26 - [NAVAL. 18th-CENTURY HANDWRITTEN ALBUM].

[NAVAL. 18th-CENTURY HANDWRITTEN ALBUM]. [18th-Century Merchant Ships]. No place, no publisher, (18th century). Italian-style In-4, (30) ff. Contemporary stitching, plain front cover, old library label, and a hand-drawn marine album on the front cover, all housed in a modern red half-morocco slipcase, smooth spine accented with gold fillets, gilt title, red morocco title label on the front cover with gilt fillets and gilt title (one faint old central crease, a few scattered stains throughout, some small foxing spots, cover leaf tarnished and chipped). A very beautiful handwritten and illustrated 18th-century album of racing, merchant, and fishing vessels. Each page features on the front a delicate, very well-executed drawing of the named vessel, based on a pencil sketch and executed in black ink with line work and wash, with the waves rendered in wash. A descriptive text in brown ink appears opposite each illustration. The album may have been intended to help sailors and captains identify ships, as well as to serve as a “dictionary” of sail names. In some cases, the tonnage is specified. Some of the ships are foreign, but several pages feature fishing vessels or ships passing through various regions of France. The vessels are arranged as follows, each bearing its description and name along with a list of sails identified in the drawing by a letter: Traiquarré under its square sails, Traiquarré under its lateen sails..., Senault (sic), Caravel, Marsillane, Barque, Schooner, Dogre, Galiotte or Bûche à Corne, Brigantine, Polacre, Longard (sic), Loot or Dutch Bot, Oüary (sic), Cutter—Chassemarée or Cotter, Felouque de Gennes (sic), Tartanne at Anchor, Barge (Loire fishermen), Small fishing boat, Aissaugue (sic)... fishing boats along the coasts of Provence and Languedoc, Mulet (Portuguese fishing boat), Traversier (Aunis and Saintonge), longline (sic)... Provence and Languedoc, fishing boat from the Poitou Coast, Liriac boat (sic), Small fishing boat with gaff sails, Lougre—Sloop, Lougre from the port of approximately one hundred tonneaux, Galley, Galley at anchor. Document very well preserved for its time. SAILMAKING. SAILING SCIENCE. NAVIGATION.