MACKENZIE, Alexander (1763-1820).
Voyages From Montreal, On the River St. Laurence, Through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans
London: T. Cadell, Jun., W. Davies; Cobbett & Morgan; Edinburgh: W. Creech, 1801.
First edition.

Comparable: Christie's, William Reese Sale, 2022 - $20,160.

4to., (10 3/8 x 7 6/8 inches). Half-title and errata leaf. Engraved frontispiece portrait, 3 fine engraved folding maps, including one showing Mackenzie's route hand-coloured in outline. Contemporary tree calf, gilt (skillfully rebacked to style).

Provenance: Gilt supra libros of a lion rampant and motto "Noblis ira" on the front cover; engraved bookplates of Wall Hall, later Aldenham Abbey on the front paste-down.

First edition, and an attractive copy. The "first and finest edition of the earliest expedition made by a white man in this direction. His investigations, although pursued at so early a period of Arctic exploration, were remarkable for their accuracy; Sir John Franklin more than once expressed his surprise at being able to corroborate their correctness in his own explorations" (Sabin). Mackenzie's account of the "Rise, Progress, and Present State of Fur Trade" is the first printed. The three maps, some of the earliest of this area, include: "A Map of America. exhibiting Mackenzie's track from Montreal to Fort Chipewyan & from thence to the North Sea in 1789 & to the West Pacific Ocean in 1793", "A Map of Mackenzie's Track from Fort Chipewyan to the North Sea, in 1789", "A Map of Mackenzie's Track from Fort Chipewyan to the Pacific Ocean in 1795". Wall Hall, later Aldeham Abbey, is a "magnificent gothic revival mansion with a castellated facade created in the early nineteenth century for George Woodford Thelluson, a prosperous City banker mentioned in Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. The landscaped grounds reached their prime under John Pierpont Morgan Jnr., an American banker who bought the hall in 1910, where he regularly entertained the Royal family, including the young Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. During World War 2, Wall Hall became the residence of the U.S. Ambassador, Joseph Kennedy". Howes M133; Lande 1317; Pilling 2384; Streeter Sale 3653; Wagner-Camp-Becker 1:1.