Naval and Military Exploits Which Have Distinguished the Reign of George the Third, The

London: Printed for Samuel Leigh, by W. Clowes, 1820. Complete with the Two Additional Plates

ASPIN, Jehoshaphat. The Naval and Military Exploits Which Have Distinguished the Reign of George the Third. Accurately described, and methodically arranged. Embellished with numerous color plates. London: Printed for Samuel Leigh, by W. Clowes, 1820.

First edition. Twelvemo (5 3/8 x 3 1/2 inches; 137 x 89 mm.). viii, [2], 784 pp. Hand-colored aquatint frontispiece and thirty-five circular hand-colored aquatint plates (measuring 2 1/2 inches in diameter). Complete with the two extra plates, "Vittoria" and "Pampeluna" (facing pp. 665 and 677, respectively), not present in all copies.

Bound ca. 1900 in full red morocco, covers ruled in blind. Spine with five raised bands, lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt decorated turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Armorial bookplate of The Reverend Samuel Ashton Thompson-Yates on front paste-down. Occasional light offsetting from plates, but overall an excellent example, containing some of the smallest and most finely engraved aquatints of the period.

The text chronicles the Battles that George III (1738-1820) was engaged in from his accession to the throne in 1760 to the storming of Algiers in 1816. Included are accounts of the naval and military campaigns and encounters with France, Spain, Native Americana, the New United States of America during the American Revolution, the wars in India as well as conflicts with Holland, Cuba, Napoleon, etc.

"...the tiny and beautiful circular plates of J. Aspin's Naval and Military Exploits, only two and a half inches in diameter..." (Prideaux, p. 14)

Jehoshaphat Aspin (fl. c. 1805 - c. 1832) was a British author, humorist, historian, and geographer active in the early 19th century. Aspin is a bit of a mystery, but the name believed to be a nom-de-plume for an unknown female author. Aspin produced a number of children's books, geographies, geographical games, and histories. Her primary work Cosmorama focuses on connections between culturally and geographically disparate peoples, for example, comparing Italian and Malay. Cartographically she appears to have worked with John Thompson, Matthew Carey, and C. V. Lavoisne.

Abbey, Life, 350; Bobins II, 343; Prideaux, pp. 14, 326; Tooley 70; Ogilby, British Military Costume Prints, 70.