A TOUR THROUGH SWEDEN, SWEDISH-LAPLAND, FINLAND AND DENMARK. In a series of letters, illustrated with engravings.

CONSETT, Matthew.

Published by Stockton: printed by R. Christopher for the author And sold by W. Goldsmith Paternoster Row; and T. Lewis Russell Street Covent Garden London. 1789, 1789

About this Item

4to (255 x 210mm), pp. [xvi], 142, 142-157; complete despite the eccentric pagination; with a frontispiece and six engraved plates, and a woodcut on p. 86, all by Thomas Bewick; a very good copy, rebound in half calf over marbled boards, spine with red morocco label. First edition, first issue: the same sheets were reissued in London with a new title page and the imprint of Joseph Johnson. This remarkable travel book relates the travels of Matthew Consett, who laid a wager that he could travel to Lapland and return with two native women and two reindeer. Much of the text is not in fact by him, but by John Brewster of Stockton, and there are some aspects which are fantastical. Among the untruths is a 'Lapland Song' (pp. 63-4), which is apparently a hoax. The engraved plates are signed 'B&B', intended to indicate Bewick and Beilby, but they are in fact by Thomas Bewick alone one of the very few instances of him using copper-plate engraving. The woodcut of a 'Lapland sledge' on p. 86 is also by him, one assumes, as is (very probably) the monogram of Robert Christopher's name on the title page. Tattersfield TB 2.635.

Seller Inventory # 28110

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A TOUR THROUGH SWEDEN, SWEDISH-LAPLAND, FINLAND AND DENMARK. In a series of letters, illustrated with engravings.
• Publisher: Stockton: printed by R. Christopher for the author And sold by W. Goldsmith Paternoster Row; and T. Lewis Russell Street Covent Garden London. 1789
• Publication Date: 1789
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Travel