Lot 4
4. [COOK: BIBLIOGRAPHY & SUPPORTING MATERIAL]. CLARK, Thomas Blake. Omai:First
Polynesian Ambassador to England: The True Story of His Voyage there in 1774
with Captain Cook; of How He Was Feted by Fanny Burney, Approved by Samuel
Johnson, Entertained by Mrs. Thrale & Lord Sandwich and Painted by Sir
Joshua Reynolds. [San Francisco]: Colt Press, 1940. [4], <115> [1,
blank] pp., 1 photographic plate (portrait of Omai by Reynolds). 4to, original
beige buckram over patterned rice paper over boards, printed spine label.
Rice paper rubbed along edges, rear endpapers darkened, partly unopened.
First edition (limited edition, 500 copies).
Beddie 4567. Cowan II, p. 655. Cox II, pp. 30-31. Day, Pacific Islands Literature,
One Hundred Basic Books 24. Ferguson, Australian Bibliography 281.
Hill I, p. 53. Hill II:301. O’Reilly-Reitman 501. Omai, brought to England in 1774 by Tobias Furneaux in the Adventure,
was a cultural and social sensation who impressed royalty, literati, and socialites
equally. He was returned to Tahiti in 1776 by Cook on his ill-fated third voyage.
He was the first person from Tahiti to visit England and England’s first
meaningful encounter with a living “noble savage.” ($100-200)
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