Oceania.- Keate (George) An Account of the Pelew Islands, second edition, 1788

£200 · At auction with Forum Auctions · No longer available

Oceania.- Keate (George) An Account of the Pelew Islands, second edition, stipple engraved portrait frontispiece, 15 plates (one folding), one folding engraved map, scattered light spotting, faint off-setting, bookplate, near contemporary calf by Comte de Caumont with label to front free endpaper verso, rebacked retaining original backstrip, gilt anchors stamped "Nile & C" and "Nelson" to corners, raised spine bands with title and ships in gilt to compartments, fractional bumping to corners and spine extremities, [ESTC T122142], 4to, 1788. *** August Marie Compte de Caumont, a fine bookbinder of the period, had left revolutionary France and set up a studio at three successive addressed in London. The label in this volume gives No. 1 Frith Street as the address, where de Caumont based his studio between 1803 and 1814. It was here that he employed such talented and famous craftsmen as L. Cordeval and C. S. Kalthoeber. The anchors on this binding, inscribed "Nile & C" and "Nelson" is presumably a reference to the Battle of the Nile. "Nile & C" could refer to the company of men that served under Nelson during the battle, or the Captains of the ships who went on to form Nelson's legendary band of brothers.

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