2 volumes, folio (330 x 274 mm). 12 engraved plates, 4 engraved vignettes, 5 plans, one double-page letterpress genealogy and various samples of Nelson's handwriting. (Occasional spotting and light browning, light soiling to title-pages.) Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers with several frames in alternating tools including a large central lozenge with an anchor device inside a wreath gilt, spines in 5 compartments with 4 flat bands gilt, gilt-lettering in 2, others tooled with sailing vessel devices gilt, all edges gilt (rebacked preserving original spine, fore-corners repaired, front hinge cracked in vol. I at title-page). Provenance: Baron Carrington (armorial bookplate), possibly Robert Smith (1752-1838); collector's armorial bookplate on front free endpaper.

FIRST EDITION of "the fullest, and in many respects the best biography" (DNB) of Britain's greatest naval hero. A work that "every Englishman ought to possess" that forms "a complete naval history of the last half century" (Allibone, 390). Lowndes, 472.