£800 - £1,200
Topography/travel – Burchell (William John, 1781-1863), Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, 1st edition, 2 Vols, London, A & R Spottiswoode for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown 1822/1824, 4to, 20 hand coloured plates, 5 folding, one folding engraved map, hand coloured in outline and illustrations all after the author, two plates in Vol 2. carefully reproduced in facsimile to replace losses, some slight foxing to title pages and to edges of some plates, both volumes recently and carefully re-bound en suite in full calf to include replacement plates, raised bands and gilt titles to spines.
Averred to be ‘the most valuable and accurate work’ about South Africa published in the earlier 19th century, Burchell’s magnum opus was the result of a pioneering journey upon which he set out from Cape Town in 1811. He covered 4,500 miles in the interior, returning in April 1815 with natural history specimens and five hundred drawings, of which a small selection was engraved to illustrate the book. It is of interest to note that 750 copies of volume I were published and only 500 copies of volume II.
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