PUTESHESTVIE FLOTA KAPITANA SARYCHEVA...[translation: VOYAGE OF THE FLEET CAPTAIN SARYCHEV OVER THE NORTHEASTERN PART OF SIBERIA, FROZEN SEA AND THE PACIFIC OCEAN...FROM 1785 TO 1793]

St. Petersburg, 1802.. Text: Two volumes bound in one. [6],xii,[2],187,[8]; [4],192,[2]pp. plus folding table giving the number of inhabitants on the Fox and Andreanov islands, and the size of the fur tribute levied on these islands by the Russians in 1791. Folio atlas: Fifty engraved maps and plates, plus large folding map. No titlepage was ever issued. Quarto text volume and folio atlas. Text: Contemporary calf, spine gilt, leather label. Wear, rubbing, and soiling to boards, spine head frayed. Faint marginal dampstains to top corner of text, ink ownership notes on titlepage. Folio atlas: Contemporary three- quarter calf and marbled boards, neatly rebacked, spine gilt. Minor edge wear. Some mild creasing, dust-soiling, and mild foxing, small marginal repairs to one map. Overall a very good copy. In matching half morocco boxes. A complete fifty-one-plate copy of the very rare atlas and narrative of this Russian North Pacific exploration, what Lada-Mocarski calls "one of the fundamental and very rare early books on the Aleutian Islands and particularly on Unalashka." Sarychev led the third official Russian expedition to the North Pacific, sponsored by Catherine the Great and under the command of Joseph Billings. He was the official surveyor of the expedition, which lasted from 1785 to 1793, and his observations provide the earliest substantive scientific account of the Aleutians and part of the Alaska coast. The text also includes important linguistic material on the dialects of Russian America.

"The results of Captain Sarychev's observations and measurements are embodied in several maps of the atlas accompanying the description of the voyage - which lasted eight years - and in masterful engravings of views of natives and of their habitations and ceremonies" - Lada-Mocarski. There is considerable confusion over what constitutes the atlas. Howes calls for fifty-three maps and plates, which is clearly wrong, while Lada-Mocarski is undecided between fifty-one and fifty-two. The Library of Congress card calls for fifty-six. Recent research by collectors and dealers would seem to demonstrate conclusively that many copies of the atlas have fifty-one plates and maps, including one large folding map. Many of the extant copies are imperfect to some degree, and the wide range of paper stocks and variable printing quality of the plates suggest that the atlases were probably assembled over a period of time.

The extensive maps, coastal profiles, and engravings of natives is the most important group of iconography and cartography of the Alaska coast published up to this time. A complete list of these plates is given by Obolianinov. This copy is complete, with all fifty plates. Obolianinov confused the plate count by listing the two different issues of the large map as separate numbers when, in fact, there is only one large folding map, one issue with printed legend and one issue without; the present copy contains the folding map with the legend. A remarkable account of Russian America, with an atlas of fine engraved views of northwestern America and eastern Siberia. HOWES S115, "d." PILLING, PROOF-SHEETS 3488. LADA-MOCARSKI 57. SABIN 77123. WICKERSHAM 6128. COX I, p.353. ARCTIC BIBLIOGRAPHY 37223. OBOLIANINOV 2406. TOURVILLE 3965.