Exceedingly rare. The true first edition, here in a fine copy in the contemporary printed wrappers (which are otherwise unknown), establishing the book was first issued in parts.
One of the most elusive works of travel literature of Chile, and a rich iconographic record of the country. This first edition is almost unknown, the 1824 edition being normally given as the first by all bibliographies. The work was issued in parts, each part with printed wrappers, evidently a very small run, which was later issued with a new title page altering the title from “Travels to Chile” (as here in parts 1-3) to “Travels into Chile” (1824 edition), identical in other aspects.
Although a native of Germany, Schmidtmeyer, resided for a number of years in England before publishing this work. Indeed, the author of a contemporary review in the Quarterly Review noted that although the use of language was at times somewhat Germanic when compared to Maria Graham’s work, the former was more thoughtful if occasionally somewhat sentimental.
We locate one other incomplete copy at Yale, bound in publisher’s purple cloth binding and missing from Chapter XII onwards. This copy is complete with all maps and plates, and has a large number of them in original colour.
Abbey Travel, 715; c.f. Sabin, 77692; Santos Gómez, 2564. Vicuna Mackena, p. 564.
