Thick quarto, strong impressions of all 42 folding engraved plates and maps, includes single leaf directions to the bookbinder for plates, some very occasional marks and scattered foxing, contemporary owner's signature 'John Towers 1748' on front flyleaf; a handsome volume in contemporary calf, spine banded and tooled in gilt, crimson morocco label, a very good copy.

First edition. One of 350 large or 'royal paper' copies, much superior to the relatively ill-proportioned ordinary paper issue: 'a masterpiece of descriptive travel' (Hill). Cox calls the present imprint "the genuine first" and notes two issues, one for the author and the genuine first, with p. 319 misnumbered, as here.

Anson's Voyage, one of the great publishing successes of the eighteenth century, was widely read and it is unusual to find copies surviving unrestored in contemporary bindings, as here. The narrative, based on Anson's own journal, had an enormous popular success: for the mid-eighteenth-century reader, it was the epitome of adventure, and it was translated into several European languages and stayed in print through numerous editions for many years.

'Anson's voyage of 1740-44 holds a unique and terrible place in British maritime history. [When] Anson reached the coast of China in November 1742 he was left with one ship and a handful of men, some of whom had "turned mad and idiots". The most extraordinary part of the voyage was still to come, for despite his losses Anson was determined to seize the treasure galleon that made the annual voyage from Acapulco to Manila. Laden with Peruvian silver, she was the "Prize of all the Oceans". In June 1743 Anson intercepted the Nuestra Señora de Covadonga, and in a 90-minute action forced her surrender. After refitting at Canton he returned home the next year to find himself compared with Drake, and his exploits with the long-remembered feats of arms against the Spain of Philip II. The casualties were forgotten as the public celebrated a rare triumph in a drab and interminable war…, and in 1748 the long-awaited authorised account appeared under the name of Richard Walter, chaplain on the Centurion, and became a best-seller. Walter's volume has formed the basis of all accounts of Anson's voyage from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. The book, more fully illustrated than any similar work up to that time, was both a stirring story of adventure at sea and an exhortation to further Pacific enterprise' (Glyn Williams, The prize of all the oceans. The triumph and tragedy of Anson's voyage round the world, 1999, pp. xvii-xviii; and for the long-standing dispute over authorship see appendix I: Williams concludes that Walter may have commenced the work and saw it through the press, but Benjamin Robins, a talented and versatile mathematician and an experienced writer, was primarily responsible for its literary quality. There is, however, no doubt that Anson closely scrutinised the text and in everything except stylistic terms the narrative is Anson's own interpretation of events).

Alden, 'European Americana', 748/225; Borba de Moraes, I, 32; Cox, I, p. 49; Hill, 1817; Kroepelien, 1086; Sabin, 101175.

Australian: $13,500 (Approx. US $12,170, Euro €9365) Quote ref.

Add to Cart