Folio. With a lithographed portrait of Count Romanzoff as a frontispiece and 104 lithographed plates, including 25 natural history plates in fine contemporary hand-colouring, 1 folding map and 2 plans. Contemporary elaborately decorated Russian calf, ornately gold- and blind-tooled decorated boards with a gold- and blind-tooled green straight-grained morocco panel, with dark-blue/black morocco inlays on the gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, blue marbled endpapers, the blank free endpapers with a Russian watermark dated 1824. the binding shows slight signs of wear, mainly around the hinges, some occasional slight browning and foxing, otherwise in very good condition.

This is a particularly nice example, as there is often considerable foxing to the text leaves and browning to the plates, not present in this copy, which is in a superb contemporary binding in the style of lavish French bindings of the 19th century, evidently the work of an unknown Russian binder of considerable skill.

Choris, a Russian of German stock, was only 20 when he was appointed as draughtsman on the Kotzebue expedition of 1815-1818. This, his great work, was first issued in 22 parts between 1820 and 1822, most of the views do not appear in the later official accounts of the expedition published in Germany and Russia. The many beautiful plates include views and scenes of native life, artifacts, plants, shells and animals. They show California (several views of San Francisco), Hawaii (including the first view of Honolulu), Alaska, and various parts of Micronesia.

Three issues of the plates were published. (1) Without any colouring, (2) with 25 natural history plates coloured (as here), and (3) with all plates coloured. Moreover, the book itself seems to exit in two issues, the earlier (as here) with an 1820 title page as well as another dated 1822, and the later issue with only an 1822 title page. A number of plates were later reworked by Choris and exist in variant states. The present copy appears to consist entirely of first states, and we are certain that the plate of the dancing women in Hawaii (plate XVI) is in its first state, identified by Lada-Mocarski with the plain back background.

The list of subscribers accounts for only 188 copies, including the Emperor of Russia, and the King of France. 57 copies were made for subscribers in Russia, including 10 for the Emperor and 20 for Prince Gallitzin, one of the emperor's ministers. The lavish binding indicates that this copy may have been for presentation purposes and thus may well been one of these 30 "official" copies.

Provenance: the book plate of Frederick E. Ellis, Shaw Island on front pastedown.

Cowan, I, 47; Forbes, Hawaiian National Bibliography, 541; Forbes, Treasures, 29; Hawaii One Hundred, 27; Hill 290; Lada-Mocarski 84; Nissen, ZBI, 881; Sabin 12884; Soliday I, 592a (extremely rare); Streeter 2461; Wickersham 6676.