Henry Ellis’s Journal of the Proceedings of the Late Embassy to China

A rather nice copy of Ellis’s Journal I noticed the other day….

Journal of the Proceedings of the Late Embassy to China; Comprising a Correct Narrative of the Public Transactions of the Embassy, of the Voyage to and from China, and of the Journey from the Mouth of the Pei-ho to the Return to Canton.
Ellis, Henry.

2 volumes in original paper covered boards, recased with new spines and paper labels on spines. Volume I: Portrait frontispiece, xii + 442pp, occasional light foxing folding map, bookplate of Thomas Clifton front paste down. Volume II: Folding map a duplicate of the map found in the first volume, lacks the correct map for this volume, vii + 359pp, index, endpapers browned. There is some browning in both volumes, most particularly endpapers and first leaves, both copies of the map are a little browned but not significantly so. This set includes two copies of the map entitled “Map of the Route of the British Embassy from the Mouth of the Peiho River to Pekin and from thence to Canton in the Year 1816” bound into both volumes I and II, but lacks “Map of the route of the British Embassy Upon the River Yang-Tse-Kiang from Kwa-Choo to Nan-Chang-Foo….” A made up set, boards on volume II being darkened and a little foxed and volume II a trifle smaller in size to volume I. Second edition. John Murray. London. 1818.

Ellis (1777-1855) was Third Commissioner to Lord Amherst’s Embassy in 1816. A diplomatist and public servant, with considerable knowledge of India and the Honourable East India Company’s affairs, he was knighted in 1848. This second edition does not include the seven colour plates found in the first edition but does include some corrections to the text.