O’REILLY, Bernard. Greenland, the Adjacent Seas, and the North-west Passage to the Pacific Ocean: Illustrated in a Voyage to Davis’s Strait, During the Summer of 1817. London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, 1818.
4to (272 x 220mm). 18 plates, frontispiece map and 2 folding maps (frontispiece rehinged with loss to binding instruction; tissue guards present except one, some foxing to title and frontispiece); 2pp. publisher’s ads at end. Modern blue half cloth, marbled sides. Provenance: Long Island Historical Society (inkstamp on title); Martin L. Greene (booklabel), notable polar book collector; his sale, Christie’s New York, 7 December 2017, lot 130.
FIRST EDITION. O’Reilly claims in his preface that he made his observations as a surgeon aboard a whaling ship; however, he was censured by his contemporaries for plagiarizing other accounts, including that of Sir C.L. Giesecke, (see Quarterly review, Apr. 1818, among others). O’Reilly was also criticized for his choice to publish an expensive quarto format, instead of using a more democratic, smaller format. Regardless, the work is well-illustrated and contains informative chapters on Greenland’s history, zoology, and native inhabitants. Abbey, Travel 633; Arctic Bib. 12852; Hill 1263; Holland p. 181; Sabin 57576; TPL 1125.