BURCHELL, WILLIAM
Provenance : Ruth Burchell (presentation inscription by her uncle William Burchell on flyleaves: "To his Niece Ruth Burchell | with the Authors kind love") ? Quentin Keynes (sale, Christie's London, 4 April 2004, lot 353) ? Michael Sharpe (leather library label on pastedowns)
Exhibited :
Literature : Abbey Travel 328; Gay 3001; Mendelsohn I:224; Tooley 116
Notes : First edition, presentation copy, of "the most valuable and accurate work on South Africa published up to the first quarter of the nineteenth century" (Mendelssohn). Burchell explored 4,500 miles of the interior of South Africa between June 1811 and April 1815. He returned with natural history specimens and 500 drawings, some of which were engraved to illustrate the present work.
Condition_report :
