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BOTTIGELLA, Giovanni Matteo; & Roberto Sanseverino.
Viaggio in Terra Santa. 1459
£475,000
EXCEPTIONALLY IMPORTANT ITALIAN/LOMBARD LANGUAGE MANUSCRIPT of a little-known pilgrimage to the Holy Land made from Venice to Jaffa by sea in 1458-9, containing "the most...
Quarto (220 × 155 mm), 133 unnumbered leaves written in a professional scribal hand in ink, about 29 lines per page on lined vellum, with contemporary annotations... Read more
SHARPE, Bartholomew, & William Hack.
To the Serene Mai.ties of Charles; the second. King of great Britaigne, France and Ireland. This following Journall of our transactions in the South Seas is humbly presented by your Ma:ties ever loyal c.1682
£75,000
An important manuscript journal of the buccaneer Bartholomew Sharpe's expeditions on the coast of South America from 5 April 1680 to 28 January 1681/2, identified as part of a royal...
Small folio (305 ×193 mm). Near contemporary mottled calf, central double fillet gilt panels, red morocco label to the spine, lettered "Sharpe south sea 1680",... Read more
SERRES, Dominick, R.A. & John Thomas
Liber Nauticus, and Instructor in the Art of Marine Drawing. 1805-6
£16,500
First edition. An excellent copy of probably the grandest English naval aquatint book, eight of the plates here being coloured, in Abbey's copy only plate XVII was coloured. Dominick...
2 parts in 1 volume, folio (475 × 330 mm). Recently bound to style in eighteenth-century half diced russia, marbled boards, matching russia patch label with gilt... Read more
JENKINS, James.
The Naval Achievements of Great Britain. 1817
£12,500
First Edition, First Issue, with uncoloured title-page vignette and plates watermarked no later than 1816. This magnificent publication, illustrating the high-water mark of Britain's...
Folio (321 × 262 mm). Recently rebound in green half morocco by J. May of London, spine richly gilt, side-panels decorated in blind, marbled endpapers, old... Read more
JENKINS, James.
The Naval Achievements of Great Britain. From the Year 1793 to 1817. [after 1817]
£12,500
An extremely handsome copy of this magnificent publication, illustrating the high-water mark of Britain's maritime hegemony, and the apogee of the coloured aquatint. As Roger Quarm,...
Folio (358 × 285 mm). Twentieth-century royal blue crushed morocco by Birdsall, title gilt to spine, raised bands, double gilt ruled panels to the compartments,... Read more
(FRENCH SIGNALS AT TRAFALGAR)
Officer's notebook from the Neptune containing the French signalling system. 1805
£12,500
Private manuscript signal manual carried on board the French ship Neptune in the Trafalgar campaign. Neptune, 80 guns, was built in 1803 at Toulon, and was commissioned just in time...
Small octavo (168 × 130 mm). Loosely sewn into limp vellum wraps, single linen tie remains. Illegible ?ownership inscription to the upper wrap. 22 leaves of... Read more
MEIBOM, Marcus.
De Fabrica Triremium Liber. 1671
£8,500
First and only edition of this uncommon treatise on ancient shipbuilding, drawn from classical and Biblical sources, illustrated with a beautiful, etched frontispiece by de Hooghe....
Quarto (201 × 142 mm). Contemporary vellum, title inked to the spine, marbled edges. Superb folding etched frontispiece by Romeyn de Hooghe showing 5 separate... Read more
RALFE, James.
The Naval Chronology of Great Britain; 1820
£8,000
First edition in book form, with cancel leaf "b" correctly bound in volume I, rather than misbound at front of volume III. Originally issued in 12 parts. Superb series of plates,...
3 volumes octavo (244 × 157 mm) Dark brown half morocco on green linen boards by R.H. Porter, title gilt direct to the spine, raised bands with single gilt rule,... Read more
(NAVAL; French.)
Tableau de la Marine de France divisée par Escadres, 1787. c.1787]
£7,250
Elegant, superbly-finished presentation tabulation of the strength of the French navy at this historically crucial period, just four years after its vital role in the American War of...
Large landscape single-sheet (1030 × 690 mm). Entirely calligraphic table in brown, red and green ink; broad gilt rules; handsome water-colour sprigs of flowers;... Read more
(SHIPPING)
Serie delle diverse specie di Bastimenti da Guerra e Mercantili che navigano nel Mediteraneo colle diverse posizioni di Vele e Manovre che sogliono farsi in Navigazione. c.1780
£6,750
An extremely attractive collection of uncommon eighteenth-century engraved shipping prints. The first series is recorded in one copy only, with later colour, in the National Library...
Landscape folio (first series of plates 275 × 397 mm, the second 255 × 357 mm). Late nineteenth-century black crushed morocco, panel to the upper board... Read more
SUTHERLAND, William.
Britain's Glory: or Ship-Building Unvail'd. 1717
£6,500
First editions of both parts. Sutherland had worked for many years as a master carpenter and then inspector and overseer of shipwrights in the naval dockyards at Portsmouth and...
Folio (333 × 215 mm). Two parts bound in one, the second with a separate title page, The Prices of the Labour in Ship-Building Adjusted: or, the Mystery of... Read more
FRUNEAU, René.
Collection of six scarce works on navigation, hydrography, meteorology, and astronomy published at Nantes. 1829-33
£6,000
First editions of a group of rather eccentric theoretical papers on a range of matters maritime by an "ancien marin Nantaise", based in his experiences as a ship's captain in the...
Octavo (198 × 124 mm). Contemporary quarter calf, imitation tree calf boards, black morocco label, edges stained yellow. Folding lithographed map and 3 folding... Read more
CLERK, John.
An Essay on Naval Tactics, 1790 & 1797
£5,750
True first edition of Clerk's celebrated Essay, which is distinguished as "one of the first British accounts of tactics, as opposed to a work in French translation, and for its...
Quarto (270 × 205 mm). Contemporary streaked calf, red morocco label, gilt ruled compartments to spine, red sprinkled edges. Without the half title to part I, but... Read more
RAMSAY, David.
The History of the American Revolution. 1789
£5,500
First edition. A superb copy of this, "almost the first and very probably the most accomplished of the many histories of the American Revolution and making of the Federal...
2 volumes, octavo (210 × 124 mm). Contemporary, probably Philadelphia, marbled sheep, red morocco lettering pieces, and black morocco roundel numbering pieces,... Read more
CHURCHILL, Winston S.
The World Crisis 1915. 1923
£5,000
First edition of the controversial Gallipoli volume of Churchill's First World War history. This copy inscribed by Churchill three days before publication on the second front blank;...
Octavo. Original blue cloth, title in gilt to the spine and in blind in a small panel to the lower fore-corner of the upper board. 7 coloured maps, 5 folding, 2... Read more
PATTON, Philip.
Strictures on Naval Discipline, and the Conduct of a Ship of War. [c.1807]
£5,000
Extremely uncommon collection of the clear- and far-sighted memoranda on naval discipline of a long-serving sailor described by Lord Keith as this "deep-thinking and hard-fighting...
5 pamphlets in one quarto volume (288 × 230 mm), pp. iv, 179; 11; [ii], 32; 23; [ii], 10. Original boards, rebacked in calf. Small hand-drawn illustration to the... Read more
PLEYDELL-BOUVERIE, Duncombe, Admiral.
Ships of the British Navy. 1838-47
£4,750
Scrupulously maintained record of the ships of the Royal Navy during the 1840s, begun in 1838 and updated four times over the following nine years. The tables record the dimensions,...
Quarto (253 × 183 mm). Dark blue straight-grain morocco, titled "Navy List" in gilt to spine, gilt panels to the boards, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers.... Read more
SMITH, John.
The Sea-Man's Grammar and Dictionary, 1692
£4,500
Inevitably less well-known than his descriptive and prescriptive works of colonization, Smith's guidelines to seafarers are of equal importance within their field. Described by...
Small quarto (184 × 140 mm). Later dark blue half calf on marbled boards, title gilt longitudinally to spine. Folding plate of "a ship with all her tackling",... Read more
CLARKE, James Stanier, & John M'Arthur.
The Life of Admiral Lord Nelson, K.B. From His Lordship's Manuscripts. 1809
£4,500
First edition. "One of the main foundation stones of the Nelson legend" (Wilson, 'Nelson Apotheosised' in Cannadine (ed.), Admiral Lord Nelson), "the 'official' biography" (NMM)....
2 volumes, quarto (338 × 272 mm). Contemporary full green straight-grained morocco, flat bands, title gilt direct to the spines, compartments with nested... Read more
RUSCHENBERGER, William Samual Waithman.
A Voyage round the World; including an Embassy to Muscat and Siam, in 1835, 1836, and 1837. 1838 & 1837
£4,500
First editions. Individually uncommon, perhaps Ruschenberger the more so, and together here offering a very full record of important early American trade negotiations in the Middle...
2 volumes octavo (220 × 134 mm; 215 × 138 mm). Uniformly bound in black half morocco on marbled boards, title gilt to spine, flat bands sparingly tooled,... Read more
JAMES, William.
The Naval History of Great Britain, 1837
£4,250
A wonderful set, handsome on the shelf, and immensely enhanced by the addition of a wealth of visual material drawn from contemporary sources such as the Naval Chronicle, Brenton's...
6 volumes bound in 13, octavo (222 × 142 mm). Early twentieth-century navy blue three-quarter morocco, matching linen boards, title gilt direct to spines, raised... Read more
BACON, Francis.
Considerations touching a Warre with Spaine. 1629
£4,000
First edition, uncommon, just a handful of copies at auction in the last 30 years. Written in 1624, this essay is dedicated to Charles I, as prince of Wales ("Your Maiestie hath an...
Small quarto (183 × 134 mm). Early twentieth-century dark blue morocco for W.H. Smith, title gilt to spine, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments with foliate... Read more
SCHOMBERG, Isaac.
The Naval Chronology; or, an Historical Summary of Naval and Maritime Events, 1815
£3,750
First published 1802, this revised edition extremely uncommon, seemingly just 10 complete sets listed on OCLC, BL lists two odd volumes, NMM Caird Library similarly with just two...
5 volumes octavo (210 × 126 mm) Later black half calf, matching grained cloth boards, red morocco title labels, volume numbers direct to spines, marbled edges and... Read more
ORME, Edward.
Historic Military and Naval Anecdotes, 1819, but c.1825
£3,500
Early state, the plates watermarked 1825, text variously 1811, 1812, 1817. The plates have issue dates between 1815 and 1818, and were first assembled in book form in 1819. Abbey and...
Folio (334 × 270 mm). Twentieth-century royal blue crushed morocco by Birdsall, title gilt to spine, raised bands, double gilt ruled panels to the compartments,... Read more
SUTHERLAND, William.
Britain's Glory: or Ship-Building Unvail'd. 1729 & 1717
£3,500
Second "edition" of the first, & first of the second part. Sutherland had worked for many years as a master carpenter and then inspector and overseer of shipwrights in the naval...
Folio (336 × 203 mm). Two parts bound in one, the second with a separate title page, The Prices of the Labour in Ship-Building Adjusted: or, the Mystery of... Read more
