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BIDDULPH, M.A., Captain.
Assault of Sevastopol. Two Topographical & Panoramic Sketches,
representing the Advanced Lines of Attack, and the Russian Defences, in Front of Sevastopol. With a Description and Remarks. [Together with;] Topographical Sketches of the Ground before Sevastopol, accompanied by an Explanatory Description. Part II. Shewing the Mamelon, the Malakhoff Tower, and the Redan; with the Connecting Works. [and;] Part III. Sketch V. - Shewing the White Batteries, the Mamelon, and the Quarries with all the Ground gained on the Night of the 7th June.
Publisher: London: Chapman and Hall; Woolwich: Printed at the Royal Artillery Institution; London: Edward Stanford, [1855]
Stock code: 50552
Price: £1,375 Currency Conversion
First edition. Uncommon and attractive visual memoir of the famous siege operations at Sebastopol in the Crimea. Only 4 complete sets on COPAC, with OCLC adding just 3 more. Biddulph was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in 1843, and served at various stations including Bermuda, promoted second captain in 1850. On the outbreak of the Crimean War he was sent to Turkey, he "accompanied the army from Varna to the Crimea in September, and took part in the battles of the Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, and the Chernaya. During the siege of Sevastopol he served as assistant engineer in the trenches outside the city, helped repulse a Russian sortie on 26 October 1854, and assisted in the three bombardments of the fortress …Biddulph was later attached to the quartermaster-general's staff during the remainder of the conflict, and was appointed director of submarine telegraph cables in the Black Sea… For his services during the war Biddulph was mentioned in dispatches, given a brevet majority and a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy, was made a member of the Légion d'honneur, and received the Turkish Mejidiye (fifth class)." (ODNB) The three parts each issued by a different publisher, the two sketches in the first, lithographed by Day & Son, show signs of having been "worked up" from Biddulph's drawings to a greater extent than those, printed by Hullmandel & Walton, in the subsequent parts which are far less finished. Apparently the Committee of the Royal Artillery Institution made arrangements that "one copy of the work may be furnished gratis… to every member… at home and abroad." Either lack of enthusiasm on the part of members, fragility of the format, or a combination of both has ensured that this is a rare piece.
Folio Original brown ripple-grained cloth, title gilt to the upper board, rebacked. 5 folding lithographic panoramas, one extending to almost 1m in length. A little rubbed, rebacked in brown cloth as noted, light marginal staining to fore-edge of some leaves, otherwise very good.
