This is a large-format, paperback, staple-bound facsimile pamphlet (fourteen leaves including one, with text in Spanish, on both sides) of the set of 12 engravings published between April 1764 and May 1765 by Lieutenant Philip Orsbridge of the taking of Havana in 1762, for which Serres worked up small oil paintings for engraving based on his own knowledge of Havana and sketches supplied by Orsbridge (d. 1767), who served there as a lieutenant in the 'Orford'. It also includes the decorative frontispiece to the set, which sold at two guineas to subscribers. The facsimile - which has an informative and substantial introduction (no author stated) in Spanish, was published in Havana in 1962 to mark the bicentenary of the event, by the Biblioteca Nacional Jose Marti. It was apparently intended as a fairly popular souvenir publication and probably printed in an edition of four or five thousand (another copy sighted - not PAH7730, which remains to be chaecked on this matter - has the number 03931 inside the back cover, suggesting they were individually numbered).

The NMM collection includes copies of all original 12 plates. PAH7741-PAH7752 form a complete set. PAH7731-PAY7739 are an incomplete set, missing plates 6, 10 and 11. PAI6303-PAI6313 are an incomplete set missing plate 3. PAH 7740 is a duplicate copy of plate 9 and PAI5688 a duplicate copy of plate 10. The set of oil paintings by Serres of the siege of Havana (BHC0408-18) done for the Keppel family, of which eleven (out of apparently an original fourteen, BHC0408-18) are in the NMM - five still on loan since 1948 but the other six acquired since then - derive from the Orsbridge print project, though generally as variants rather than exact copies. [PvdM 5/15]