RITZ CARLTON RESTAURANT ON BOARD THE S.S. KAISERIN AUGUSTE VICTORIA / HAMBURG - AMERICAN LINE. Under the Management of THE CARLTON HOTEL, LONDON.

Promotional Book for the S.S. Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Ocean Liner, whose newest feature was the RITZ CARLTON RESTAURANT. The book gives details of the ship, its physical features, its various rooms and suites, its entertainments and amenities, landmarks found at various ports of call, and, of course, The Ritz Carlton. Illustrated with 25 pasted in b&w photographs.

Hardcovers, cloth covered boards, front cover has a mounted, art-deco designed plate that reads: "Ritz's Carlton Restaurant / S.S. Kaiserin Auguste Victoria / Hamburg-American Line", 9.5x11 inches oblong, approximately 80 unnumbered pages.

Condition: The covers have some spotting and soiling, wear to the edges and corner tips, and cracking / splitting at the spine folds, but are still doing their job, and the plate on the front cover is lovely; internally, the front inner hinge is cracked and the rear inner hinge is split but the binding is holding well; the blank endpapers have offsetting, the front free-endpaper has a vertical crease, the pages are toned, most notably at the margins, one leaf has a 2 inch closed tear at its blank bottom margin; otherwise the pages are bright and clear and the photographs are all present and sharp.

Scarce Illustrated Record of the Beginnings of the Luxury Cruise Ships. RITZ says it all.

About the S.S. KAISERIN AUGUSTE VICTORIA (from Wikipedia):

******Augusta Victoria, later Auguste Victoria, placed in service in 1889 and named for Empress Augusta Victoria, wife of German Emperor Wilhelm II, was the name ship of the Augusta Victoria series and the first of a new generation of luxury Hamburg America Line ocean liners. She was the first liner built in continental Europe with twin propellers and when first placed in service, the fastest liner in the Atlantic trade.

She was the first luxury liner at Hamburg America, introducing the concept of the "floating hotel"; she had "a rococo stair hall, illuminated by a milky way of pear-shaped prisms and naked light bulbs clutched by gilded cherubs, a reception court choked by palm trees and a dark and gothic smoking room." She was immediately successful.

In 1897, the ship underwent a comprehensive rebuilding at Harland & Wolff in Belfast arriving in the graving dock 19 December 1896. She was lengthened by 61 ft (18.6 m), her tonnage increased, and her speed increased by half a knot, and the middle of her three masts was removed. Her name was also changed to Auguste Victoria to correct an original inaccuracy; the Empress spelt her name with an e.******