Home › Forums › Horse and Musket › Napoleonic › Russian Infantry Flags of the Napoleonic Wars

Viewing 29 posts - 1 through 29 (of 29 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • 27/12/2016 at 21:31 #54576
    Avatar photoGeneral Slade
    Participant

    Does anyone know anything about the book Russian Infantry Flags of the Napoleonic Wars by Dr. Lesley Prince and Laurence Spring that is advertised on the Caliver website? https://www.caliverbooks.com/bookview.php?it9otvhhsr3q808ako6mg5f2q2&id=25186

    I’m a sucker for books on flags but I wanted to know if it was any good before spending almost fifty quid on it.

    05/01/2017 at 23:06 #55084
    Avatar photoJonathan Gingerich
    Participant

    I am curious myself. I did a little poking around and found a number of Russian flag graphics on Prince’s blog site. There are some data and presentation issues, but it’s unfair to judge on basis of “snapshots” of the work.

    The main competition appears to be Cristini’s compilation of colored plates and Conrad’s translation of Viskovatov. If volume 17 (not published currently) is priced like 7, it will be about $60. (Just looked at the sample. Not sure if it is colorized…) My guess is that both sets of books are offering Viskovatov’s data in illustrated form. Handy, but not essential.

    I confess I have been working on the flags longer than the uniforms, and am hung up on some simple details and the need to do a lot of graphics work to do it justice. But I’m happy to answer specific questions till I get it published.

    Anybody in Brussels that can help me out?-) or St. Petersburg…

    06/01/2017 at 16:47 #55122
    Avatar photoGeneral Slade
    Participant

    To be honest I would really only be buying the book to look at the pretty pictures and whilst I know you shouldn’t judge a book by the cover I do think the cover is kind of ugly . . .

     

     

     

     

    08/01/2017 at 01:18 #55192
    Avatar photoJonathan Gingerich
    Participant

    Additional page views are available at:

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154795437503610&set=a.10154795437108610.1073741837.610743609&type=3&theater

    Clearly it’s not just a reprise of Viskovatov. There is some stuff of great interest to me.

    08/01/2017 at 08:17 #55200
    Avatar photoGeneral Slade
    Participant

    Thanks Jonathan.  It turns out it is a rather lovely-looking book and it appears to be exceptionally well illustrated.  It’s definitely going on the want list.

    23/12/2018 at 13:24 #106254
    Avatar photoLes Prince
    Participant

    If I may, this book is the result of considerable research and as far as we know contains all the flags used by the Russian army during the Napoleonic Wars (over 700 flags). As far as we are aware, there is nothing like it in print anywhere, either in Russian or English. We tried to give as complete a record of the flags as we could, and laid it out so that the various regiments should be easy to access by name and date. It is disappointing that it has received such a lukewarm response given the amount of work involved, especially by me, but I suppose that is the way of the world. We stand by the book, and I personally am very proud of it.

    Yours

    Les Prince

    Les Prince

    "Everything that ever has meant anything, has just as truly meant something else" (Charles Fort)

    23/12/2018 at 13:55 #106262
    Avatar photoGeneral Slade
    Participant

    Hi Les,

    It’s great to have you on the forum.  I am sorry that the response to the book has seemed lukewarm but I do feel you have rather been let down by the marketing of your work.  It is almost impossible to find any information about it online: Caliver’s website only gives a two-line description and the Partizan Press site just has a paragraph; neither site has any pictures of the contents of the book (or for that matter of the book itself – there is just a scan of the cover art).  It is an expensive book to buy when you can’t see what you are getting.

    23/12/2018 at 14:01 #106264
    Avatar photoNot Connard Sage
    Participant

    ^^^That is the problem I have with Caliver Books, not enough info. I know they have thousands of titles, but even so having no detailed descriptions of their more expensive titles is inexcusable.

    Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

    27/12/2018 at 22:18 #106453
    Avatar photoAnonymous
    Inactive

    “am hung up on some simple details”

    I likely don’t know anything useful …. but there is maybe a chance I could find something helpful if you cared to post such a detail.

    28/12/2018 at 02:57 #106461
    Avatar photoJonathan Gingerich
    Participant

    Alexandre – how often are you in Brussels?-)

    28/12/2018 at 09:25 #106468
    Avatar photoAnonymous
    Inactive

    Brussels? Not often, and then only at the airport.
    But I have friendly business colleagues in Ghent, some of whom may also be interested in history.
    I am more often in Petersburg.

    28/12/2018 at 17:42 #106505
    Avatar photoJonathan Gingerich
    Participant

    ohhhh! drop me a line jon dot c dot gingerich at gmail dot com. 🙂

    03/01/2019 at 06:57 #106787
    Avatar photoBandit
    Participant

    Russian Infantry Flags of the Napoleonic Wars is frankly and excellent book. It is unfortunate that it is not more widely available and better known. It is of excellent value for its price.

    Cheers,

    The Bandit

    04/01/2019 at 16:31 #106911
    Avatar photoLes Prince
    Participant

    Hello again,

    If it’s not breaching netiquette, I could post some pages here for you to have a look at. I am a bit shocked that the marketing seems so bad, so if you have any questions I am happy to answer them. It would not be appropriate for me to review the book, for obvious reasons, but I will do my best to help.

    Regards

    Les

    Les Prince

    "Everything that ever has meant anything, has just as truly meant something else" (Charles Fort)

    05/01/2019 at 09:00 #106941
    Avatar photoGeneral Slade
    Participant

    Hi Les,

    I think posting some pages would be a great idea.  It is a book I have been toying with buying ever since it came out and it would be great to be able to see some of the content.

    Do you have any plans to do a companion volume on Russian cavalry standards?

    05/01/2019 at 19:07 #106977
    Avatar photoLes Prince
    Participant

    Hi

    I’m trying to upload some double page spreads and illustrations from the book, but today is a bad network day – everything’s slow and refusing to co-operate. I also wanted to upload a PDF of the first section, but it seems I can’t. I’ll keep trying. What is the file size limit for the site? Are there other places I can upload them? If not, then I’ll try photographing them.

    Best wishes

    Lesa single page from the book

    Les Prince

    "Everything that ever has meant anything, has just as truly meant something else" (Charles Fort)

    05/01/2019 at 19:36 #106978
    Avatar photoLes Prince
    Participant

    I made the files smaller

    Les Prince

    "Everything that ever has meant anything, has just as truly meant something else" (Charles Fort)

    05/01/2019 at 19:43 #106980
    Avatar photoLes Prince
    Participant

    Today I am not happy with the technology. Here’s the last for now; I’ll post some more tomorrow, perhaps.

    Les Prince

    "Everything that ever has meant anything, has just as truly meant something else" (Charles Fort)

    06/01/2019 at 08:40 #106993
    Avatar photoGeneral Slade
    Participant

    Thanks for posting these Les.  The book looks great and I’m definitely intending to get a copy.

    06/01/2019 at 10:37 #106996
    Avatar photoLes Prince
    Participant

    You are welcome General Slade. I’ll post a couple more later today.

    Les

    Les Prince

    "Everything that ever has meant anything, has just as truly meant something else" (Charles Fort)

    06/01/2019 at 15:02 #107014
    Avatar photoLes Prince
    Participant

    Les Prince

    "Everything that ever has meant anything, has just as truly meant something else" (Charles Fort)

    06/01/2019 at 15:03 #107016
    Avatar photoLes Prince
    Participant

    Les Prince

    "Everything that ever has meant anything, has just as truly meant something else" (Charles Fort)

    06/01/2019 at 15:28 #107018
    Avatar photoLes Prince
    Participant

    For anyone interested in seeing and reading section 1 of the book, here is a direct link to the PDF: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fao1sflf3566jin/Russian%20flags%20Section%201%20edited%201810.pdf?dl=0

    Les Prince

    "Everything that ever has meant anything, has just as truly meant something else" (Charles Fort)

    09/01/2019 at 21:21 #107221
    Avatar photoJonathan Gingerich
    Participant

    Thanks Les that’s very interesting stuff. (I assume the Royal Army Museum and the Leger Museum are one and the same?) I know the Army Museum has a Butyrki flag in their archives. I did not know they had one of Taurida as well. Do you know if it’s on display?

    Jon.

    09/01/2019 at 22:14 #107222
    Avatar photoLes Prince
    Participant

    Dear Jon

    Sorry I don’t know if they’re on display. The problem with flags is if they are on constant display they suffer badly, and some museums therefore rotate their holdings. The Maritime Museum at Greenwich does this, for example, which can be frustrating if you make the journey just to see a particular flag, which I did, wanting to see the Commonwealth command flag they hold. It wasn’t there. On the other hand I did get to see one of the so-called Drake flags, which was a nice compensation.

    Best

    Les

    Les Prince

    "Everything that ever has meant anything, has just as truly meant something else" (Charles Fort)

    11/01/2019 at 20:39 #107338
    Avatar photoJonathan Gingerich
    Participant

    Spent last evening trying to run down Strukov’s inventory. Figured out the proper citation, only to discover only one copy in worldcat – in Munich. Found reprints on various Russian sites and tried to purchase, but no luck. Then realized one of the hits was RSL – Russian State Library. Can’t get a card without showing up with my passport…but, hey!, you only need to register to download!!! Good times! 🙂

    11/01/2019 at 21:03 #107340
    Avatar photoLes Prince
    Participant

    Sounds good to me

    Les Prince

    "Everything that ever has meant anything, has just as truly meant something else" (Charles Fort)

    05/02/2024 at 23:51 #194988
    Avatar photoOotKust
    Participant

    Well,…

    I knew nothing about this thread! Tripped across musing about some 1799 unit…

    Have ordered both the ‘Flags’ and ‘Infantry’ books from Caliver, after seeing the examples given.
    May as well spend my pension on something more interesting… 🙂
    Thanks for all your efforts and dedication Mr. Prince!
    regards davew

    19/02/2024 at 22:43 #195398
    Avatar photoOotKust
    Participant
    OotKust wrote:

    Have ordered both the ‘Flags’ and ‘Infantry’ books from Caliver, after seeing the examples given.

    Well, at least i thought I did. Despite the ‘cart’ appearing to close properly, with acknowledgement on screen (which this time I didnt actually screenshot-doh!)- it seems to have crashed in situ- neither email nor cc charges appeared over next few days.

    So I’ve sent off an email enquiry as the listings themselves have also gone… hmmm…
    -d

    [ Edit ] Part Trois__ all sorted, perhaps..?

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 29 posts - 1 through 29 (of 29 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.