The Adventures of a Griffin on a Voyage of Discovery: Written by Himself

[Harden S. Melville]

London

:

Bell and Daldy

,

1867

.
First Edition.

19.5cm x 13cm. viii, 248 pages, black and white illustrations. Original green cloth, bevelled boards, gilt lettering and decoration, all edges gilt.

Harden Sidney Melville (1824-1894) was an English painter, illustrator, and draughtsman. This is his anonymous account of his trip on the H.M.S. Fly, under Captain Francis Blackwood, which conducted the first hydrographic survey of the north-east coast of Australia from 1842 to 1846. It is illustrated with woodcuts after Melville’s drawings.

Minor wear to cloth. Minor foxing to first and last few pages. Rear hinge cracked for half its length, still holding well. Frontispiece tissue guard creased and torn at gutter crown. School prize bookplate, Western Educational Institution, Glasgow, 1867-68, to front pastedown. Good Condition.