Large set of warship photos.

107 original photographs, b/w, loose or mounted on thicker paper, with ms. captions on the mounts, some with photographer's stamp.

The photos in this unique set depict mostly cruisers. A cruiser is a type of warship. The term "cruiser", in use for several hundred years changed its meaning over time. In the middle of the 19th c., "cruiser" came to be a classification of the ships intended for cruising distant waters, or commerce raiding, and for scouting for the battle fleet. Cruisers came in a wide variety of sizes, from the medium-sized protected cruiser to large armored cruisers. With the advent of the dreadnought battleship (the first of the kind, the Royal Navy's HMS Dreadnought, is among the photographed ships in this set), the armored cruiser evolved into a vessel of similar scale known as the battlecruiser.
Our set contains cruisers from a variety of naval forces. A detailed list of names: U.S.A.: Atlanta, Michigan. - Argentina: Veinticcinco de mayo, General Belgrano, General San Martin. - Austria-Hungary: Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia. - China: Jingyuen. - France: Patrie, Kersaint, HMS Sentinel, Dupetit-Thouars, Démocratie, Iéna, Pothuau, Gambetta, Charles Martel, Sully, République, Jauréguiberry, D'Estrées, Bouvet, Jeanne d'Arc, Jules Ferry, Admiral Aube, Condé, Jules Michelet, Henry IV, Liberté, Vérité, Dupuy de Lôme, Jurien de la Gravière, Danton, Bouvines, Tréhouart, Bruix, D'Entrecasteaux, Ernest-Renan, Châteaurenault, Lavoisier, Guichen, Dupleix, Waldek Rousseau. - Germany: Braunschweig, Blücher, von der Tann, Pommern, Königsberg, Prinz Heinrich, Nassau, Gneisenau. - Italy: Vittorio Emanuele, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Ammiraglio di Saint Bon, Puglia, Sardegna, Marco Polo, Re Umberto, Regina Margharita, San Marco, Goito. - Japan: Fuji, Tokiwa, Iwate, Azuma, Tone, Matsushima. - Norway: Harald Haarfagnre. - Russia: Rurik, Askold, Bravy, Bayan (renamed Aso by the Imperial Japanese Navy where she served as a training ship). - Spain: Reina Regente, Pelayo, Cardinal Cisneros, Marques de la Ensenda. - U.K.: Europa, HMS Liverpool (1909), HMS Dreadnought, HMS Inflexible, HMS Superb, HMS Swift.
Photographer's stamps of: West & Son (Southsea); Alexandre Bougault (Toulon); J. Kuhn (Paris); A. Renard (Kiel); Symonds & Co (Portsmouth); William H. Rau (Philadephia); Marius Bar (Toulon).
Joined: A made-up volume with photos and mainly photo-reproductions of ships. Kept in an oblong 4to album, half green shagreen with corners (used). (a) +/- 71 illustrations of warships fighting in the Russo-Japanese War. On the Russian side the Port-Arthur squadron, the Vladivostok squadron and the Niebogatov squadron. On the Japanese side the squadron of Tōgō Heihachirō, Kamimura Hikonojō, etc. - (b) +/- 98 illustrations of ocean liners and cruise ships from several shipping companies such as the Cunard Line, White Star Line, Canadian Pacific Railway Co.s' Atlantic Service, The Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., Orient-Royal Mail Line, Union-Castle Line, Allan Line, Bibby Line, Aberdeen Line, City Line, African Steamship Company, Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, Norddeutscher Lloyd, Hamburg American Line, Navigatione Generale Italiana, International Company, Pacific Mail Co., Great Eastern Railway, Midland Railway and Great Western Railway.