Title: The Great Sieges of History
Publisher: London: Routledge, Warne and Routledge
Publication Date: 1859
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Good
Edition: 2nd
xii, 681 printed pages, plus 2 pages of publisher's adverts at the end. Frontispiece and 7 steel engraved plates. Extremely mild foxing. Hinges cracked but binding holding firm and sound. 13 x 19 cm. Original completely embossed, red decorative cloth. Spine with gilt lettering within elaborate gilt embossed design of siege and military weapons and hand tools- initialed by the designer "J.L." above the publisher's name at the foot. Upper cover with gilt embossed design of Turkish and British footsoldiers holding up a crenellated "Sebastopol" design above title lettering and a pile of fifteen cannon balls, all within a blind stamped scrolling border. The first edition of 1855 had been published two years earlier, before the sieges of Delhi and Lucknow in 1857 and lacked the additional two chapters written by Captain Spankie for this new edition. At the end, the author, retired Captain of the 48th Bengal Native Infantry of the East India Company, pointed out the recent and extensive circulation of maps and plans of the cities of Delhi and Lucknow where the sieges had been concluded less than two years before publication. Bookseller Inventory # 4274