Large quarto. Limited edition of 1,500 copies of which this is number 169. xv, [1], 281pp, [1]. With a frontispiece and a further 55 plates. Original publisher's navy cloth, stamped and lettered in gilt, printed paper dustwrapper. Minor shelf-wear, dustwrapper a trifle creased and marked, small hole to lower panel, spine panel sunned. Occasional light spotting.

The first edition of an authoritative, and profusely illustrated, history of sailing-ship ornamentation by Leonard George Carr Laughton (1871-1955), a driving force behind the foundation of the Society for Nautical Research and sometime editor of The Mariner’s Mirror.