One month before the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo sees the official publication of the Waterloo Commemorative Anthology.
A limited edition of 1815 copies of which 200 are exemplary
|
|
Waterloo Sunset an unpublished original by George Chruikshank [Getty Family Library Wormsley]
|
|
The Waterloo Commemorative Anthology – both editions
|
|
The Waterloo Commemorative Anthology – the Commemorative Edition
|
|
The Waterloo Commemorative Anthology – the Exemplary Edition
|
|
The work of military publishers Extraordinary Editions
This extraordinary book, which has been seven years in the making, contains over 200 pages of engravings, maps and sketches sourced from archives, museums and private collections across Europe and the U.S. Many are rare and some have never been published before.
There are original artworks taken from publisher’s proofs courtesy of the Getty Family Library at Wormsley; as well as 34 etchings, originally published by Booth, hand coloured by renowned water colourist Peter Frith and a stunning selection of sketches and satires from the Anne S K Brown Library in the USA. In addition the famous panorama of the battlefield is reproduced full size and tipped into the book, as is the engraving of Maclise’s “The meeting of Wellington and General Blucher after the Battle of Waterloo”.
The 300 pages of text are made up of contemporary writing; letters home, reports and eyewitness accounts. They are transcribed here in long form letting the forgotten voices of Waterloo speak out, combing to give a breath-taking account of the battle in the words of the men who were there. Some of the Duke’s own correspondence is reproduced including the Waterloo despatch in its entirety.
Each book comes complete with a separate portfolio of maps containing all 8 of Siborne’s famous anaglyptographs; this fascinating technology of 1816 renders the terrain of the battlefields in 3D. There are 2 maps for each battle; Ligny, Quatre Bras, Wavre and Waterloo.
Each Exemplary is fully bound by hand in chocolate calf, with raised bands and gold lettering to the spine, and with the cover design embroidered in coloured and metallic thread. All three sides of the book are gilded. The portfolio of maps is bound to match with raised bands and the Waterloo medal blocked in gold on the front, and the inside covered in scarlet silk. The book and portfolio are presented in a hand crafted wooden writing slope containing two additional maps.
The Commemorative Edition is quarter leather bound with gold bands and sides of scarlet silk, embossed in gold with the cover design. The map portfolio is bound to match and the two are presented in a chocolate coloured slip case.
The anthology will be on display in the Great Hall at the Royal Hospital Chelsea from 25th May, at the London Antiquarian Book Fair [28-30th May] stand L11 and at the Chalke Valley History Festival on the 27th and 28th of June.
Visit www.extraordinaryeditions.com
Extraordinary Editions are the world’s most unusual military publishers specialising in publishing rare or unpublished manuscripts and archives. They are most well known for the publication of the SAS War Diary in 2011 and for the award winning King’s Survey of the Channel Islands.
The Battle of Waterloo on the 18th June 1815 saw some 180,000 men, 60,000 horses and 500 pieces of artillery crammed into two and a half square miles of Belgian countryside. In the nine frantic hours that followed, a quarter century of central European warfare was brought to a close, leaving over 44,000 dead, dying and wounded on the field. It was by any measure an extraordinary event and it deserves an extraordinary book.
