Lot 382
  • 382

Davis, John Edward

Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
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Description

  • A Letter from the Antarctic. By Captain J.E. Davis. Formerly Second Master of HMS Terror. Printed for Private Circulation. London: William Clowes & Sons, 1901
  • Paper
FIRST EDITION, 8vo (214 x 137mm.), [5], 6-38pp., [ii pp. colophon], photograph frontispiece, 4 illustrations in text, original light blue printed wrappers

VERY RARE. Only 50 copies were printed, and none are recorded on Americana Exchange and ABPC. This is the only known copy in its original binding and the only known copy in private hands.



"Davis was second master of the Terror during Ross's expedition of 1839-43 and prepared survey charts and fine artistic images of the voyage. He was cocky and popular among the junior officers. Davis did not care for Ross, criticized his treatment of Joseph Hooker and the botany of the voyage, and, upon Ross's marriage to Anne Coulman a month after the expedition's return, wrote to Hooker stating, 'I do not wish him any harm but I hope the future Lady R may prove a Dragon.' (She was not)" (Rosove). 

Literature

Rosove 85b; Spence 352

Condition

A good copy
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