This unique work is the only truly comprehensive, fully illustrated Dictionary on the market. It covers marine painting from early times to the present day and the illustrations are presented in chronological order. Nearly 1,200 sea painters are documented and listed in the dictionary. A notable and extremely useful feature is the aid to dating marine paintings in the form of sketches of vessels which help to identify both the geographical provenance and the historical period of ships depicted and color pictures of maritime flags which pinpoint the nationality and comtemporary ownership of boats. Marine painting, as befits the historical importance of its subject, has a rich and varied heritage. There has been a vast output in marine painting in the last three centuries or so and the continued need for a dictionary such as this is more than proven by the selling through of two previous editions.