A Collection of Voyages Chiefly in The Southern Atlantick Ocean. Published from Original M.S.S. By Alexander Dalrymple
THE COLCHESTER-STREETER-BENTTINEN COPY
London: for the author, 1775. First edition.
Quarto (10 ¼” x 8”, 260mm x 203mm): π2 a–b4 c2 B–C4 D2 E2(–E2), 2B–K4 L2 M4 N2, +χ1 3A2 B–D2, A–D2 +2χ1 4B–D2 E2(–E2) [$half signed]. 92 leaves, pp. [4] (title, blank, contents, blank) 1–19 [1] (blank) 21–22, 31–88 [2] (section title, advertisement) 41–16 51–16 [2] (section title, blank) 61–13 [1] (blank). With 3 folding engraved plates, two of which are maps.
Bound in XIXc half calf over marbled boards. On the spine, 5 raised bands. Title and author gilt to green morocco in the second panel, date gilt to heel. With a blue silk ribbon marker.
Extremities rubbed. Splits to the inner margin of the endpapers. Conté underlining throughout, ink marginalia to E4 verso. Armorial bookplate of Lord Colchester and bookplate of Frank S. Streeter to the front pastedown. Bookplate of the Constitutional Club Library to the rear pastedown. Maintains the often lacking contents leaf.
Alexander Dalrymple (1737–1808) was a Scottish geographer and a driving force in the Terra Australis Incognita theory which postulated that a large undiscovered continent existed in the southern hemisphere and balanced out the known land masses in the northern hemisphere. Following his father’s death in 1751, Dalrymple joined the British East India Company as, in essence, an advertising copywriter. After multiple voyages in Madras (modern Chennai), he was promoted to hydrographer and produced navigational charts, atlases, and descriptions for the Company until 1790.
A Collection of Voyages Chiefly in The Southern Atlantick Ocean opens with a collection of letters from Dalrymple to Lord North in 1772 written in an effort to obtain government approval and backing for a proposed voyage to the southern Atlantic in search of Terra Australis Incognita. In support of his plans, Dalrymple publishes accounts of the voyages of Edmund Halley (in 1698, 1699 and 1700), Ducloz Guyot de St. Malo (in 1753), Loziers Bouvet (in 1738–1739) and John McBride in 1766–1767. Unfortunately for Dalrymple, Captain Cook returned from his second voyage the same year as publication and his report of the discoveries made by his crew rendered the expedition unnecessary.
Though unspecified, the present example likely belonged to Charles Abbot II, the 2nd Baron Colchester (1798–1867). Abbot inherited Kidbrooke estate (with gardens manicured by Humphry Repton) from his father in 1829, retired from the Royal Navy as an Admiral, and served briefly in Lord Derby’s administrations in the 1850s. He was President of the Royal Geographical Society from 1845 to 1847. The bookplate at the rear must then refer to the successor of the title, Charles Edward Abbot, who saw no joys in managing Kidbrooke and sold the grounds in favor of his academic and political career. The volumes amassed by the 2nd Baron Colchester were then gifted to the Constitutional Club, a conservative gentleman’s club in London.
Frank Sherwin Streeter (1918–2006) was the son of the legendary Americana collector Thomas W. Streeter, whose sale catalogue has become a reference work. Some of his collection he inherited from his father (those he did not he would often buy back), but other volumes he added over many decades until his death.
Theodore “Ted” Benttinen (1948–2023) was an MIT-educated oceanographer and explorer who went to both poles on research missions. Benttinen amassed a formidable collection of books of exploration, particularly strong in Pacific voyages as well as in polar accounts.
Bell D13; Sabin 18336; Spence 335
Cataloged by G.R. Murdock
Item #GRM0078
Price: $12,500