Rosser, S.F.:

$75,000 · Offered by William Reese Company

THE U.S.S. COLUMBUS AND VINCENNES IN JAPAN. [with:] DEPARTURE OF THE U.S.S. COLUMBUS AND VINCENNES FROM JEDDO BAY, JULY 29th, 1846. This extremely rare pair of lithographs is one of the very few printed records of the first official American expedition to Japan, the diplomatic mission of Commodore James Biddle, which attempted to establish formal relations between the United States and Japan in 1846. Although overshadowed by the famous and successful mission of Commodore Matthew Perry seven years later, the Biddle expedition deserves far greater fame. It was, in fact, the first official contact between America and Japan, and certainly a necessary precursor to Perry's breakthrough of 1853. This graphic representation of the events of the visit, with the extensive textual gloss accompanying each plate, given the dearth of written accounts by the key figures, is the most important published record of the Biddle expedition. The prints depict Biddle's ships, the Columbus and the Vincennes, in Tokyo Bay during Biddle's visit of July 20 to 29, 1846.Commodore James Biddle, a distinguished naval career officer and scion of a noted Philadelphia family, served his country in a diplomatic capacity on various occasions. Because of this, he was a reasonable choice in 1845 to head a mission to exchange ratifications of the first treaty between the United States and China, after which he was to attempt to negotiate a treaty with Japan. Biddle sailed from New York in June 1845, concluding the

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.