Bonhams 1793 : WARRE (Captain HENRY JAMES) Sketches of North America and the Oregon Territory, coloured lithographs, [1848]

Sketches of North America and the Oregon Territory, hand-coloured engraved map, 20 hand-coloured lithograph views on 16 sheets (lower blank margin of one, and the small view of Mount Baker, dust-soiled), with the printed note concerning binding options, without the dedication leaf (called for by Abbey), contents loose in publisher's printed buff wrappers [Abbey, Travel 656; Howes W114; Sabin 101455], folio, Dickinson & Co., [1848]

Sold for £32,450 inc. premium

Footnotes

A finely coloured copy of one of the rarest and most desirable of North American colour-plate books, described by Howes as "the only western color-plates comparable in beauty to those by Bodmer".

Captain Warre was sent as an agent of the British government to Oregon, at the time of the Oregon Boundary Dispute in which the sovereignty of the territory was contested by Great Britain and the United States. He set out from Montreal in 1845 on an expedition which lasted fourteen months, reaching Vancouver, Willamette Valley, the mouth of the Columbia River, Puget Sound, and Vancouver Island. By the time of his return to England the dispute had been settled for a border at 49 degrees.

Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

Auction terms and conditions