Description of a view of the north coast of Spitzbergen, now exhibiting in the large rotunda of Henry Aston Barker's Panorama, Leicester-Square; painted from drawings taken by Lieut. Beechey, who accompanied the Polar Expedition in 1818, and liberally presented them to the proprietor. A view of Lausanne, and the lake of Geneva is also exhibiting
London: printed by Jas.-W. and Chas. Adlard, 1820. Small 8vo, pp. 12; engraved folding plate (slightly spotted); very good in contemporary brown wrappers. In the first edition of the pamphlet published the preceding year, "A view of Lausanne, and the lake of Geneva" in the title is replaced with "An interesting representation of the city of St. Petersburg, is open in the upper circle." Ostensibly, the earliest polar panorama, depicting the exploits of Capt. David Buchan, who along with his young lieutenant John Franklin ventured through the ice near the Spitzbergen Islands in 1818 in search of the Northwest Passage. Frederick William Beechy, naval officer and hydrographer, was appointed to the brig Trent, and also served on the expedition. He later published an account of the voyage, Voyage of Discovery Towards the North Pole Performed in His Majesty's Ships Dorothea and Trent, Under the Command of Captain David Buchan, in 1843. The panorama, celebrating the expedition, depicts the two ships, Capt. Buchan and Lieut. Franklin, the barrier of ice extending from Spitsbergen to Greenland, seals, polar bears, walruses, and "three magnificent icebergs." Item #58084
Price: $1,750.00
