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Lot 252

NAVY – QUEEN ANNE SIGNAL BOOK

22 November 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £2,000 inc. premium

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NAVY – QUEEN ANNE SIGNAL BOOK

Signal book illustrated in watercolour, showing flags to be flown and other signals, with twenty-one flags drawn in watercolour in right-hand pages with instructions on how they are to be answered on the facing page, beginning with "All Signall with Saills are Answered by every Flagg Shipp/ Signalls by Day with Saill" and including fog signals ("...Note all Fogg Signalls are Answered by Every Flagg Shipps, and Private Ships are to Answer by Fireing Musquetts, beating Drums, and Ringing of Bells..."), and interspersed with battle orders and other instructions ("...Note. If you should be disabled in time of Battle, you are to make a Weft with your Jack or Ensign, and the next Shipp is to take Care of you: You are not to Quitt the Line on any Pretence whatever, till you have Acquainted the Admirall, or the next Flagg Officer, and then the next Shipp is to fill up the Line, in your Room..."); with later dockets in a French hand and associated Marine depot ink-stamp, some 45 pages, marbled paper wrappers, slight dust-staining etc. but overall in fine condition, 32mo, [1707-1714]

Footnotes

AN EARLY SIGNAL BOOK FOR USE IN THE ROYAL NAVY: datable by the first flag illustrated in watercolour, the royal standard as flown by Queen Anne from the passing of the Act of Union on 1 May 1707 until her death on 1 August 1714. It is therefore approximately contemporary with the earliest manuscript signal book listed in the collection of the National Maritime Museum. This was compiled between 1710 and 1711, and contains additional signals made by Sir John Norris (c.1670-1749) in the Ranelagh; its format being very similar to the printed signal book of 1714 by Jonathan Greenwood (NMM sub-collection SIG/B). Signal books were generally produced to a small format, as here, so that they could easily be carried in the pocket, for ready reference. A constant worry of the Admiralty regulating their use was that they might fall into enemy hand, which appears to be the fate suffered by our volume.

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