George Anson | A Voyage Round the World…, 1748, period-style calf, first edition, royal paper issue, tall, clean, uncut copy

George Anson

A Voyage Round the World... Compiled from papers and other materials... by Richard Walter. London: printed by the author, by John and Paul Knapton, 1748

FIRST EDITION, ROYAL PAPER ISSUE, 4to (271 x 208 mm), list of subscribers, 42 engraved plates, maps, and plans, finely bound in period-style speckled calf, blind-tooled border on sides, spine gilt with red morocco lettering piece, scattered marginal spotting, some light offsetting from text to plates

A TALL, UNCUT COPY OF THE OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF ANSON'S VOYAGE. The present copy is the Royal Paper Issue (with p.319 misnumbered 219), of which 350 copies were subscribed for. According to Sabin, "most of the quarto editions were also printed on large paper... that of 1748 is most desirable... [and] copies of the first edition, on royal paper... were superior to any book of the kind which had been hitherto published, and were unequalled until Cook's voyages appeared".

Anson was Commander in Chief of a mission to the South Seas, 1740-1744. Undertaken during the Anglo-Spanish war, the intention of the mission was to raid the coast of Pacific South America, to attack Panama and incite the native population to rebel against the Spanish. Bad weather, bad luck and scurvy depleted the squadron so that only one of the eight ships, the Centurion, remained. The capture of a Spanish ship laden with silver and gold was the one success of the mission.

LITERATURE:

Borba de Moraes p.38; Hill (2004) 1817; Sabin 1629; National Maritime Museum Catalogue 109