Picturesque Views in the Island of Ascension

William Allen

London: Printed for the author by James Moyes, Hague and Day, 1835

1st ed. Bound in publisher's printed wrappers.  Wrappers chipped.  Housed in a leather-backed clamshell case.  Oblong folio, 28 x 38 cm.  Complete with ten lithographic plates, mounted on India paper (2 folding panoramas). Each plate with an accompanying text leaf. pp. [16]; title page with a topographical map of the island.  The author and artist, Lieutenant William Allen, was a noted English explorer, abolitionist and naval officer.  In the post-Napoleonic era, Ascension was used as a Royal Naval base for Great Britain's suppression of the slave trade in Africa.  Allen served on the Niger expeditions of Richard Lander and Oldfield in 1832.  He later served with Captain Henry Totter in the disastrous Niger expedition of 1841.  Allen was a Fellow of the Royal Society.  This is an oversized or heavy book, which requires additional postage for international delivery outside the US.