Archibald frederick becke (1 Ergebnisse)

An exceptional association copy of the official British history of the Gallipoli campaign, praised by Falls as "of superlative merit" and indispensable to any serious student of the war. This set belonged to Major Archibald F. Becke, the official cartographer, who has extensively extra-illustrated the text with his own photographs from a survey visit to the peninsula. A small archive of related correspondence and clippings accompanies the volumes. All four volumes bear Becke's bookplate and neat ink ownership; volume I is signed by Aspinall-Oglander, and volume II warmly inscribed to Becke in memory of their seven years together at Audit House, where the Gallipoli history was produced. Becke, a meticulous and highly regarded contributor to the Official Histories, compiled the maps and Orders of Battle and checked Edmonds's narrative. Aspinall-Oglander's Gallipoli account, ultimately published through Churchill's intervention, stands out in the series for its scope, clarity, and unusually candid treatment of political decision-making. Becke's additions are extensive and carefully integrated: 19 extra illustrations (including 12 original photographs) in volume I and 24 in volume II, with further loose prints and negatives, all crisply shot and precisely captioned, documenting key positions and terrain. Volume II also includes Becke's annotated list of Gallipoli place-names and their meanings. Two autograph letters to Becke from Harry Pirie-Gordon, offering characteristically brisk commentary on the maps and on Turkish nomenclature, are bound into volume II. Additional letters from Aspinall-Oglander and from J. H. Reynolds of the Royal Geographical Society, together with other papers and Becke's assembled press reviews, complete a rich supporting archive. A full detailed description is available on request. Falls p. 3. 4 vols, octavo. Frontispiece to each vol., 36 illustrations on 34 plates, 56 maps (2 as endpapers, as celled for), 11 folding maps loose in the separate Maps and Appendices vols (complete). Text vols with 43 additional illustrations mounted on tipped in light card-stock leaves, 10 half-tones from an unidentified published source, 33 original sepia-toned silver gelatin photographs, with detailed captions in Becke's "mapping" hand, together with 15 original photographs and 6 negatives loose with the correspondence, none of these duplicates. Original strong red fine diaper-grain cloth, gilt-lettered spines. Housed in custom matching buckram slipcase, similarly lettered in gilt. Archive of correspondence and folder of clippings housed in a pale grey archival box. Lightly rubbed and typically a little sunned at spines, the text vols a little bulked out by the addition of tipped-in material, inner hinges strained, but still entirely sound, very good.…