BOOKS ON HUNTING AT
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London : Albion Press, for James Cundee; and Vernor, Hood & Sharpe, 1810 [but 1809]. The last lifetime edition of Beckford’s sporting classic in a highly unusual binding : the first issue, with the author’s name incorrectly given as William, rather than Peter Beckford. The first thoroughgoing account of hare and fox-hunting, originally published anonymously in 1781, and here furnished with a fresh set of plates, engraved by John Scott (1774 -1827) from the paintings of James Barenger (1780-1831). It was said of Beckford that “Never had fox or hare the honour of being chased to death by so accomplished a hunter; never was a huntsman’s dinner graced by such urbanity and wit. He would bag a fox in Greek, find a hare in Latin, inspect his kennels in Italian, and direct the economy of his stables in exquisite French”. An early owner of the book has had it strikingly bound with the accusatory legend “Pirated edition by Cundee” lettered boldly on the centre of the spine – the owner, the reasons for regarding the book as a piracy, and for shaming it on the binding in this way, remain entirely unknown, although the book contains a dozen or so contemporary manuscript corrections (some partly shaved off in binding), including a note that two paragraphs have been omitted on p.241. For further detail and images, see the post A Bibliographical Binding, 26th May 2022, on the “Bookhunter on Safari” blog.
Demy 8vo (203 x 128mm). vi,314pp. Engraved frontispiece (after G. B. Cipriani), extra engraved title by Scott, folding plan, and seven (ex-eight) plates by Scott after Barenger – lacking the “Pointers” plate; the plates rebacked to reinstate the upper margins, which were presumably severed in some grievous mishap at the bindery; bound in a near contemporary crimson straight-grain morocco (a binder’s blank at the front is watermarked 1808), ruled and decorated in gilt; all edges gilt; marbled endleaves; silk ribbon; some minor rubbing and wear; some occasional spotting and browning; a few slight marks, but an attractive copy still, in an annotated binding quite unlike anything previously encountered.

£750

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London : Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers), 1934. First edition. A handsome tribute to the hound by the sporting artist, breeder and master of beagles. With separate chapters on the Bloodhound, Foxhound, Staghound, Welsh Foxhound, Fell Hound, the Curre White Hound, the Kerry Beagle, the Stud Book Harrier, the Western Harrier, the Old English Harrier, the Beagle, the Pocket Beagle, the Basset, and the Otterhound.
Crown 4to (26cm). 96pp. Sixteen colour plates and seventy-five illustrations by the author. Original pictorial cloth gilt; a few minor marks, but a very good and sound copy in the original dust-jacket – just lightly used.

£40

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London : M. A. Pittman, 1831. First edition. The first book from the pen of “unquestionably the greatest hunting correspondent of all time” (Higginson) – with everything one might wish to know about high-bred racers and hunters – bran mashes, broken wind, capped hocks, Cherry’s elastic pads, clipping, colic, curbs, docking, farcy, firing, founder, frog, megrims, rowels, spavins, splents and so much more – in entertaining anecdote and detailed practice.
Medium 8vo (224 x 138mm). (viii),(504),[ii] + 8pp advertisements dated January 1832. Bound in a lavish later (early twentieth-century) half crimson morocco, banded and gilt with horse and horseshoes, by Root & Son; top edge gilt; ribbon marker; marbled endpapers; binding skilfully touched up in one or two places; occasional minor spotting, but a very handsome copy. Podeschi 138 – not noting the inserted advertisement leaves of the present copy.

£250

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London : Michael Joseph, (1953). First edition. A centenary history of the sporting magazine for “the man out of town” founded by Robert Smith Surtees, with material on Surtees himself; angling; gun and rifle trials; the birth of lawn tennis; farming, sport and golfing art; sporting exhibitions, etc.
Medium 8vo (24cm). (216)pp. Colour frontispiece. Plates, portraits, facsimiles. Original cloth; a touch of rubbing, but a very good copy in a lightly used and nicked dust-jacket.

£20

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London : Walter Spiers, 1838. First edition. The first appearance of Jorrocks – ten stories from the “New Sporting Magazine” here revised and polished for their first publication in book form.
Demy 8vo (24cm). [viii],358,[ii],8pp. Twelve etched plates by “Phiz” (Hablot Knight Browne, 1815-1882). Original publisher’s pictorial morocco cloth, extensively blocked in gilt and blind; some very minor wear at foot; top edge a touch dusty; plates showing light spotting and offsetting in places, but a very good copy indeed, in a most attractive and early example of a publisher’s cloth gilt case. With the unusual contemporary armorial ownership stamp of the London solicitor Charles Ranken Vickerman (1817-1897).

SOLD

London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1903. A handsome and lavishly produced edition of Surtees’ classic of sporting humour, produced for the Trübner Sporting Library series. John Jorrocks originally surfaced in the “New Sporting Magazine” in 1831, and first appeared in book form in 1838, but here appears with the original illustrations from all the various early editions – by Henry Alken, “Phiz” and William Heath – including an Alken illustration previously unpublished. With an interesting introduction on the history of the book and its illustrations by Joseph Grego (1843-1908), noted authority on illustration and its techniques.
Super royal 8vo (258 x 172mm). xxii,(356)pp. Frontispiece, extra pictorial title, twenty-nine tissue-guarded plates – twenty-two with original hand colour – and nine illustrations in text. Bound in an elegant contemporary half red crushed morocco for Hatchard’s; banded and gilt; top edge gilt; marbled endleaves; a few very minor signs of age and use; some spotting to text, but otherwise a very good copy indeed. Dated 1906 gift inscription from Alwyn(e) Ainsworth Crossley (1881-1933) to S. M. Crossley – presumably his widowed mother, Sarah Maude Crossley (1847-1938).

£200

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