antiquarian bookseller - Peter Harrington

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller
288.CLERK, John.
An Essay on Naval Tactics,
Systematical and Historical, with
Explanatory Plates. In Four Parts.
Edinburgh, Archd. Constable & Co., London, T. N. Longman & O.[sic],
1804 [37732] £1500
4to (280 x 210 mm). 52 engraved folding plates. Somewhat
browned, as usual, particularly on the plates, but overall
very good in contemporary half diced russia on marbled
boards, joints cracked, rubbed at the extremities, pleasingly
unsophisticated.
FIRST PUBLISHED EDITION, the work having originally been
privately circulated, the first part in 1782 and 1790, the
remaining three parts in 1797, all four now republished
in this second edition. Clerk started to train as a doctor
at Edinburgh University, but was side-tracked into the
world of business, becoming involved in coalmining and
studying geology, “A true child of the Enlightenment,
Clerk was also active in the mid-eighteenth-century
Edinburgh élite, including Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson,
Hugh Blair, and David Hume” (ODNB). He developed an
interest in ship-building and naval tactics during the
War of Independence and began analysing accounts
of engagements from all the available sources, from
newspapers and gazettes to log-books and also cultivated
the friendship of Admiral Edgar who has served with Byng
at Minorca. He even went so far as to work through ship
movements using cork models on a water tank. “The
study was distinctive as one of the first British accounts
of tactics, as opposed to a work in French translation,
and for its criticism of the current Royal Naval practice of
looking more to signal books to the detriment of fighting
instructions. Clerk’s focus on practical tactics, developed
during the course of the 1790s, sought to redress this
habit…” His proposals, particularly that for breaking the
enemy’s line from the leeward, which was later the source
of some later controversy as to its origins, “… directly or
indirectly… did contribute largely to our successes during
the wars of the French revolution. Nelson himself is said to
have been a careful student of Clerk’s book; his celebrated
memorandum of 9 Oct. 1805, in directing the attack
from the position to windward, adhered closely to Clerk’s
proposal”. Whatever the debates as to his originality, this
was an immensely influential work, and Clerk remains “an
author of the highest order.”
289.CLOWES, William Laird.
The Royal Navy A History From
the earliest times to the present.
Assisted by Sir Clements Markham,
K.C.B., P.R.G.S. Captain A. T.
Mahan, U.S.N. H. W. Wilson
Theodore Roosevelt E. Fraser etc.
Sampson Low, Marston and Company 1897–1903 [32586]
£975
7 volumes, 8vo. Full dark blue cloth, titles to spine gilt,
armorial crest to boards gilt, plain coated endpapers, top edge
gilt. 25 photogravures and hundreds of full page and other
illustrations. A very fine and clean set.
FIRST EDITION, First Printing; in the later binding with
President Roosevelt’s name appearing on the spine. A
comprehensive history of the Royal Navy up to 1903.
290.CLÜVER, Philip.
Introductio in Universam
Geographiam Tam veterem quam
novam Tabulis Geographicis XLVI.
ac Notis olim ornatae à Johanne
Bunone, Jam verò locupletata
Additamentis & Annotionibus Joh.
Frid. Hekelii & Joh. Reiskii.
Amsterdam, Jan Wolters, 1697 [9944] £3500
4to. Bound to period style in sprinkled calf, red morocco label.
With copperplate allegorical title, letterpress title printed
in red and black with copperplate vignette, 3 plates and 43
folding maps. Some browning to letterpress, maps with a
few insignificant closed tears neatly repaired, otherwise an
attractive copy.
First published at Leiden in 1624 without maps: many
editions followed and Clüver’s geography textbook made
“a wide and influential contribution to knowledge of the
subject” (Moreland & Bannister, Antique Maps, 1989,
p. 83). Philipp Clüver (1580–1623) was virtually the
founder of historical geography. This edition is based on
that originally issued by Johannis Bunonis (Wolfenbuttel
1661) but may be the first to include the additions by J. F.
Hekelius and Joannes Reiskius.
Philllips 4270; Burden, The Mapping of North America, 360; Sabin 13805.
291.COOKE, Edward
William.
Sixty Five Plates of Shipping and
Craft. Drawn and Etched.
London, [?for the Author], 1828–31 [37093] £1500
4to. 63 etched plates, etched title-page vignette and tail-piece
to the plate list. Sporadic foxing and browning, as always, but
overall very good, neatly recased in the original purple cloth,
gilt, spine relined, sunned at the spine and edges, gilt edges.
First thus, the first edition of 1829, originally issued in parts,
having 50 plates only. The present issue was combined
with his Twelve Plates of Coast Sketches: Brighton (1830)
Catalogue 57: Travel Section 7: Mapping, Navigation and Naval History
and The British Coast (1831). The child of George Cooke,
a member of the Cooke family group of artists, engravers
and publishers, Edward William was an artistic prodigy. He
was employed at the age of nine making sketches from
life at the nurseries of Conrad Loddige for use in Loudon’s
Encyclopaedia of Plants, later working for the nurseryman
himself on illustrations for the Botanical Cabinet. Around
1825, when still in his teens, he worked for Clarkson
Stansfield making studies of nautical details, and “In order
to increase his acquaintance with ships, he studied under
Captain Burton of the Thetis” (DNB). He travelled widely
in Europe showing “a single-minded devotion to minutely
observed portraits of smaller working craft, recording
their appearance in every country he visited…” and with
the arrival of steam (there are two steam craft amongst
these plates) “…he developed an almost archaeological
approach, recording as if aware that change was afoot”
(ODNB). His watercolours were exhibited at the RA and
British Institution and attracted favourable reviews
– Ruskin was much taken with his Morning after a
Heavy Gale exhibited at the RA in 1857 – and also the
patronage of John Sheepshanks, Robert Vernon and
William Wells, prominent collectors of modern art. He
retained an interest in scientific matters throughout his
life, nurturing an enthusiasm for geology, microscopy and
also photography. He became a fellow of the Linnaean
Society in 1857 and the Royal Society in 1863.
292.CORBETT, Julian
Stafford.
The Campaign of Trafalgar.
Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1919 [38625] £750
2 volumes, 8vo. Recent navy blue full morocco, single ruled
panel to the boards, raised bands to the spine, gilt fouled
anchor devices to the compartments, red morocco title pieces
and head-bands. Frontispiece and nine plans, all but 2 of them
folding, 3 diagrams to the text. Light marginal browning,
otherwise a very nice set, handsomely bound.
New Edition. A lawyer by training, but a naval historian by
avocation, Corbett became a lecturer at the Royal Naval
War College in Greenwich in 1902 and began to generate
a series of publications which more or less defined British
naval thinking around the turn of the century. His Trafalgar
was sufficiently controversial in its handling of Nelson’s
tactics for a parliamentary committee to be called to
analyse the battle; its findings published in 1913 largely
vindicated his interpretation. “Corbett had a natural bent
for history, collected rare books and manuscripts, and
wrote in a cultured and arresting style. There was as much
of the philosopher in him as the historian. It was fortunate
that his career was undetermined when the Royal Naval
War College was instituted. Finding in him the instrument
it needed, it inspired the series of monographs and
histories which won for Corbett a wide measure of esteem
and, for the Royal Navy, a more profound understanding
of its purpose” (ODNB).
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