The Royal Navy; in a Series of Illustrations, Portsmouth, 1875-81, 2 vols., 49 fine chromolithographed plates, contemporary navy blue pictorial morocco gilt. (2)

The Royal Navy; in a Series of Illustrations ... With an Introduction, By F. Elgar, Esq. ... Third Edition. Portsmouth: Griffin and Co., 1875-81. 2 volumes, 4to (270 x 218mm). Titles printed in blue, 49 fine chromolithographed plates by W. F. Mitchell. Attractively bound in original contemporary navy blue pictorial morocco gilt, dentelles, gilt edges (extremities rubbed and scuffed, corners lightly bumped). Provenance: "Sir Donald A. Smith K.C.M.G, L.L.D. In remembrance of very much kindness to Edward J. Wallace during his visit to Montreal, Southsea, Oct. 1887" (inscriptions on the front free endpapers of both vols., with slight variants to wording in the second vol.). The recipient of the gift of this book was the distinguished polymath Sir Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcone and Mount Royal (1820-1914), a Scottish-born Canadian businessman and philanthropist who made substantial gifts to McGill University, Aberdeen University, Yale and the Imperial Institute. In addition to being, for many years, a commissioner, governor and principal shareholder of the Hudson's Bay Company, he was Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1896-1914. King Edward VII is reputed to have called him "Uncle Donald." (2)