It is a key work in the history and cartography of the north-west Pacific regions, and Alaska in particular, and this set in contemporary bindings, the three text volumes (including 18 engraved plates) in half calf gilt, rebacked to incorporate the original spines, and the atlas volume of 16 maps and charts in red half roan and grey boards, made $26,000 (£17,930).
Christie’s Los Angeles, February 21
Buyer's Premium: 17.5/10 per cent.
Exchange rate: £1 = $1.45
A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean
US: THE geographical surveys undertaken by George Vancouver, who had also served on Cook’s first and second Pacific voyages, were among the more arduous and significant ever accomplished under a British flag, and though Vancouver himself died on route, his brother John, with the assistance of Captain Peter Puget, oversaw the publication of A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World... in 1798.
