American Artillerist's Companion; or, Elements of Artillery, Treating of All Kinds of Firearms in Detail, and of the Formation, Object and Service of the Flying or Horse Artillery, Preceded by an Introductory Dissertation on Cannon (3 volumes)

Louis de Tousard

C. and A. Conrad, 1809

[American Revolutionary War Artillery, with an extremely rare atlas volume]  3 volume set (includes atlas/plate volume).  8vo and 4to.  Bound in modern 1/4 calf over marbled boards.  xxviii, lxxv, 546; xix, 670 (plus folding table); 13 pages. 60 (of 67) plates. 5 plates in atlas present in facsimile.  Lacking frontispieces in text volumes and 6 page subscriber list.  Foxing, toning.  Signature clipped from top margin of title pages.  Additional leaf of manuscript notes in v.2.  The manuscript page is rather interesting, as it discusses fire-balls, arrows, fire pots, and especially "rockets Congreve."   The piece on the Congreve rocket notes that several hundred were "on board Lord Exmouth's fleet and used during his late attack on Algiers." This suggests a composition date after August 1816.  The atlas volume is a first edition, also printed by C. & C. Conrad, 1809.  

Louis de Tousard (1749-1817) was a French artillery officer who served under Lafayette in the American Revolution.  After the Revolution he continued to serve in the American military from 1795-1802 and helped establish West Point Military Academy.  His "American Artillerist's Companion" became the standard text for American artillery students.  Tousard's work was initially printed in parts and later completed in 1809.  This set includes the 1809 first edition of the Atlas, which is quite rare in trade, as all standard references cite the 1813 printing.  The only known 1809 Conrad edition of the atlas to show up in trade was in the William Reese catalogue 178, 106 (circa 1998). Sotheby's sold one in their William Guthman sale in 2005 for $6600.  The Atlas is rare from any early edition.  Refs:  Rink, Technical Americana 2193 (noting only the 1813 Bradford & Inskeep edition of the atlas); Sabin 96339 (listing o nly 1813 edition of atlas); Shaw & Shoemaker 18770 (noting the 2 text volumes only for the 1809 edition).  

Includes a copy of William Reese's catalog description.