The first edition of Charles Rathbone Low's (1837-1918) illustrated history of the Royal Navy, from its origins under the auspices of the Tudor court to the close of the nineteenth century, including the Battle of Trafalgar with separate colour plates of HMS Victory and Lord Nelson.

The work was published in the wake of the fleet review at Spithead, a display of force occasioned by the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Admiral Tirpitz to the United Kingdom in 1889. The same year, Britain adopted the Naval Defence Act and its infamous 'two-power standard', which required the Royal Navy to maintain a fleet of battleships equal in number to the combined strength of the world's next two largest navies. The author of the present work, Charles Low, served in the East India Company navy from 1853 to 1863, attaining the rank of lieutenant. Upon his retirement he was appointed the first librarian and assistant secretary to the Royal United Services Institute, and later established himself as a writer of naval history and fiction.

First edition, 3 vols; 4to (28.5 x 22.5 cm); 3 chromo-lithograph vignette titles, 43 full-page chromo-lithograph plates including portrait frontispieces, inscribed 'Oct 2 1897' in pen to front free endpaper recto of vol. I, half-titles; blue half morocco, purple cloth ruled in gilt, gilt spine, marbled edges, spines slightly faded, minor wear, internally very clean.