Choris, Louis | An important series of views of the Pacific and the west coast of America

Choris, Louis

Vues et Paysages des Régions Equinoxiales, recueillis dans un voyage autour du Monde...avec une introduction et un texte explicatif. Paris: Paul Renouard, 1826

Folio (422 x 286 mm). Half-title, hand-colored lithographic plates by F. Noel or F. Bové after Choris. Expertly bound to style in half red straight grain morocco over period red paper covered boards, spine gilt.

One of only fifty large paper copies of this important series of views of the Pacific and the west coast of America

A large paper copy with the plates hand-colored, and without the 2pp. letterpress letter to the "empereur de toutes les Russies", dated 1827, which, according to Forbes, "does not appear in every copy."

"In July 1815 Choris, at the age of 20, joined Otto von Kotzebue's expedition on the Rurik as the official artist. This was the first Russian circumnavigation devoted exclusively to scientific purposes and several well-known scientists contributed greatly to its success. Choris made a great many drawings during this voyage. In 1822 he published Voyage Pittoresque autour du monde ... Despite his using many of his drawings in that work, Choris found 24 subjects among the remaining drawings which he published 4 years later in [the present work]" (Lada-Mocarski).

The plates are of subjects from the Atlantic and Pacific and include five of the coast of Brazil, three in Chile, eleven in the South Pacific and Hawaii, and the remainder in Kamchatka, the Marianas, Manila, the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena. "Choris' drawings are original and faithful pictorial representations of the subjects he drew" (Lada-Mocarski).

Rare.

REFERENCE

Borba de Moraes 180-181; Forbes I:632; Lada-Mocarski 90; O'Reilly & Reitman 786; Sabin 12885