Beschreibung:

Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854 under the Command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy.... Author: Perry, Matthew Calbraith Place Published: New York Publisher: D. Appleton and Company Date Published: 1856 Description: viii, 624 pp. Errata slip tipped in at p. viii. With 87 plates and maps. (Large 8vo) original blind-stamped brown cloth with gilt cover vignette, spine lettered and decorated in gilt. brown-coated endpapers, The abridged trade edition preceded by the 3 volume congressional issue. Detailed and profusely illustrated account of Perry's expedition to open Japan to the West; as the Dictionary of American Biography describes it, "In January 1852 he [Perry] was selected to undertake the most important diplomatic mission ever entrusted to an American naval officer, the negotiation of a treaty with Japan, a country at this time sealed against intercourse with the Occidental powers." By March 31, 1854, the treaty granting the U.S. trading rights had been signed by the Japanese. Upon his return to the U.S., his chief duty for the following year was to compile his reports of the expedition, aided by Francis Hawks. The importance of Perry's mission to Japan cannot be overstated. Not only did Perry open Japan to Western trade and influences which she would soon master, thrusting her into the forefront of nations during the 20th century, but the accounts of the country and culture, and the pictorial representations, were some of the earliest to be readily available to the public, being preceded only by the cumbersome tomes of earlier missionaries. In addition to the artist W. Heine, from whose drawings a great number of the lithographs were made, the daguerreotypist E. Brown, Jr., went on the expedition, taking what were undoubtedly the earliest photographic images of Japan, many of them reproduced lithographically in this work. Condition: Rubbing and fraying at ends of somewhat darkened spine, rubbing at extremities, front joint just starting from head; front hinge cracked, rear hinge repaired, minuscule chip to front free endpaper at bottom edge; a few stubtears to maps or instances of ill-creasing; very good overall. Item#: 355963 Headline: Commodore Perry's Expedition, first trade edition