152 SMITH, Nick. Fame and Beauty. [Coloured Flowers.] London: Rhodes, 2022 Edition of 66, signed and dated in pencil lower right by the artist, numbered lower left, and Artist and publisher’s blindstamp lower left. Nick Smith is a contemporary British artist who deconstructs images into colour swatches, which he then reassembles and juxtaposes with lines of text, in this case from Andy Warhol’s transcripts discussing his thoughts on fame and beauty. The image is after Warhol’s “Flowers”. Giclee with screenprint varnish on Canson Rag Photographique 310 gsm paper. Sheet size: 62 × 60 cm. Excellent condition. £1,750 [157427] 153 SMITH, Thomas W. A Narrative of the Life, Travels and Sufferings. Boston: Wm. C. Hill, 1844 i was under the necessity of shipping on another voyage First edition of this gripping account of Smith’s 18 voyages, including seven whaling trips to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, and South Shetland Islands. “The book is so rare and little known that . . . it was overlooked by all Antarctic bibliographers except Spence” (Rosove). Below-decks narratives of this period are decidedly uncommon, particularly so when of such length and detail, and exhibiting such fluent literacy. Thomas W. Smith (born c .1801) had a difficult early life, his father dying when he was only 3 years old. As a young adult he ran away with an itinerant community of “gipsys” before turning his attention to the sea. His autobiography “is in fact well written and pleasant reading. The full title of the book is – yes, indeed – adorned and flowery” with a great level of “entertainment value” (Rosove). The eye-catching and exhaustive subtitle details the full extent of his travels. Smith went to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands from 1816 to 1818 in pursuit of elephant seals. His subsequent trip to the South Shetland Islands in 1820 is especially notable, as it took place only a year after their discovery; it is also one of the earliest published accounts of the sealing activities there. Over the next
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many years, he visited western South America and the eastern Pacific islands, East Africa, New Zealand, Japan, New Guinea, and other western Pacific islands “during most of which he or his ship was involved in some sort of catastrophe” (Lewis-Smith, pp. 285–6). Throughout Smith’s career “he experienced naval battles, including the Napoleonic wars at Gibraltar and in the Mediterranean, and the Spanish war in Peru, and became embroiled in native battles” (ibid.). He describes in detail the many hardships he endured and witnessed, such as murder, injuries, abuse, attacks on ships, shipwrecks, starvation, and repeated loss of wages. His dramatic account details the moment where he nearly drowned in the Bay of Plymouth: “In an instant the boat was overset with a violent gust, and we floated by her side, grasping after her for our very lives. Every time that we grasped at the boat those of us who could not swim sunk down and rose up to make another attempt at her, having been round and round several times” (p. 162). He eventually settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, from where he wrote and published this work. “He died, penniless, in his early 40s, but there is no record of his death or burial” (ibid.).
Octavo in half-sheets (81 × 106 mm). Publisher’s mottled sheep, later red morocco label, smooth spine divided by paired gilt fillets, edges sprinkled in brown. Without front free endpapers and binder’s blank (stubs still present). Slightly worn, covers bowed, remnants of wax seal on lower cover, minor loss to endpapers, some toning or foxing. A very good copy in the untouched original binding. ¶ Howes S–679; Rosove 312.A1 (publisher’s binding given as calf), pp. 400–01; Spence 1139 (publication date given erroneously as 1840). Ronald I. Lewis- Smith, Polar Record , volume 47, issue 3, July 2011. £7,250 [157212]
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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