[1859/1860] Pictorial History of The Great Eastern Steam-Ship

Description

Colour Plates, Folding Plates, Illustrated, Rebound, Very Scarce

A richly illustrated construction history of the largest ship in the world, the Great Eastern, a 211 meter long sailing steamer designed by the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, with a capacity for carrying 4,000 passengers from England to Australia without refuelling.

The ship was launched in January 1858, and is immortalized in literature in Jules Verne's novel 'Une Ville Flottante'.

Illustrated with three vibrant chromolithographs - including a folding frontispiece after Edwin Weedon - and five further steel-engraved folding plates, with numerous further vignettes. Collated, complete.

Undated; this work is consistently identified as being published in either 1859 or 1860.

With the bookplate of Marshall Laird to the front pastedown, and inscription to front free endpaper.

A beautiful celebration of one of the major achievements of Kingdom Brunel, the British civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is viewed as one of the most important and innovative individuals during the Industrial Revolution.