Naval Flags of All Nations

Artisan: Ken Blythe
Date: Unknown
Intended Room: Library
Dimensions: TBC
Inventory number: TBC

Provenance: Purchased from the artist’s daughter and son-in-law, who run The Little Book Company, via eBay, in June 2022.

Britain in the 19th century was a proudly naval nation, with the memory of Lord Nelson fresh in its mind, and a fondness for romanticised tales of Elizabethan privateers and Stuart buccaneers. The Quartermaines, no doubt, have many relatives and friends in the Royal Navy, and this valuable reference book would have allowed them to study the flags of the various ships that might be encountered on the high seas. Its full title is A Display of the Naval Flags of All Nations, Collected from the Best Authorities, and its compiler is Henry Fisher, who also published it in collaboration with P. Jackson in 1833.

British ensigns sit alongside national, port and trading company flags, including those of North Africa and the Levant: Mecca and the Barbary Corsairs all feature. Apparently the original work is now rather rare.