Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan; performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the command of Commodore M.C.Perry, United States Navy, by order of the Government of the United States. Compiled from the original notes and journals of Commodore Perry and his officers, at his request, and under his supervision

Washington DC: Published by order of the Congress of the United States, 1856. First Edition. Cloth. Good. First Edition. Three volumes. 130 of 132 plates present. Numerous woodcuts in the text. Large quarto. (9.5 x 11.5 inches) Publisher's cloth with blind-stamped decorations, minor foxing and offsetting. Mixed Senate and House issues.

Vol. 1: xvii, [1], [1]-537 pages. Senate issue, Beverly Tucker printer. Non-authorial presentation on the second blank flyleaf. Text generally bright and clean. Binding loose and worn with crude repair job and dampstaining to rear panel and hinge. Marginal dampstaining to a dozen or so leaves, the largest six inches long protruding an inch into the margins. Occasional pencil marks. Minor surface adhesion damage to plate page 130. Bathing plate not present at p. 408 (apparently these were excised from most Senate copies) here replaced with another plate and noted as such in the plate index. Plate at 281 is "Lew Chew" rather than the "Inner harbor and ruins, Timagusko". Plate at page 90 is trimmed and laid in. Plate at page 462 is missing. Several short edge tears or scuffs to a few pages (375, 389, 407, 469) one extending into the text. Old paper repair to page 461. Maps present at pages 151 (damaged), 186, 197, 242, 483, and 512. In total, Vol 1 contains 87 (of 89) plates in the index plus one replacement. Otherwise complete as called for. Fair.

Vol. 2: [8], [1]-414, [20 - facsimile treaty w/Japan], [iii]-xi (index), [1 - list of charts]. Plus 17 charts bound in rear as called for. Plus 43 plates total (4 tinted occupational, 2 b&w natural history, 6 colored birds, 10 colored fish, 5 shells [2 colored], 16 plates of diagrams related to weather patterns). Plates I and II are not present at page 256 (where colored fish plates III-XII are bound in), but they are also not referenced in the text index on 286 and hence we feel this is complete as published. House issue, O. P. Nicholson printer. Very good. Tears and edge browning to the edges of several of the folding plates in rear.

Vol 3: xliii, [1]-705 pages. Very good. House issue, O.P. Nicholson printer. The first portion is text, the last 705 pages are zodiacal light observations (sky charts), each with a diagram of the night sky with explanation in text opposite. Cloth. An important work documenting Commodore Perry's expedition. Volume 2 contains "Observations in Relation to Cyclones of the Western Pacific : Embraced in a Communication to Commodore Perry" by William C. Redfield, and was the last work done by Redfield before his death.

This set is often found with different plate counts and/or occasional substitutions. There was also a one volume edition published in the same year by Appleton missing some of the information in this three volume set. A fascinating read and view into this expedition.