Locker, Edward Hawke.

4to, first edition, large paper, the author's extra-illustrated copy, 23 plates in proof state on india paper, laid down, in 19 cases with the ink and watercolour illustration from which the engraving was taken laid down on the facing page, also a watercolour detail from De Velde's Battle of Solebay, and a pencil portrait of Locker by his father, also with 25 letters and documents laid down including a document signed by Nelson ("Nelson & Bronte") providing Rear Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton with additional signals (two pages, folio, HMS Amphion, off Toulon, 22 July 1803), "Memorandum of a Conversation [of Richard Keats] with Lord Nelson the last time he was in England", discussing his tactical plans, a document signed by Sir Cloudsley Shovell (2 pages, 20 July 1700), a letter signed by Sir George Rooke (1 page, 19 June 1702), autograph letters by Admiral Richard Keats (3), T.M. Hardy, David Wilkie (2), Robert Peel, J.W. Croker (2), Robert Southey, and others, to William Locker relating to the Greenwich naval gallery or his research for the current book, in later navy blue morocco gilt by Riviere and Son, spine in six compartments, covers very lightly marked

Edward Hawke Locker (bookplate); Captain C.M.R. Schwerdt, his sale in these rooms, 23 March 1953, lot 103; P. Marioné (bookplate)

Edward Hawke Locker (1777-1849) was secretary to the royal naval hospital from 1819 to 1844, and in 1823 proposed that a gallery of naval paintings be installed at the Painted Hall at Greenwich. The subsequent collection, which included many gifts from the Royal Collection and elsewhere, eventually became the core of the art collection of the National Maritime Museum. This book was intended as a companion to the gallery. Locker was an accomplished water-colourist and the unsigned original illustrations bound into this volume are almost certainly his work.