CALIFORNIA: ITS PAST HISTORY; ITS PRESENT POSITION; ITS FUTURE PROSPECTS: CONTAINING A HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY FROM ITS COLONIZATION BY THE SPANIARDS TO THE PRESENT TIME; A SKETCH OF ITS GEOGRAPHICAL AND PHYSICAL FEATURES AND A MINUTE AND AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE GOLD REGION, AND THE SUBSEQUENT IMPORTANT PROCEEDINGS. INCLUDING A REPORT OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS. WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE OFFICIAL REPORTS MADE TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. London: [McGowan and Co., Printers] Printed for the Proprietors, and Sold by All Booksellers in Town and Country, [1850]. 22.2x14 cm (octavo), pp. [i-ii: blank] [iii-v] vi-viii [1] 2-270 [first leaf, a blank, excised], inserted engraved frontispiece, inserted engraved title leaf, inserted engraved plate and inserted map, publisher's decorated brown cloth stamped in gold and blind, all edges untrimmed, yellow coated endpapers. First edition, first printing. "Exceptionally complete and interesting compendium of California material, with important colored plates" (Wheat, Gold Rush). "One of the fullest and most interesting of contemporary accounts. The complete complement of nine plates is not found in all copies; the ordinary issue had only three" (Howes). The three pates in this copy are the hand-colored frontispiece "Emigrant Party on the Road to California," the hand-colored engraved title leaf "Scene on a Branch of the Sacramento," and a plate facing page 81 with a hand-colored illustration "Encampment in the Valley of the Sacramento." Oddly, with the exception of one additional California scene, "Log House in the Sacramento valley," not present here, the remainder of illustrations rarely found in this book are scenes of emigrants traveling to New Zealand and a view of the town of Wellington, NZ. The plates present in this copy match those found in the Streeter copy and those found in copies held by the British Library and by Yale. Cowan (1933), p. 93. Flake 1085. Howes F 178. Sabin 9973. Streeter 2623. Wheat, Gold Rush 4. Wheat, Maps 144. Ink stain to lower front cover that extends slightly onto the spine panel, several smaller stains to rear cover, light wear to cloth at lower spine end, a very good copy. Provenance: J. D. Jones, Columbus, Wisconsin (signature dated 4 February 1887); the collection of Bruce Maclin. (#179152).
Price: $3,500.00
No statement of printing.