[Almanac.] [Cook, James.] [West, Benjamin.] Bickerstaff's
Boston Almanack, for the Year of our Redemption 1774... [1773.]
Boston: Printed and sold by Mills and Hicks. 32 pp, [1] folded plate. Ex-library with perforated ownership imprint
on second leaf and small, rubber-stamped marking in the margins of several
pages. Dog-eared, edge-worn and
water-stained. String tied. Folding
plate, which has been professionally conserved, is separated from balance of
almanac.
This almanac
is highly sought after for its folded engraving -- the upper half of the plate
portrays "The Head of Otegoowgoow, Son of a New-Zealand Chief" and
"The Head of a Chief of New-Zealand, both tataowed according to their
Custom" while the lower shows "A Representation of a War Canoe of
New-Zealand..." These are among the
first images from Captain Cook's first voyage printed in America. Rivington's edition of Hawkesworth's A New
Voyage Around the World, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770 and 1771...,
published in New York in 1774, is considered the first American edition of
Cook's first voyage (Beddie, Bibliography
of Captain James Cook). The present
almanac was published in Boston in October, 1773 according to an advertisement
in the October 18, 1773 issue of the Boston
Post-Boy newspaper listing it as "This day published." The almanac's images thus preceded the
appearance of Rivington's work and are certainly among the very earliest (if
not the earliest) American images from Cook's first voyage.
Curiously,
the New Zealand engraving exists as both a woodcut and a copperplate. The advertisement in the Boston Post-Boy refers to the engravings as "all engraved on
copper." The ESTC record indicates
that both plates are "signed by Joseph Callender [the
engraver]." The two plates are
readily distinguishable by the how the signature appears: in the copperplate,
"Jos. Callender, Sculp. Boston" appears at the lower right below the
image; in the woodcut version -- offered with the present almanac --
Callender's "signature" consists of the letters "J C"
barely distinguishable in the lower right of the image itself. Why two versions of the plate exist is not
known. Perhaps the copperplate broke
during production and a woodcut was the quickest way to complete production.
Or, conversely, there may have been a delay in producing the copperplate and a
woodcut version was hastily prepared for the initial production of the
almanac. Whatever the reason for the
existence of two plates, both are extremely scarce in the trade.
In addition
to the early images from Cook's first voyage, the almanac includes two excerpts
from the accounts of the voyage: (1) “An
Account of the Natives of New-Zealand from a Journal of a Voyage to the
South-Sea in his Majesty's ship the Endeavor, faithfully transcribed Papers of
the late Sidney Parkinson, Draughtsman to Joseph Banks, Esq; on his late
Expedition round the World...” (1 1/2 pages) and (2) “An Account of the Inhabitants of Otaheite
[Tahiti], another new discovered Island in the South-Sea; comprehending many
curious Particulars relative to their Manners and domestic Life: --- Collected
from Dr. Hawkesworth's Compilation of the Voyages to the Southern Hemisphere”
(1 1/2 pages). These are undoubtedly
among the first accounts of Cook’s discoveries that would have been available
to most Americans.
Besides the early Pacific exploration reports, the almanac features an engraving
that features likenesses of Kings George II and George III, accompanied by an
ode to George III and an account of his "direct lineal descent."
Evans, American Bibliography: 13074. Drake, Almanacs
of the United States: 3230. O'Neal, Early American Almanacs: 885 (lacking
plate). Stowell, Early American Almanacs:
p. 250 (illustration of the two kings).
Reilly, A Dictionary of Colonial
American Printers' Ornaments & Illustrations: 1051, 1052, 1053,
1591,1593. [Item no. 3537.]
