1602, The Voyage of Sebastian Vizcaino to the Coast of California, together with a map & Sebastian Vizcaino's letter written at Monterey, December 28, 1602

San Francisco: The Book Club of California [Printed by Edwin & Robert Grabhorn], 1933. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/good. Parker, Arvilla. One of 240 copies, octavo size, 57 pp., with prospectus. Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548-1624) was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him, among many other places, along the California coast and Japan. This edition of his voyage was printed by the Grabhorn Press, one of the most highly renowned private presses in America during the twentieth century, run by brothers Edwin and Robert Grabhorn.

Interestingly, the Grabhorns had F.W. Goudy design a type face for them called Franciscan; this book is the first use of that type for a complete text.

___DESCRIPTION: Bound in light blue paper boards with printer's device on the front and back boards, tan cloth spine, white paper spine label with black lettering, tasteful Ex-Libris on the front paste-down, first word of foreword, first two words of Vizcaino's letter, three headpieces, and title page illustration printed in orange; title page illustration repeated above the colophon in black, illustrations by Arvilla Parker, folded map of California inserted after foreword; hand-set in Franciscan type on Van Gelder paper, pagination: [i-vi], folded map inserted, 1-50, [1, colophon], one of 240 copies printed for the Book Club of California. With the original plain paper wrapper, originally light blue in colour. Loosely laid in is the Book Club's prospectus, a single sheet folded once to four pages, a half-page illustration on the first page, prospectus information on the lower half of the first page and the second page, third page with a short paragraph announcing this to be the Book Club's Christmas publication for 1933, fourth page blank.

___CONDITION: Overall in near fine condition with clean boards, square corners without rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and other than the Ex-Libris mentioned above entirely free of prior owner markings; there is some light sunning to the boards (mostly near the top edge), the label on the spine is slightly worn, some offsetting to the endpapers; the folding map near fine, there is a very small tear (less than a quarter-inch) at the bottom edge where it is inserted, and some creasing to the outer edge (from the book being closed without the map being flat). The wrapper good only as the prior owner cut out the top half of the spine (allowing the book's spine label to show), and with overall sunning. The prospectus fine overall, clean and without wear, with light foxing on the fourth (blank) page.

___CITATION: Grabhorn Press Bibliograpy no. 196, BCC First 100 Books no. 45.

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