Rare 1884 Elephant Folio Black’s General Atlas – Hms Crocodile Royal Navy Provenance (1891)
SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom
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Dimensions
Wear Condition
Good
Material
Paper
Item Location
SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom
Product Details
Description
A monumental artifact of British maritime and cartographic history: an authentic 1884 Elephant Folio Edition of Black’s General Atlas of the World, published in Edinburgh by Adam & Charles Black. This colossal volume boasts an unmatchable, verified naval pedigree, having traveled the historic global empire routes aboard the famed Royal Navy troopship HMS Crocodile.
Naval Provenance:
The interior front cover retains its original, crisp Victorian bookplate and hand-inked ownership inscription belonging to Henry Jeffrey, who served as a "Writer" (Ship's Clerk & Accountant) aboard HMS Crocodile. Hand-dated "September 24th, 1891," this volume was signed into service at Portsmouth on the exact eve of the ship's autumn deployment to Bombay, serving as an active reference guide for the ship's officers navigating the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean. The handwritten date of September 24th, 1891, is highly significant as it marked the exact start of the autumn troop deployment season for the British Royal Navy's Indian Troop Service. Because of the intense, sweltering summer heat in the Red Sea and Suez Canal, the Royal Navy strictly prohibited troopships from sailing between April and September. HMS Crocodile—a massive, iron-hulled Euphrates-class white troopship—spent her summers docked in Portsmouth undergoing refits. Every year, in mid-to-late September, the ship was re-commissioned, fully provisioned, and boarded by over 1,000 soldiers and their families bound for the British Raj.
Henry Jeffrey’s rank as a "Writer" means he was the ship’s official clerk, log-keeper, and administrative accountant. On September 24th, 1891, as the ship prepared to cast off from Portsmouth for Bombay, Jeffrey signed his name into this massive atlas. This very book sat in the ship's administrative office or officers' mess, guiding their journey through the Mediterranean, down the Suez Canal, and across the Indian Ocean.
Opening this elephant folio reveals why A&C Black were considered the premier mapmakers to the British elite. The volume contains its complete sequence of dozens of magnificent, double-page steel-engraved maps, safely guarded by their original heavy binding. Each map features extraordinary, crisp line work and subtle, hand-washed or colour-stone lithographed borders. The geopolitical landscape of 1884 is captured in great detail—charting the expanding British rail networks, colonial African outposts, and the shifting borders of the late 19th-century world.
Specifications:
Publisher: Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh (1884).
Provenance: HMS Crocodile, Royal Navy (Henry Jeffrey, Writer, dated 24/9/1891).
Format: Massive "Elephant Folio" (approx. 45cm x 35cm).
Binding: Original publisher's premium half-morocco leather with rich, gilded spine titles and blind-stamped cloth boards.
The vast majority of these majestic 1884 elephant folios have been ruthlessly broken up over the decades by print dealers. To find an entirely complete survivor is rare enough—but to find one carrying the handwritten signature, stamp, and launch-date history of a Royal Navy troopship makes this an irreplaceable centrepiece for the premier library, maritime collection, or investor's cabinet.
This volume measures 47 x 36cm (approximately 18" x 14").
Condition report:
This volume is in good antique condition, the heavy, original cloth binding remains solid and complete, and structurally bound. The exterior displays minor, honest character marks with rubbing to the corners, and light scuffing to the spine edges—completely expected for a genuine naval voyage survivor. Internally, the pages are spectacular. The heavy paper remains bright and flat with only occasional, light handling marks to the margins. The maps themselves are clean, vibrant, and free of the typical heavy foxing or tearing that plagues lesser copies, the one exception is the map of India which shows damage to the left hand edge, please see the photo'.
Additional dimensions information:
approximately 18" x 14"
Wear Condition
Good
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