Blanckley, Thomas Riley
A Naval Expositor
Estimate: £600 - £800
Auction: 18 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
shewing and explaining the Words and Terms of Art belonging to the Parts, Qualities, and Proportions of Building, Rigging, Furnishing, and Fitting a Ship for Sea. London: E. Owen, 1750. First edition, 4to (25.5 x 20cm), [6] 191 pp., 20th-century reddish-brown sheep, engraved title page, numerous engraved vignettes in margins and 3 larger engraved vignettes in the text, all by Paul Fourdrinier, gift inscription dated 1926 to binder's blank, contemporary ownership inscription to head of p. 1, a few early manuscript corrections, title-page reinforced in gutter and with repaired close tear to fore margin, a few spots and finger-marks
Footnote
An uncommon work capturing the extent of British shipbuilding knowledge on the eve of the Seven Years' War, preceding the next such attempt, Falconer's Universal Dictionary of the Marine, by some 20 years. The author Thomas Blanckley (1717-1753) was a clerk of the survey at Portsmouth and a commissioner of the Victualling Office.