Voyage pittoresque autour du monde.

The first of Choris's two magnificent colourplate books which provides a magnificent visual record of Kotzebue's circumnavigation. Louis Choris (1795-1820) was appointed as official artist to Otto von Kotzebue's Rurik expedition at the age of 20 in 1815. Although strictly speaking the second Russian circumnavigation, this was the first devoted to scientific purposes and one of the most important early nineteenth century voyages. Its primary objectives were the exploration of the Pacific islands and the search for a northern passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. During its three-year circumnavigation the Rurik visited Brazil, Cape Horn, Chili, Kamchatka, Alaska, Hawai'i and California, returning to Russia via the Philippines, Cape of Good Hope, and Saint Helena. Choris provides a magnificent record of the voyage, and in particular of the people of Alaska, California and Hawai'i as well as their culture. In particular the hand-coloured lithographs found here (including two of Honolulu 'Hanacourou'] provide a valuable record of the Hawai'ian culture prior to the death of Kamehameha I in 1819 when the feudal kapu system came to an end. Choris himself was killed by bandits whilst en route to Vera Cruz in Mexico in 1828.

Originally issued in 22 separate parts (or livraisons), 'complete copies with all the plates colored [sic] are very rare' (Hill). The work was available in three states with the plates uncoloured, with the natural history plates coloured, and (as here) with all the plates fully coloured by hand. This copy has the earliest state of Plate XVI Danse des Femmes, with the 1822 title page.