Sketches in the Canadas, Smyth Coke. Published by Charles J Musson Ltd, Toronto, 1968. Facsimile reproduction from the original collection of twenty-three lithographic plates published in London (ca. 1840). This includes Smyth’s dedication to The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Durham, and a reproduction of Smyth’s signature. Elephant Folio 23″ tall., [60pp]. Green buckram cloth with gilt titles, marbled endpapers. Includes twenty-two bound colour plates on heavy art paper. Contents in fine condition; light warp to front board and light shelf wear.
Smyth was a British artist and traveler. When he was thirty, Smyth was hired to be the drawing-master of the three daughters of the Earl of Durham, the Governor General of British North America, who is this book’s dedicatee. While the Earl of Durham was on his mission to the Canadas, likely from May to November of 1838, Smyth drew his impressions of nineteenth-century Canadian life and its landscape. The 23 plates after his sketches depict First Nations peoples such as the Huron who lived on the St. Lawrence River; scenes of hunting buffalo and moose; the ports of Montreal and Toronto; the American fort on the Niagara; war scenes; waterfalls; city-views of Quebec; and a scene of Native blanket-trading.
