[Sir Thomas Picton and Sir Garnet Wolseley, book owned by two military heroes.] Vol. 2 of Turpin de Crissé’s ‘Essai sur l’Art de la Guerre’, with Picton’s signature, twice, Wolseley’s bookplate, and an Autograph Note Signed by Wolseley on Picton.

See the entries on the two men in the Oxford DNB. Above the half-title, in a large untidy hand Picton has made the ownership signature ‘Lieutenant General Sir Th Picton’, and there is the same signature by him in a much smaller hand above the illustration at the head of p.1. Facing the half-title, on the reverse of the front free endpaper, is the elaborate armorial bookplate of ‘Field Marshal Viscount Wolseley / of Wolseley County of Stafford / Baron Wolseley of Cairo’. Above this, with some smudging, is an autograph note by Wolseley: ‘This book belonged to the most daring of able Soldiers who ever fought for England, General Sir Thomas Picton. See autograph upon opposite page. / W.’ The book bearing these inscriptions is an odd volume, and not in the best of condition, but that is not the point, as manuscript material and bookplate are undamaged. The book is sold as seen because of the provenance: it is a military textbook that belonged to and was signed by two of Britain’s greatest military heroes, with one giving a brief assessment of the martial merits of the other. (The latter being, it must be conceded in these touchy times, in all other respects an utterly appalling individual.) 4to: [4] + 3 + [1] + 205pp, followed by a number of unpaginated pages of letterpress accompanying 25 fold-out maps. The fold-out plates are certainly all present, and are in good condition, having fared somewhat better than the rest of the volume. The front hinge has sprung. There is no frontispiece, if one was indeed called for. Still surprisingly tight, in heavily-flaking calf binding, with the prelims and last few leaves in the worst condition, with chipping and with damp staining at the foot. But to repeat, the material relating to Picton and Wolseley is undamaged, and none of the volume’s defects detract from its attraction: a military textbook, published four years before Picton was born, whose tactics he may well have employed against the country of the author, and which later passed into the hands of an even more distinguished soldier. On the recto of the front free endpaper is another armorial bookplate: that of ‘B’, with motto ‘NEC TEMERE NEC TIMIDE’. Unfortunately Fairbairn’s Crests has not facilitated the identification of ‘B’.