Forty Etchings, From Sketches Made With the Camera Lucida, in North America, in 1827 and 1828

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ii, unpaginated. 34 cm. Folding colour frontispiece map of US and Canada. 40 b&w etchings on 20 plates, with descriptive text opposite. Rebound in grey paper with original front and rear covers overlaid. New endpapers. Title page has tape repair, some spots. A few spots to reverse of frontispiece. Stain at top of Memorandum page. Tear in upper fold of frontispiece. Basil Hall (1788-1844) was a noted traveller, author and naval officer who visited North America in the 1820s. He visited New England, went south to Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans, up the Mississippi to St. Louis and northeast to New York. His Canadian itinerary took him from Quebec to Niagara Falls, with a number of short side trips. Nine of the etchings in this book depict Canadian scenes: the village of Peterborough, the St. Lawrence River below Quebec, Mississauga Indians, Canadian voyageurs, the Niagara River flowing into Lake Ontario, and four views of Niagara Falls. American views include Buffalo, Rochester, slave drivers, a swamp plantation, chiefs of the Creek Nation, the Mississippi at New Orleans, steamboats on the Mississippi, and a stage coach. Like many British officers, Hall learned the rudiments of art so he could sketch various scenes for military purposes. While not the best artist, Hall could use a "camera lucida" with a prism to reflect a scene onto a drawing surface and trace it. This exempted him "from the triple misery of Perspective, Proportion, and Form, - all responsibilty respecting these being thus taken off his hands." (p. ii).Howes H-46. Lande 1820. cfClark III 47. cfSabin 29721. cfTPL 1488. N° de ref. del artículo 145692

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