44 a Presentation set oF an iMPortant WorK on south
aMerica, inscriBeD BY the author to a leaDing riVer Plate Merchant, Who later BecaMe the argentine consul-general anD Minister in lonDon
146. Hall, Basil, Captain. extracts from a Journal, Written on the coasts of chili, Peru, and Mexico, in the Years 1820, 1821, 1822 ... Fourth edition. Edinburgh and London: John Stark for Archibald Constable and Co. and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., 1825.
£750
8vo (185 x 115mm), 2 volumes. contemporary British full green calf gilt, boards with borders of double gilt fillets enclosing blind-tooled floral rolls, spines gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-pieces in one, others with floral tools, blind-tooled board edges, red-speckled edges; pp. i: [i]-xx, [1]-379, [1 (blank)]; ii: [i]- xii,
[1]-320, [1]-80; retaining
half-titles, engraved folding map by W.h. lizars after a.B. Becher and h. Foster, letterpress tables in the text; slightly rubbed, scuffed and marked, spines slightly faded, lettering-pieces slightly chipped, occasional light spotting or marking, map spotted, nonetheless a very clean set; provenance: george Frederick Dickson, liverpool
(1787-1859, autograph authorial presentation
inscriptions on half-titles ‘Mr g.F. Dickson liverpool[.] From his friend the author’) — traces of bookplates on upper pastedowns.
Fourth, revised and enlarged edition. the naval officer and author Basil hall (1788-1844) joined the royal navy in 1802 and saw extensive service during the napoleonic Wars (at one point interviewing napoleon himself, who had been a fellow student of hall’s father at Brienne), and travelled to china with lord amherst’s embassy, returning to england in 1817, in which year he was posted captain. after (it is believed) travelling on the continent for two years, ‘in May 1820 he was appointed to the Conway, a 26-gun frigate, for service on the south american station. he sailed from england in august, and on joining the commodore, sir thomas hardy, in the river Plate, was at once sent round to Valparaíso. For the next two years he continued on the west coast of america, his voyage ranging as far north as san Blas, Mexico, where, as at rio de Janeiro and at the galápagos, he carried out a series of geophysical pendulum observations, the account of which was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1823, 211-88) [...] he sailed from san Blas in June 1822, and after touching at rio de Janeiro returned to england, and was paid off in the spring of 1823. his Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico [...] had a remarkable success’ (oDnB). this success continued through the nineteenth century — lowndes considers it ‘an excellent little work, full of interesting anecdotes, and lively descriptions of events which occurred during his professional visits to several places on the coast of the Pacific ocean, from chili to the northern Part of Mexico’ — into the twentieth, when griffin judged it ‘one of the best descriptions of events on the west coast as seen by a British naval officer’ and Palau lauded it as an ‘obra interesante con curiosa anécdotas y descripciones fieles de las costas del oceano Pacífico entre chile y Mexico. Desde su aparición obtuvo un gran éxito, pues durante el año de 1824 se hicieron tres ediciones’. this fourth edition of 1825 is revised and incorporates the amendments and additions of the second and third editions, as the ‘advertisement’ (dated 20 December 1824) records (i, pp. vii-ix).
this set was inscribed by hall to g.F. Dickson, who had been born in Manchester, but travelled to south america as a young man, and enjoyed great success as a merchant
in the territories surrounding Buenos ayres, before returning to Britain in around 1821 or 1822, where he settled in liverpool, maintaining his commercial interests in argentina. in the late 1830s Dickson moved to london, where he remained until his death, becoming the argentinian consul-general and argentine Minister to london. alexander
147. HarmsWortH, sir alfred C. Motors and Motor-driving. Longmans, Green & Co., 1904.
£498
8vo, newly bound in half black morocco, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, top edges gilt; 14 plates, including photographs and drawings by h.M. Brock and others, many photographs and diagrams in the text; a fresh copy.
third edition of this ‘Badminton library’ volume. charles s. rolls contributes a chapter on ‘the caprices of the Petrol Motor’.
148. Harris, eileen and nick saVaGe. British architectural Books and Writers 1556-1785. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
£150
4to. Dark red cloth, dust jacket; pp. 572 + [1], illustrated throughout with b/w text figures; a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket.
First edition. indispensable bibliography of British architectural treatises and pattern-books. Prefaced by chapters on books on the orders, books of designs and pattern-books, carpenter’s manuals, measuring and price books, books on bridges, archaeological books, publishers and booksellers and lastly, architectural engraving.
caldcleugh’s closely-contemporary account of Travels in South America, during the Years 1819-20-21; Containing an Account of the Present State of Brazil, Buenos Ayres, and Chile (london: 1825) acknowledges the assistance and kindness of ‘g.F. Dickson, esq., late of Buenos ayres, but now residing in liverpool’ (i, p. vii), and it seems likely that hall and Dickson had met in south america, when the Conway had stopped at the river Plate in 1820, and that Dickson had similarly assisted hall, prompting the presentation of this set.
Brunet III, col. 21; Lowndes p. 977; NMM I, 336; Sabin 29718; for the 1st ed., cf. Griffin 3457; Hill I, p. 134; Palau 112072.
147
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