Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, Animals, and other matters worth of Notice... In his Travels from Pensilvania to Onondago, Oswego and the Lake Ontario, in Canada. To which is annex'd a curious Account of the Cataracts at Niagara. By Mr. Peter Kalm, A Swedish Gentleman who travelled there.
London: Printed for J. Whiston and B. White, 1751. First edition.
Octavo in 4s (7 1/4" x 4 7/16", 154mm x 113mm). With an engraved folding frontispiece of the town of Oswego.
Bound in later contemporary calf (rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down) by W. Pratt for H. Stevens 1876 (signed to the upper fore-corner of the verso of the first free end-paper). On the boards, a double gilt fillet. On the spine, five raised bands with a gilt fillet. In the panels, gilt floral centerpieces with a gilt dashed roll between two gilt fillets top-and-bottom. Title gilt to green morocco in the second panel, place and date gilt to green morocco in the third. Double gilt fillets to the edges of the boards, continuing to the inside dentelle. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt.
Rebacked (with the original backstrip laid down). Bumps to the fore-corners and wear to the lower fore-corners. Internally a very little toning, and excellent margins, often over 20mm at the tail. A lovely and rare thing. A partially-effaced bookplate on the verso of the first free end-paper and the bookplate of G. Owen Bonawit on the front paste-down.
John Bartram (1699-1777), father of the eminent traveler in the American Southeast William Bartram, traveled instead through Pennsylvania and up into Canada. His prime aim was botanical, but the book is a remarkable account of the customs and interrelations of the Six Nations of the Grand Council of the Iroquois League. The financing for the trip came from England, whither he sent botanical (and later other) specimens for the aristocracy and the cognoscenti. What follows is sixteen pages of correspondence from Peter Kalm, one of Linnæus's greatest disciples, who wrote the first scientific description of Niagara Falls.
G. Owen Bonawit (1891-1971) is best known as a maker of stained glass, especially for Yale (notably the Sterling). His bookplate depicts a native American, indicating his interest in the field.
Item #6JLR0056
Price: $18,000