Orme's graphic history of the life, exploits and death of Horatio Nelson, ... : embellished with a series of engravings illustrative of his heroic achievement. / The memoirs by Francis William Blagdon, ...
Edward Orme (1775- 1848)
Category
Books
Date
1806
Materials
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 3048619
Summary
Orme's Graphic History of the Life, Exploits, and Death of Horatio Nelson, London: printed for, published and sold by Edward Orme, [1806]. Binding: Nineteenth-century quarter straight-grained morocco binding; dark blue embossed paper sides; gilt spine title ‘Orme’s Graphic history of Nelson’; blue endpapers.
Full description
The death of Nelson in 1805 at the moment of his greatest victory called forth an unprecedented outpouring of national grief. Huge crowds came to pay their respects to the body as it lay in state in Greenwich Hospital, and an even greater throng watched the funeral procession as it wound its way to St Paul's on 9 January 1806, the hero carried in an elaborate carriage designed by Rudoph Ackermann, now best remembered for his activities in the field of publishing. It was inevitable that so great a national event should also stimulate a response from the book trade. Poems, songs, pamphlets and biographies were soon issuing from the presses. ‘Orme's Graphic History’ must have appealed to the higher end of the market, a handsome folio retailing on its first appearance for four guineas, and including 12 engravings, of which four are coloured. The text presents Nelson the hero, rather than the flawed human being; the introduction refers to his ‘extraordinary and brilliant career’, comparing him to Hannibal and Epaminondas. The less edifying aspects of his life, though well enough known to his contemporaries, are dismissed briefly at the end of the book with the single sentence, ‘Of his private conduct it is not necessary to enter into any further particulars’. Born in Manchester, Edward Orme became print-seller by appointment to two successive kings, and was second only to Ackermann as a publisher of illustrated books. These cover the full range of subjects typical of such productions at the time, from drawing manuals, through travel and costume, to field sports and military and naval victories. Like Ackermann, he employed miscellaneous writers to provide the text for his books. The biography of Nelson was furnished by Francis William Blagdon (1777-1819), who, from humble beginnings as a newspaper boy, had risen to earn a living as author and (unsuccessful) journalist. The book appears to have been completed around 4 July, on which date a codicil to Nelson's will concerning Lady Hamilton was proved. The final sheet of the work was hurriedly re-set to include a transcript, the only time Emma Hamilton is mentioned. Copies survive with or without the codicil; it is present in Lord Fairhaven's copy. Text adapted from William Hale's entry in ‘Treasures from Lord Fairhaven’s Library at Anglesey Abbey’, National Trust, 2013, cat. 20, pp. 82-83.
Bibliographic description
[6], 67, [1] p., [12] leaves of plates (3 double) : ill. (some col.), port., facsims. ; fol. Plate 11 bound as final leaf. Pencil note on pastedown, partly overlaid by bookplate: [ ] couleurs. Provenance: Twentieth-century armorial bookplate (large variant) signed Badeley 1930: Urban Huttleston Rogers Lord Fairhaven [i.e. Urban Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven (1896-1966), of Anglesey Abbey]. Binding: Nineteenth-century quarter straight-grained morocco binding; dark blue embossed paper sides; gilt spine title ‘Orme’s Graphic history of Nelson’; blue endpapers.
Provenance
Acquired by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) and then bequeathed by him to the National Trust with the house and the rest of the contents in 1966.
Makers and roles
Edward Orme (1775- 1848), printer and publisher Francis William Blagdon (1778-1819), author
References
Mark Purcell, William Hale and David Person, Treasures from Lord Fairhaven’s Library at Anglesey Abbey, Swindon: National Trust; London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers, 2013., pp. 82-3