The English & French fleets in the Baltic, 1845.

Brierly's fine and rare series of plates of the English and French fleets in the Baltic, during the Crimean War. At the outbreak of the war, Sir Oswald Brierly joined Captain Henry Keppel as artist-observer on the man-of-war HMS St Jean d'Acre in the allied Baltic fleet. Brierley had previously accompanied Keppel on board HMS Maeander in the Pacific. The aim of this particular campaign was to bring Sweden into the war on the side of the allies, and also to pressure Russia to sue for peace over Sebastopol. In 1855 Brierly accompanied Keppel, in HMS Rodney, to the Black Sea and Sea of Azov; during this voyage he was often under enemy fire, and was subsequently awarded the Baltic and Crimean medals.

First edition; large folio (74x 54 cm); engraved dedication, 2pp. letterpress descriptive list of plates, 18 lithographic plates on 15 sheets coloured by a contemporary hand, no title issued, spotting to first plate, some minor staining to top margin; later dark blue half morocco, label to upper cover, corners bumped, binding a little worn, preserving one original wrapper bound in as title, a very good copy.

Abbey Life 329; Bobins II, 349.