Lot 288: HERIOT, George (1766-1844). Travels through the Canadas. London: Printed for Richard

HERIOT, George (1766-1844). Travels through the Canadas. London: Printed for Richard Phillips, 1807.

4 o (260 x 205 mm). Folding frontispiece view of Quebec (reinforced along gutter) and 25 sepia aquatint plates including many folding panoramic views, 1 engraved plate of a moose deer and folding hand-colored map of the St. Lawrence River (a few plates faintly impressed, some occasional offsetting between plates and text, including on title, some occasional spotting). Contemporary calf (rebacked preserving original spine).

FIRST EDITION. In his position as deputy postmaster general of British North America, Heriot travelled extensively through the Canadas. His watercolor sketches, made on these journeys, formed the bases for this work. He had studied watercolor under Paul Sandby. "Illustrated books on North America are curiously few in the period with which we deal. By far the most interesting is Heriots Travels through the Canadas... interesting for its aquatints by Stadler and Lewis after Heriot" (Prideaux, pp.254-5). The text gives interesting accounts of the fur trade, loyalist settlements, northern travels, the cod fisheries and detailed descriptions of Indian cultures, including Father Rasles's vocabulary of the Algonquin languages. Abbey Travel 618; Sabin 31489; Staton & Tremaine/TPL 805.