Item #4011293 Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack for the Year of Our Redemption 1775; being the Third after Leap-Year, the Fifteenth in the Reign of King George III…. COOK: FIRST VOYAGE, Benjamin WEST.
Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack for the Year of Our Redemption 1775; being the Third after Leap-Year, the Fifteenth in the Reign of King George III…

Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack for the Year of Our Redemption 1775…
Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack for the Year of Our Redemption 1775; being the Third after Leap-Year, the Fifteenth in the Reign of King George III…

Boston: Mills & Hicks, 1774.

Duodecimo, 32 pp., original printed wrappers.

American almanac depiction of Māori and Australian Aboriginal people in 1774

Rare American Almanac with an important notice of "An Account of the Inhabitants of New Zealand, (embellished with an elegant Representation of a Warrior of that Nation, and two Natives of New-Holland, advancing to Combat)." A full-page of text discusses the Māori, their dress, carriage and conversation, comparing them to Tahitians. The image is closely based on Parkinson's "Two Natives of New Holland advancing to combat; New Zealand warrior in his proper dress & armour" which appeared in his Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas. Another American version of the plate had been included in the 1774 New York edition of the official account of Cook's first voyage, that plate famously engraved by the folk hero Paul Revere. This Almanac version would appear to be based on the Revere plate, and is one of the earliest representations of Australian First Nations and New Zealand Māori people to appear in America.

Rare American Almanac with an important notice of "An Account of the Inhabitants of New Zealand, (embellished with an elegant Representation of a Warrior of that Nation, and two Natives of New-Holland, advancing to Combat)." A full-page of text discusses the Māori, their dress, carriage and conversation, comparing them to Tahitians. The image is closely based on Parkinson's "Two Natives of New Holland advancing to combat; New Zealand warrior in his proper dress & armour" which appeared in his Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas. Another American version of the plate had been included in the 1774 New York edition of the official account of Cook's first voyage, that plate famously engraved by the folk hero Paul Revere. This Almanac version would appear to be based on the Revere plate, and is one of the earliest representations of Australian First Nations and New Zealand Māori people to appear in America.

The Almanac also includes an extract from Bernard Romans' Concise Natural History of East and West Florida, which describes the Choctaw Indians and some of their customs. Drake notes two states of this 1775 edition of Bickerstaff, the issue point concerning the appearance of the price at the bottom of the wrapper, as here.

Not recorded by Beddie in her exhaustive Cook bibliography. (As an American imprint: Drake, 3245; Evans, 13673).

Condition Report: Full page woodcut to verso of title trimmed a little close affecting the caption, title-page loose; very good.

Price (AUD): $2,750.00

US$1,789.57   Other currencies

Ref: #4011293

Condition Report