KOTZEBUE, Otto von (1787-1846). A Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Beering's Strait, for the purpose of Exploring a North-East Passage... 1815-1818,... in the Ship Rurick... London: Longman, Hurst, et al, 1821.

3 volumes, 8vo (199x 124 mm). Half-titles; 8 charts (5 folding, with some soiling and staining, a few short tears repaired); 8 hand-colored aquatint plates; one uncolored plate. (Some spotting and browning, a few leaves silked repairing tears occasionally touching letters.) Contemporary sprinkled calf gilt (rebacked to style, endpapers renewed, corners slightly rubbed). Provenance: John Kynaston Powell (armorial bookplate); Hampshire Library (stamps on a few leaves or plates); collector's bookplate, a few pencil marks.

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF KOTZEBUE'S FIRST VOYAGE. Kotzebue details the second Russian circumnavigation; this English edition includes maps and plates not present if the first Russian edition of 1821-1823. Count Romanoff, one of Russia's greatest patrons of science, sponsored the circumnavigation, which was the first Russian voyage undertaken for scientific purposes in the Pacific. Though unsuccessful in their search for a North-East passage, it proved to be one of the most important and fruitful of all Russian circumnavigations, contributing greatly to knowledge of the Pacific and the northwestern coast of America. Abbey Travel 596; Arctic Bibliography 9195; Borba de Moraes I:439; Forbes 528; Hill 944; Howes K-258; Lada-Mocarski 80; Sabin 38291.