Lot 2072: KRACHENINNIKOW, STEPAN PETROVICH. 1713-1755.

Histoire et description du Kamtchatka. Amsterdam: March Michel Rey, 1770. 2 volumes in 1. 12mo (149 x 94 mm). [4], xvi, 439; [4], 492, [1], pp. Half-titles, folding table. Vignette on title, 7 folding engraved plates, 2 large folding engraved maps and extra-illustrated with an additional copy of one of the maps. Period mottled calf, hinges tightened. Some short tears at bound edges of plates and and folds of maps, some light creasing from misfolds to a few plates, cracking to leather of spine, chipping to spine label with loss of a few letters. Provenance: Ragley Hall Library (bookplate). FIRST UNABRIDGED FRENCH EDITION. Kracheninnikow was an assistant to Stellar on Bering's second expedition. The chapter "Regarding America," compiled from Steller's notes, "gives a great deal of information and is one of the earliest printed narratives about Alaska and the Aleutian Islands" (Lada-Mocarski). This translation was made directly after the Russian original, and differs from the earlier abridged French edition of 1767. Lada-Mocarski 12; Sabin 38304.