A perfect Xmas present for the military history enthusiast who has everything? This stunningly bound 3-volume set of the 'Life of Field-Marshal his Grace the Duke of Wellington’ by W.H. Maxwell, published by A.H. Baily in 1839, 1840 and 1841, recounts the great general’s life with a focus on his military campaigns, and is packed full of engravings, woodcuts, maps, town plans and plans of battlefields, including a wonderful coloured fold-out plan of the field of the Battle of Trafalgar.

The volumes are in great condition externally, bound in 3/4 leather over dark red cloth-covered boards (the cloth is a little marked and mottled in places). All edges triple gilt. There is an enthusiastic inscription inside from the first buyer (Frederick Dobson) regarding the condition of his set when he bought it in 1848. Since he wrote that, vol. 1 has acquired a largish stain to the bottom of the first couple of pages, which has largely disappeared by the Contents page. Elsewhere, the books are clean and bright internally, with minor marking here and there and offsetting from some of the numerous plates.

I wondered if the original owner ‘Frederick Dobson’ might possibly be General Sir Frederick Dobson Middleton, who was stationed in NZ in the 1840s, but I see no reason why he would not have used his surname so am assuming this must be a different Frederick Dobson.

22 x 14cm approx, set weighs 2.9kg unpacked.