploration and colonization of Greenland before recounting his own expedition. Observations on the Greenlandic Inuit are incorporated as well. The fine hand-colored plates depict Inuit umiaks and kayaks, their implements and summer dwellings, etc. Bookplate from the Steve Fossett Collection of Adventure & Exploration. Steve Fossett was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers Club who is known for having set many records including a non-stop circumnavigation of the Earth in a hot-air balloon. In 2007 Fossett died in a plane crash in the Sierra Nevada. Earlier ownership marks on front free endpaper with a few instances of marginalia in the same hand. Lot Amendments Condition: Rubbing and scratches to marbled paper; light foxing, some offsetting with a bit of bleed-through to plates; very good or better. Item number: 344290a