8vo. [2], 155pp, [3]. With a large double-page illustration bound between pages 136 and 137 depicting the Icemen of the Royal Humane Society. Contemporary gilt-tooled half-calf, marbled paper boards, contrasting burgundy morocco lettering-piece. Marbled endpapers. Rubbed and marked, with some wear to joints. Internally clean and crisp.

The Annual Report of 1890 produced by The Royal Humane Society, a British charity dedicated to lifesaving intervention in cases of accidental and sudden death, such as drowning, strangling, apoplexy, and suffocation. Founded in 1774 as the Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned, for the purpose of deploying first aid in situations of near drowning, the organisation gained the patronage of the Queen by 1886, and awarded money and medals to those who engaged in lifesaving and drowning prevention.