Naval Evolutions: or, A System of Sea-Discipline ….

London: W. Johnston, 1762.

Price: $4,500.00


About the item

First edition. 18 engraved plates (most folding) and 2 letterpress charts. viii, 90, [2] pp. 4to. Contemporary quarter calf and marbled boards. Near fine. ESTC T115206; Cf. NMM V, 736. Provenance: John Denis Browne, 1st Marquess of Sligo (bookplate).

Item #261307

Christopher O'Bryen was a Lieutenant in the Royal British Navy when he wrote this work, which is the English translation and adaptation of Paul Hoste’s L’Art des Armées Navales (Lyon, 1727), which is “a standard work on naval tactics” (NMM)

This work is amply illustrated with stirking folding copper-plate engravings that depict ship formations, notable attacks and defenses and even coastal bombardments. It provides a remarkable snapshot of the British Navy (and French Navy) in the end of the eighteenth century, published at the tail end of the Seven Years War, which ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

The bookplate of John Denis Browne, First Marquess of Sligo (1756-1809), an Irish peer and politician, provides an interesting element of contemporary provenance.