Our Notes & References

An illustrated essay on Siberian indigenous boat-building, by the founder of the British Society of Nautical Research, which established the ‘Mariner’s Mirror’ in 1911; it became one of the most prestigious magazines in marine studies, from which this is a very rare offprint: we could locate only four copies, only one in the US (Peabody Essex Museum; others in BnF, National Library of Scotland and Melbourne). We couldn’t trace any copy at auction in recent decades.

The article was published in the issues of September, 1919 to January, 1920.

The author details the boat-building traditions of local populations along the Yenisei River, including the Samoyeds, Yurak, and Dolgan peoples. Basing his research on an extensive bibliography, he studies the historical development of the boats, provides classifications and includes a glossary of their various types, together with photographs and technical illustrations of the different boats’ elements enrich the text.

Having founded both the Society and the magazine, Harold Bridley (1865–1944) shared abundantly his knowledge and practice of seamanship in The Mariner’s Mirror. He was also noted entomologist and epidemiologist, and alumnus of the University of Cambridge, where he later taught as a professor.

Provenance

From the estate of Geoffrey Elliott (1939-2021), banker of Russian descent, author of books on 20^th-c. history.

Geoffrey and his wife Fay were noted collectors, especially of Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh and other literary figures. Russia (and esp. Siberia) was also an important theme: Geoffrey’s grandparents were interned in a Siberian tsarist prison camp before the October Revolution, and he focused most of his published works on the Cold War.

The Elliotts donated a significant part of their collection to the library of Leeds University in 2002, but kept the Russia-related items, which we consequently acquired.