ANSON, George, Baron.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Atlas of plates for A Voyage Round the World, in the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV. An complete set of the attractive plates for this "masterpiece of descriptive travel" (Hill). Anson's voyage was first released as a quarto volume in 1748, becoming so popular that three more editions were all released in the same year. An advertisement in the second, octavo-sized, edition noted: "The plates in the quarto edition [are] too numerous and large to be folded into an octavo volume... [Therefore] compleat setts of them are sold by J. and P. Knapton, in Ludgate-Street".This volume is likely made up of those plates sold separately. Four are from the first edition, printed without plate numbers. The remaining 38 are numbered; the first time those plates appeared was the fifth edition, released in 1749.Provenance: from the library of naval historian Michael Nash, with his bookplate. Then owned by Clive Richards (1937-2021), famed Nelson collector.

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