Lot 114: 

BASIL HALL (1788-1844)
Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Islands. London: John Murray, 1818. 4° (266 x 211mm). 8 hand-coloured aquatint plates by Wm. Havell, one uncoloured aquatint, 5 engraved maps (2 folding) and one engraved plate. (Wanting half-title, occasional light spotting, as usual, more severe to preliminaries, some light offsetting from plates.) Later half morocco, spine richly gilt in compartments, all edges gilt (boards slightly rubbed).

FIRST EDITION. Hall sailed with Lord Amherst's embassy to China in 1816 and once there went on to explore the East China and Yellow Seas. His narrative includes observations of the people and culture, and is followed by extensive appendices including a seventy-two-page vocabulary of the Loochoo language. On his return journey Hall had an interview at St. Helena with Napoleon who had known his father, Sir James Hall. Abbey records that The Edinburgh Review greeted the book with much enthusiasm: 'We do not know when we have met with a more pleasing work than this delightful account of the people of Loo-Choo... [It] makes us proud of our country, and puts us in good humour with our species.' Abbey Travel, 558; Cordier Sinica, 3009.