Home / Browse / Decorative Bindings / A List of the General and Field-Officers, As they Rank in the Army;
(MILITARY)
A List of the General and Field-Officers, As they Rank in the Army;
of the Officers in the Several Regiments of Horse, Dragoons, and Foot, on the British and Irish Establishments …
First edition. These eighteenth-century Army Lists are becoming harder and harder to find, and those for the years of the American War of Independence are particularly desirable. This is especially true when, as here, they are presented in the style of binding which seems to have been reserved by the War Office for presentation copies. This copy with the bookplate of Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, fifth son of George III and Queen Charlotte. Ernest studied at the University of Göttingen and then trained in the Hanoverian Army, fighting "with courage in Flanders and the Netherlands against the French" (ODNB), commanding the Hanoverian light battalion of grenadiers at Villers-en-Cauchi in 1793, and seeing action at Tournai - where he was wounded - and Nijmegen in 1794. He regarded himself as a professional soldier, but after 1796 never again held command in the field, despite repeated efforts to obtain active service. On the death of his brother William IV in 1837, he ascended to the throne of Hanover. Highly attractive, and with excellent provenance.
Octavo (228 × 136 mm) Contemporary red morocco, green morocco label, spine gilt in compartments, sun in splendour central tools with olive branch and banderolle corner pieces, wide Greek key roll panel to the boards, chequered edge-roll, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Numbered 76 on the bottom edge in a contemporary hand, suggesting that these were at some time stored end-on. A little rubbed at the extremities, mild soiling on the boards, label a touch chipped, but overall very good.
