An exceptional, large-paper example

KRUSENSTERN, Ivan Fedorovich [KRUZENSHTERN]

Wörter-Sammlungen aus den Sprachen einiger Völker des östlichen Asiens und der Nordwest-Küste von Amerika

Publication: Admiralität, Skt. Petersburg, 1813.

KRUSENSTERN, Ivan Fedorovich [KRUZENSHTERN], Wörter-Sammlungen aus den Sprachen einiger Völker des östlichen Asiens und der Nordwest-Küste von Amerika

First edition of Kruzenshtern’s important study of North Pacific languages, in a superb, very unusual example: very crisp, uncut, in plain temporary wrappers and printed on thicker woven paper. We were unable to trace other such large-paper copies. A rare book on the market: only two copies at auction.

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£13,500

In stock

Our Notes & References

First edition of this important study of North Pacific languages, in a superb, very unusual example: very crisp, uncut, in plain temporary wrappers and printed on thicker woven paper. We were unable to trace other such large-paper copies: we handled previously a beautiful, very similar example, also uncut and in temporary wrappers, but printed on regular paper; it was significantly thinner, its full measurements were 28.5 x 23 x 0.9 cm while this one is 30.8 x 25.3 x 1.3 cm; the Greene copy, bound later but presenting also some deckle edges, measures 26.3 by 21.5 cm (and is markedly less fresh).

Krusenstern’s work expands considerably on the linguistics introduced in his account of the famous first Russian circumnavigation (1809). Here four languages are covered, two of these – Kenai and Kolosh – spoken by inhabitants of Alaska. Krusenstern (Kruzenshtern in Russian transliteration) also devotes several pages of his preface to a valuable appreciation of Nikolai Khvostov and Gavriil Davydov, who had died after a night of heavy drinking, and to Rozanov’s questionable instruction to the men that they should attack the Japanese installations on the Kurile Islands. The decline that followed in the relations between the two countries ultimately led to Captain Golovnin’s infamous imprisonment by the Japanese.

Rare on the market: beside the other uncut copy we had, we could trace only two copies at auction in the past 50 years: the Thomas Phillipps copy in 1969 and the Greene copy in 2017.

Bibliography

Arctic Bib. 9382; Lada-Mocarski 70; Sabin 38333; Wickersham 2584.

Item number

612

 

Physical Description

Large quarto (30.8 x 25.3 cm). Title, XI, [2], 68 pp. and errata leaf.

Binding

Uncut with full deckle edges in original temporary blue wrappers glued pasted on printer’s waste paper in Russian (“Slovo o sviatykh”, a religious work).

Condition

Wrappers a bit rubbed, edges a bit dusty, spine extremities torn; pp. XI and 67-68 present in duplicate, both leaves bound before p. XI, very minor spotting or soiling; an exceptionally crisp example with a very strong impression on thick woven paper.

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