Lot 172
Gunnery
Collection of works including rare trade catalogues
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 21 September 2023 at 10:00 BST
Description
Hotchkiss & Co. The Hotchkiss Single-Barrel Rapid-Firing Gun. A Description of the System by Alfred Koerner. Paris: printed for private circulation, 1884. 4to, original cloth, 37 [3] pp., 11 plates, comprising 7 albumen print photographs (mounted as issued) and 4 folding lithographic diagrams, bookplate and ownership inscription of Henk Visser (1923-2006), noted collector of arms and armour, booklet 'Measurements and Weights of Hotchkiss Rapid-Firing Guns ...' laid in, Hotchkiss company ink-stamp to title-page, wear to spine-ends, front free endpaper detached, text-leaves and lithographic plates toned, folding plate 10 a touch proud and consequently nicked and rumpled along fore edge;
Ibid. The Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon. Descriptions and Illustrations of the Systems as designed for Naval Service, Field Artillery and Flank Defence ... by Lieut. Edward W. Very. Paris: printed for private circulation, 1885. 4to, original cloth (rebacked), 30 phototype or lithographic plates, numerous repairs;
Nordenfelt, Thorsten. The Nordenfelt Machine Guns described in Detail and compared with Other Systems. Portsmouth: Griffin & Co., 1884. First edition, 4to, original red pictorial cloth gilt, rebacked and recornered, 56 plates numbered 1-53 (including 12A, 35A, 37A), bookplates of Henk Visser (q.v.) and one John Madden (1836-1902), ink-stains to covers, occasional spotting;
Whitworth, Sir Joseph. Miscellaneous Papers on Mechanical Subjects. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, & Ryer. 1873. First edition, inscribed for 'The Right Honble B Disraeli MP with the authors compliments', with bookplate of Sir Samuel Wilson (subsequent occupant of Hughenden Manor), 4to original cloth;
and 11 others (these not collated), including: War Office, Textbook for Small Arms, 1908 and 1929 (i.e. 2 works, 8vo and 4to, original red cloth, the former ex-library); Robin Chute, Shooting Flying, A Bibliography of Shooting Books 1598-1950, 2001, first edition, one of 500 copies signed by the author, folio); Walter Winans, The Art of Revolver Shooting ... New Edition, Revised and Enlarged, 1911 (4to, original cloth); G. T. Teasdale-Buckell, Experts on Guns and Shooting, 1900, first edition, secondary binding, large 8vo, original cloth); and similar
Footnote
Note: Library Hub traces two copies only for The Hotchkiss Single-Barrel Rapid-Firing Gun, at the British Library and the National Maritime Museum, and two for this edition of The Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon, at the NMM and the National Army Museum; an earlier edition, published in 1879, had 15 plates as opposed to 53 in the present edition.