1877 Field Fortification

Description

Illustrated, Original Binding, Signed

With the printed title label 'Field Fortification' to the front board. Label hand signed 'C. G. R. Thackwell' in two places, and dated 'Sept. 1877.'

Captain Thackwell was mentioned in Winston Churchill's first published work of non-fiction, 'The Story of the Malakand Field Force' (1890), and appeared in Hart's army list from the 1870s to 1890s.

Thackwell served in the Afghan war in 1878-80 in the Hissarlik and Lughman Valley Expeditions, and was severely wounded. He served in further expeditions in 1881, and was present at the 1882 Battle of El Kebir.

Consisting of six loosely inserted plates - some hand drawn in pencil - and with a further nine plates bound within the work.

Each loosely inserted plate is signed and dated 1877 by Thackwell, with two plates hand coloured, and the plates 'Eye Sketch of Barossa Hill' and 'Field Sketch near Windsor Ride entirely hand drawn in pencil.

The printed plates bound in are not titled, and are also each signed and dated by Thackwell. Plates show scales, and elevations, with plans of ditches, gorges and trenches. Defensive structures including caponiers, counterscarp galleries, and a reduit with defensible barracks are also displayed.

With six blank leaves to the rear.

An impressively detailed collection of hand signed plates depicting late nineteenth century field fortifications.