Fishing

sotheran’s is proud to present this collection of rare British anglingbooks, containing some of the scarcest and most important works on thesubject. We have books covering different areas of the country and aspectsof fishing, with some volumes dating back to the seventeenth century.Some include real flies, tied especially for publication, while others boastbeautiful hand-coloured illustrations. The one thing you won’t find here isThe Compleat Angler – because that’s far too obvious.

HENRY SOTHERAN LIMITED2 Sackville Street, Piccadilly

London, W1S 3DPtel: 020 7439 6151fax: 020 7434 2019

email: chris@sotherans.co.ukwebsite: www.sotherans.co.uk

1. AnOnYMOUs The Whole Art of Fishing. Being a collection and improvement of all that hasbeen written upon this subject: with many new experiments… E. Curll. 1714. £600

8vo. Sometime bound in full brown calf, foliate borders in blind to sides, spine with raised bands andgilt lettering, gilt turn-ins, gauffered edges, all edges gilt; pp. [iv] + 112, engraved frontispiece; engravingof fish mounted onto rfep, very good. Provenance: bookplate of George Watson Neish, founder in 1875of Macfarlanes law firm which is still in existence today, to front pastedown, together with anotherprevious owner’s bookplate.First edition. This book sets out to be a practical guide, eschewing too many ‘trifling Niceties’ such astheory, fish recipes and tackle making.

2. AnOnYMOUs The gentleman Angler. A. Bettesworth. 1726. £1,000

12mo. Original full brown calf sometime rebacked, spine with raised bands and brown morocco giltlabel; pp. [vii} + 189 + [3, ads.], occasional text engravings; very good. Provenance: presented to HarvardCollege Library by John Bartlett (1820-1905), with presentation bookplate to front pastedown andinkstamp to verso of half-title, both with deaccession stamps. Bartlett was a publisher and the compilerof Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. He also wrote extensively on fishing. He was based in Cambridge,Massachusetts, and married the granddaughter of the president of Harvard, Joseph Willard; in 1871he received an honorary degree from the university, which is marked on the bookplate. Previous owner’ssignature to ffep.First edition. This manual for anglers also includes a section on sea-fishing. The author’s name is lostto history but he boasts of twenty eight years of experience as an angler.Westwood & Satchell p. 104.

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3. ARUnDO. [BEEVER, John]. Practical Fly-fishing: founded on nature, and tested by theexperience of nearly forty years, in various parts of the United Kingdom. Simpkin and Marshall.1849. £900

12mo. Original dark blue paper wrapper printed in gold ink, a.e.g., in custom-made black buckram fall-down-back box with black morocco gilt lettering piece to spine ; pp. iv + 66; wrapper a little scuffed,very good.First edition. Scarce, especially in original binding.Westwood & Satchell p. 240.

4. BAinBRiDgE, george Cole. The Fly Fisher’s guide, illustrated by coloured plates,representing upwards of forty of the most useful flies, accurately copied from nature. Liverpool:G. Cruickshank. 1828. £300

8vo. Later bound in half blue morocco, gilt rules to sides, marbled boards, spine with gilt raised bands,centre tools and lettering, marbled endpapers, t.e.g.; pp. viii + 162, 8 plates including frontispiece (7hand-coloured); notes in ink to flyleaf, a little offsetting from plates, very good. Provenance: from thelibrary of angling book collector William Keale Heseltine, with his bookplate to front pastedownalongside circular bookplate of another previous owner. Second edition. Bainbridge’s book, first published in 1816, paved the way for later angler-entomologists,especially in his analysis of changing flies through the seasons.Westwood & Satchell p. 21.

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With an E.D. French bookplate

5. BAinBRiDgE, george Cole. The Fly Fisher’s guide, illustrated by coloured plates,representing upwards of forty of the most useful flies, accurately copied from nature. Longman,Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman. 1840. £200

8vo. Original blue cloth, gilt lettering to upper board, red morocco gilt lettering piece to spine, marbledendpapers; pp. viii + 135, 9 plates including frontispiece (8 hand-coloured); binding sunned toextremities, internally very clean, very good. Provenance: front pastedown with two bookplates, onefor Samuel W. Lambert designed by E.D. French (1851-1906), the renowned Massachusetts engraver,and one for Daniel B. Fearing (1859-1918) of Rhode Island, angling book collector and member ofthe Grolier Club. He was also a collector of angling bookplates; his own, depicting a leaping salmon, isvery splendid.Fourth edition. The hand-colouring is in a somewhat lighter style than in the earlier edition.

6. BEsT,Thomas. A Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling. Confirmed by actual experience, andminute observations, exempt from redundancies, and superfluities, which tend more to perplex,than instruct. C. Stalker and H. Turpin. 1787. £1,300

12mo. Sometime bound in half black morocco, marbled boards, spine with gilt raised bands andlettering, marbled endpapers; pp. [viii] + 112 + [iv, ads.], engraved frontispiece; a little spottingthroughout, especially to half title, otherwsie very good. Provenance: front pastedown with bookplateof William Keale Heseltine, angling book collector, with his ink inscription to fly leaf.First edition. Scarce. The second part of the book, entitled “The Compleat Fly-Fisher”, is one of thefirst practical guides to fly-fishing and fly making. He provides the first discussion of the use of themultiplying reel, only just introduced by Ustonson, and elaborates on the use of various flies in hithertounknown detail. Thomas Best “has not all the gifts of the great, but he is a pleasant, straight forwardwriter, who has done what he describes, and knows what to tell others to do. And I like him, too, forthe affection he has for the Thames, such as indeed he should have for the river that he watched fromHis Majesty’s Drawing Room…” (Eric Taverner, Fine Angling for Coarse Fish).Westwood & Satchell p. 31.

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The work that revolutionised fly tying

7. BLACKER, W. The Art of Angling, and complete sytem of fly making, and dying of colours.W. Blacker. 1842. £3,000

12mo. Original embossed brown roan, gilt lettering to spine, a.e.g. in custom-made red buckram fall-down-back box with gilt lettering to spine; pp. [ii] + 38, frontispiece and 1 plate; previous owners’singatures to front endpapers, extremities a little rubbed,very good.First edition, first issue. This tiny book by the Irish-born, London-based tackle dealer William Blackerwas a revolutionary work and a landmark in the history of fly fishing: “For a start, he gave totally differentmethods for tying trout and salmon flies, and much of his writing was taken up by a manual devotedto the details of how to dress individual flies […] Where the salmon fly is concerned, Blacker was thetorch that illuminated the night and the pattern he created suddenly lifted the sights of many of hiscontemporaries. His fame spread so far and wide that is wasn’t long before he could afford to charge

three pounds for a month’s tuition of four hours each day at trout and salmon fly tying.” (Andrew Herd,The Fly (2001). pp. 208–209). The book’s small size was deliberate, as Blacker wished to provide apractical manual; as he said in the preface to the second edition, “a great deal of matter could bepropounded in few words… to prevent incumbrance, and to afford the lovers of the gentle craft anopportunity of keeping it in their side-pocket…” This first issue was joined in the same year by a 48page version with six plates, and then in 1855 by a much larger colour illustrated edition. Copies of thisearly issue are rarely identical, though Thacher’s Angling Books: A Guide for Collectors records most ashaving a frontispiece and one plate, as in this volume.Westwood & Satchell p. 32

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8. [BOWDEn-sMiTh, Richard]. Fly-fishing in salt and Fresh Water. John Van Voorst. 1851. £800

8vo. Oriignal green cloth, gilt elttering to spine; pp. viii + 74 + [2, ads.], 6 plates (5 hand-coloured);previous owner’s signature to front pastedown, occasional marginal notes and underlining in pencil,very good. First edition. The authorship of this book has been attributed to various people over the years, includingRichard Hely Hutchinson, Horace Gordon Hutchinson and, according to a copy seen by Thacher, aMrs Hutchinson (Angling Books p. 73). That attribution is echoed in this copy, in which ‘[by _Hutchinson]’ is written in pencil to the front pastedown. However, Paul Morgan in Saltwater flyfishing(1989) fixed the identity of the author as Richard Bowden-Smith, a Hampshire gentleman andsportsman, on the strength of a note found in a copy of the book owned by Walter, Richard’s son. Walterattested that his father wrote the book and that his mother, Georgina, drew the six plates. It is apioneering work on sea fly-fishing, mainly based in Ireland. The plates feature some unusual flies.Westwood & Satchell p. 95.

First edition of the standard text of eighteenth centuryangling

9. BOWLKER, Richard. The Art of Angling improved in all its parts, especially fly-fishing…Worcester: M. Olivers. [c. 1746]. £1,400

8vo. Contemporary full brown calf in custom-made brown buckram fall-down-back box with redmorocco gilt lettering piece to spine; pp. [ii] + 95; binding slightly rubbed, very good.First edition. This was the standard textbook of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, runningto many editions under the guidance of Bowlker’s son Charles, who claimed subsequent editions ashis own. “The Son… was considered the most finished fly-fisher of his day.” (Westwood & Satchell).For such a small volume it is very wide-ranging, with more advice on the choice of tackle than on tactics,and with much of the material taken from seventeenth century writers. It is an important milestone inpopular angling literature, and this first edition is scarce.Westwood & Satchell p. 39.

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10. BOWLKER, Charles. The Art of Angling. Birmingham: John Baskerville. [1774]. £400

12mo. Recently rebound in half brown calf, marbled boards, spine with raised bands and centre tools;pp. viii + 116, engraved frontispiece; previous owners’ discreet inscriptions to flyleaf and title page,very good.Second edition, first edition under Charles Bowlker’s name.

11. BOWLKER, Charles. The Art of Angling. Birmingham: Swinney & Hawkins. [1786]. £400

12mo. Original paper wrappers sometime rebacked, in custom-made red buckram box with gilt letteringto spine; pp. xii + 108, engraved frontispiece; occasional underlining in ink, wrapper chipped anddarkened, very good. Provenance: trangular morocco bookplate of Arthur Howard Thompson, prolificangling collector, to inside cover of box.Fourth edition. Rare in original wrappers.

12. BOWLKER, Charles. The Art of Angling. bound with The Experienced Angler. Birmingham:M. Swinney. 1788 £300

12mo. Nineteenth century half brown calf, marbled boards, spine with gilt raised bands and brownmorocco gilt lettering piece, evidence of another missing, marbled endpapers, all edges marbled; pp.xi + 118, xxiii + 61, engraved frontispiece, text illustrations; very good.Fifth edition. Bound with an 1825 Septimus Prowett reprint of Robert Venables’s The ExperiencedAngler, first published in 1662 (Westwood & Satchell p. 214), making this a unique item of fishingliterature.

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13. ChEThAM, James. The Angler’s Vade Mecum: or, a compendious, yet full, discourse ofangling. T. Basset. 1689. £1,200

12mo. Beautifully bound in contemporary-style full mottled calf with panelling to sides, spine withraised bands, in custom-made brown buckram fall-down-back box; pp. viii + 326 + [10], double-pageplate depicting 12 fish; previous owner’s inscription to title page, occasional spotting, very good.Second edition. “The Angler’s Vade-Mecum was an informative and influential account which establishedhis reputation as a leading authority on angling. This reputation would have been even greater if thetext had not been published anonymously: some accounts have ascribed its authorship to his nephewJames (1682–1752), the eldest son of Chetham’s youngest brother, George Chetham (1654–1729)”(ODNB).Westwood and Satchell p. 59

14. ChEThAM, James. The Angler’s Vade Mecum: or, a compendious, yet full, discourse ofangling. William Battersby. 1700. £800

8vo. Full brown calf, gilt fillets to sides, spine with raised bands, gilt rules and red morocco gitl letteringpiece; pp. [vi] + 326 + [x], folding plate depicting twelve fish; folding plate neatly repaired along rearof one crease, previous owner’s signature to title page, very good.Third edition.

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15. [CLARKE, R.M.] The Angler’s Desideratum. Edinburgh: M. Anderson. 1839. £1,200

8vo. Original green cloth in custom-made green cloth fall-down-back box; pp. 48, text illustrations;very good. Provenance: bookplate of Laird of Altyr to front pastedown.First edition. Scarce, especially in original binding. An extremely attractive pocket book of angling tipsand techniques with detailed advice on fly tying, “from a practice of nearly half a century”.Westwood & Satchell p. 8.

16. “EPhEMERA”. [FiTZgiBBOn, Edward]. The Book of the salmon: in two parts. Longman,Brown. 1850. £600

12mo. Original brown cloth, gilt lettering to spine; pp. xvi + 242 + 2 [ads.] + 24 [publisher’s catalogue],9 plates (8 hand coloured); occasional light spotting, very good.First edition. Fitzgibbon was a friend of his fellow Irishman the tackle maker William Blacker, and wasan ambitious angling writer. This was the first comprehensive guide to the salmon to be written and isrightly prized for the quality of the plates, printed by the Adlards, as well as for the clear, authoritativetext.Westwood & Satchell p. 86.

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17. gODDARD, John. The Trout-Fly Patterns of John goddard. Surrey: Creel Press. 2003. £1,400

8vo. 2 vols. Bound by Smith Settle in full green goatskin, spines with gilt raised bands and gilt lettering,marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, in slipcase; pp. 103, tipped-in frontispiece portrait of Goddard, b&willustrations; 34 specimen flies each mounted in a step cut mount and facing in a concertina binding,plus text; fine.No. 7 of limited edition of 55 numbered copies, 4 author’s copies and 2 contributor’s copies. Signedby John Goddard to title page. This was the first edition of this classic book, predating the trade edition published by Merlin Unwinby a year. “Over the years he also created some 50 original fly patterns, notably the G&H Sedge (orGoddard Caddis)” (obituary of Goddard, The Daily Telegraph, 9th Jan 2013).

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18. hALFORD, F.M. Dry Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, &Rivington. 1889. £1,400

Large 8vo. Full green morocco, gilt fillets to sides, spine with raised bands and gilt lettering, gilt turn-ins, marbled boards, t.e.g. ; pp. xii + 289 + [1, ad.], 25 plates mounted-at-large, some coloured, mountedtext illustrations on india paper; previous owner’s bookpalte to front pastedown, occasional spots, verygood.No. 12 of limited edition of 100, numbered and signed by Halford. This is the ultimate purist’s guideto dry fly fishing and became the standard work on the subject that was revered by Halford’s anglers,even those who came to disagree with him. As Skues said: “I think I was at one with most anglers ofthe day in feeling that the last word had been written on the art of chalk stream fishing” (Robson,Kenneth (1998). The Essential G. E. M. Skues. London: A & C Black, p. 246.).

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19. hALFORD, F.M. Dry Fly Entomology. Vinton & Co., Ltd. 1897. £4,000

Small 4to. Original dark morocco, gilt lettering to upper boards and spines, gilt turn-ins, marbledendpapers, t.e.g.; pp.xvi + 314 + [1, ad.], 28 plates, volume 2 with 12 step mounted plates containing100 flies tied to Halford’s specifications; occasional spotting affecting plates of flies, very good.No. 16 of limited edition deluxe of 100, signed and numbered by Halford. “Halford’s Dry FlyEntomology (1897) is generally considered the second great work on aquatic entomology relatedto fly fishing (after Ronalds)…he paved the way for an entirely new approach to fly tying based onfidelity to the correct identification of the model.” (Michael P. Parella, “A History of the Entomologyof Fly Fishing”, American Entomologist,Volume 59, Number 1).

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20. hALFORD, F.M. Modern Development of the Dry Fly George Routledge and Sons, Ltd. 1910.£4,000

Small 4to. Rebound in half red calf, spines with raised bands, gilt lettering and centre tools, marbledendpapers,t.e.g., in custom-made cloth-lined matching slipcase with gilt morocco label to spine; pp.219, 27 plates in colour and b&w, volume 2 with 9 step mounted plates containing 33 flies tied toHalford’s specifications; occasional spotting, very good.No. 52 of limited edition deluxe of 75, signed and numbered by Halford. Fifty identical copies werealso produced for the US market. A classic and technically advanced work by the guru of dry-fly fishingwhich stresses the entomological precision of good fly-tying in unprecedented detail: “… all anglerswill be agreed that he has done good work in studying the food of chalk-stream trout, and that thethirty-three essential patterns to which he now reduces the dry-fly fisherman’s stock of flies are a greatstep in the right direction… One of the features of the book is a colour chart for matching the shadeswhich are described. The excellence of the patterns which Mr. Halford has designed will not be doubtedby anyone ; and a part of the volume is devoted to an account of the success he has had with them,which is delightful reading” (The Spectator, 6 May 1911, p 22).

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21. [hOWLETT, Robert]. The Angler’s sure guide: or, Angling improved, and methodicallydigested. G. Conyers. 1706. £700

8vo. Contemporary full brown mottled calf, panelled in blind; pp. viii + 296, 2 engraved frontispieces,one depicting fish, the other an angling scene; joints tender, extremities rubbed, very good.First edition. Scarce. Although only the initials ‘R.H.’ are given, this book is attributed to RobertHowlett, who also wrote The School of Recreation (1684) and was a younger contemporary of IzaakWalton.Westwood & Satchell p. 110. 22. hUish, Robert. The improved British Angler, containing the most esteemed methods of

angling for pond and river fish… Derby: Thomas Richardson. 1838. £1,200

Square 8vo. Original red-brown cloth, gilt lettering within design to upper board, a.e.g., in custom-made red buckram fall-down-back box with gilt lettering to spine; pp. 98, handcoloured frontispeice,text illustrations; previous owners’ signature and bookplate to front pastedown, spine sunned, offsettingfrom frontispiece, otherwise very good indeed.First edition. Scarce. Huish wrote on a number of subjects, most famously on bees, but he had a realenjoyment of fishing and this little guide covers every aspect of the sport with enthusiasm.Westwood & Satchell p. 121.

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23. KiRKBRiDE, John. The northern Angler. R. Groombridge. 1850. £300

Small 4to. Original brown cloth, gilt lettering to spine; pp. xvi + 124, engraved frontispiece and 1 plate;binding sunned at edges with inkmark to upper board, very good.Second edition. Fishing in northern England, especially Cumberland.Westwood & Satchell p. 127.

24. MACKinTOsh, Alexander. The Driffield Angler. Gainsborough: Printed for the author. [1806].£600

12mo. Contemporary tree calf, skilfully and sympathetically rebacked with gilt lettering to spine; pp.12 + 346, engraved frontispiece portrait; occasional spotting, very good.First edition. Scarce. Printed on behalf of the author, this book was sold among a few booksellers inYorkshire and two in London. It contains some intersting material on fly tying through the seasons.Besides fishing, the author also addresses shooting and dogs.

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25. MAgEE, Leslie. Fly Fishing The north Country Tradition. Otley. Smith Settle. 1994. £1,400

8vo. 2 vols. Original green goatskin, spines with raised bands, gilt rules and lettering, t.e.g, in originalgreen slipcase; pp. xviii + 218, colour plates tipped-in, Vol 2 with 5 step mounted plates containingthirty flies tied for this edition by Simon Ashworth; with loose prospectus included, fine.No. 47 of limited edition of 50, signed by the author. A fascinating account of the North Countrytradition of fly tying which summarises many of the scarce books of northern angling literature. Forthe first time there is also a distribution map of all British mayflies.

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The first British work on trolling

26. [nOBBEs, Robert]. The Compleat Troller, or, the Art of Trolling. By T. James from ThomasHelder. 1682. £1,500

Small 8vo. Recently rebound in period-style tan calf, gilt lettering to spine; pp. [xx] + 78 + [2], 2 smallwoodcuts in text; occasional faint spots, very good.First edition. Scarce. The earliest British work devoted to trolling, particularly for pike. As the authornotes, Walton makes one passing reference to fishing for pike, and it was hardly dealt with at allelsewhere.Westwood & Stachell p. 156.

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27. PRiTT, T.E The Book of the grayling: being a description of the fish, and the art of anglingfor him, as practised chiefly in the Midlands and the north of England. Leeds: Goodall and Suddick.1888. £800

Small 4to. Original red cloth, gilt lettering to upper board and spine; pp. 64 + [2. ads.], 3chromolithograph plates; very good.First edition. A classic on the grayling.

First mention of dry fly fishing.

28. PULMAn, g.P.R. The Vade Mecum of Fly-fishing for Trout: being a concise practical treatiseon that branch of the art of angling. Axminster: E. Wills. 1841. £800

Small 8vo. Original green cloth with paper label to upper board, in custom-made green buckram fall-down-back box with gilt lettering to spine; pp. 61; previous owner’s inscription to title page, spineslightly sunned, very good.First edition. This is an important work in that it sees dry fly fishing mentioned for the first time. Pulmansuggests that “the wet and heavy fly be exchanged for a dry and light one, and passed in artist-like styleover the feeding fish.”Westwood & Satchell p. 174, which erroneously describes the Longmans printing as the first edition.

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29. PULMAn, g.P.R. The Vade Mecum of Fly-fishing for Trout Longman, Brown and Company.1846. £600

Small 4to. Original brown cloth with paper label to upper board; pp. 105 + [2, ads.]; bidning veryslightly scuffed, very good. Provenance: with the circular angling bookplate of F.W. Sims to ffep and thebookplate of George Hamilton Chichester, Earl of Belfast.Second edition, enlarged.

30. [RiChARDsOn, Thomas]. The Modern Angler, containing the most esteemed methods ofangling, for every species of pond and river fish. Derby: Thomas Richardson. [c. 1830]. £200

12mo. Sometime rebound in half brown calf, marbled boards,, gilt lettering and centre tools to spine,marbled endpapers, t.e.g.; pp. 24, folding coloured plate supplied in facsimile; very good.First edition.

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31. ROnALDs, Alfred. The Fly-fisher’s Entomology. Liverpool: Henry Young & Sons. 1913. £2,000

4to. 2 vols. Publisher’s morocco-backed green cloth, gilt borders and gilt vignette of fly on circular bluepanel to upper boards, spines with gilt lettering and tools; pp. xx + 103, 20 plates (several hand-coloured), second volume containing 48 flies tied to Ronalds’s specifications, each in a step cut mount;a little rubbing to extremities, very good.`No, 125 of limited edition of 250, deluxe edition, signed by the publisher. With introduction by SirHerbert Maxwell, which contains a short biography of the author, who died in 1860. This work hadalready run through ten editions and was an established landmark of angling literature. This lavishedition was a proper memorial to Ronalds, with the original plates re-struck and complemented byphotographs of the author’s favourite rivers.

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32. [sALTER, Robert]. The Modern Angler. Oswestry: J. Salter 1800. £1,200

12mo. Sometime bound in half black morocco, marbled boards, green morocco gilt lettering pieces tospine; pp. 123, engraved frontispiece, loose facsimile of errata slip; previous owners’ signatures to frontpastedown, binding a little rubbed, very good.First edition. Scarce. Angling guidance in an epistolary form, with eighteen letters containing a wealthof detailed advice.Westwood & Satchell p. 186.

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33. sALTER, Robert. The Modern Angler in a series of letters. Oswestry: Printed for the author. 1811.£400

12mo. Recently rebound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in half brown calf with marbled boards, red moroccolabel with lettering to spine, preserving original blue paper wrappers; pp. 134, frontispiece; previousowner’s signature to flyleaf, offsetting from frontispiece, very good.Second edition.

34. sAUnDERs, James. The Compleat Fisherman. Being a large and particular account, of allthe several ways of fishing now practised in Europe… W. Mears. 1724. £800

Small 8vo. Contemporary full brown calf, blind-stamped borders to sides, in custom-made brown calf-backed buckram box with gilt centre tools and contrasting green and red morocco gilt lettering piecesto spine; pp. [iv] + 234, folding frontispiece; hinges tender, very good. Provenance: front pastedownwith circular angling bookplate of F. W. Sims, a prolific collector of fishing books.First edition. This is the first angling book to mention silk worm gut. It also gives a full guide to fishdistribution in different rivers.Westwood & Satchell, p. 189; ESTC records only 3 copies.

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35. sCROPE, William. Days and nights of salmon Fishing in the Tweed. John Murray. 1843.£1,000

8vo. Original green cloth, gilt vignette of otter and fish to upper board, gilt lettering to spine; pp. xx +298 + [2. ads.], additional lithographed title and 12 lithographed plates by L. Haghe from pictures byE. Cooke, W. Simson, C. Landseer, and D. Wilkie, all tinted or coloured, wood-engravings in the text;front hinge a little tender, very good. Provenance: from the libraries of the 15th Earl of Eglinton (1848-1919), Scottish peer, and Frank R. Burnet, Glasgow architect, with their bookplates to front pastedown.First edition. An essential addition to any angling library. Westwood and Satchell write of the plates:“These latter are spirited renderings of very excellent drawings now in the possession of a collector.Copies of the first editions are scarce”.Westwood & Satchell p. 191.

36. sCROPE, William. Days and nights of salmon Fishing John Murray. 1854. £600

8vo. Original green cloth, gilt vignette of otter and fish to upper board, gilt lettering to spine; pp. xx +298 + [2. ads.], 2 colour plates, text illustrations; very good. Provenance: bookplate of the Fraser InstituteFree Public Library to front pastedown, with deaccession stamp.Second edition. An essential addition to any angling library, produced here without the lithographsthat distinguished the first edition so as to make it more affordable. It is, nonetheless, a handsomevolume.Westwood & Satchell p. 191.

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37. [shiRLEY, Thomas]. The Angler’s Museum; or, the whole art of float and fly fishing. JohnFielding. [c. 1790]. £400

12mo. Contemporary full tree calf, spine with gilt rules and red morocco gilt lettering piece; pp. viii +135 + [1, ads.], engraved frontispiece portrait of the angler John Kirby; frontispiece and title page alittle browned, otherwise very clean, very good. Provenance: front pastedown with the “Ex BibliothecaPiscatoria Ohlsoni” bookplate of Eric A. Ohlson, founder of Thulin and Ohlson antiquarian bookdealersin Gothenburg, Sweden.Third edition. The first edition was in 1784 and sold rapidly. Shirley devotes a whole chapter to floatfishing.Westwood & Satchell p. 194.

38. [sMiTh, John]. The True Art of Angling: being a clear and speedy way of taking all sorts offresh-water fish, with the worm, fly, paste, and other baits, in their proper seasons. OnesimusUstonson. 1770. £600

12mo. Handsomely rebound in full green morocco, gilt foliate borders to sides, spine with gilt raisedbands, centre tools and lettering, gilt turn-ins, all edges gilt, in custom-made brown calf-backed fall-down-back box, spine with raised bands and red morocco gilt lettering piece; pp. [ii, including advertfor Ustonson’s tackle shop] + [ii] + 111 + [I, joint advert for Charles Kirby and Ustonson as exclusivemakers and sellers of Kirby hooks], adverts with engraved device of a salmon and crown; bookplatesto title page and rear pastedown, occasional very light browning, very good indeed.Twelfth edition, the first edition by Ustonson. First published in 1696; the first edition is now extremelyscarce. This was a highly popular and respected fishing manual cannily appropriated by Ustonson, oneof London’s leading tackle makers, as a marketing vehicle. His front page advert is notable for the firstmention of ‘multipying brass winches’. Westwood & Satchell p. 184.

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39. [snART, Charles]. Practical Observations on Angling, in the River Trent. Newark: S. and I.Ridge. 1801. £600

12mo. Original paper-backed brown marbled boards, in custom-made light brown buckram fall-down-back box with red morocco gilt lettering piece to spine; pp x + 12-130; baords a little bumped, verygood. Provenance: with label of J. Higginbotham, Fishing rod and tackle maker, No. 91 Strand, London,to bottom margin of p. 11. Higginbotham may have been the original seller of this copy.First edition. Scarce. Written from twenty years of experience of fishing on the Trent.Westwood & Satchell p. 211.

40. [ThEAKsTOn, Michael]. A List of natural Flies that are taken by Trout, grayling, & smeltin the streams of Ripon. Ripon: W. Harrison. 1853. £600

8vo. Original green cloth, gilt lettering to upper board and spine; pp x + 154, 9 plates, 1 text engraving;very good.First edition, second issue, with addenda and tackle plate. One of the first books to apply AlfredRonalds’s entomological approach to a small geographical area, and a model of careful observation thatproved extremely useful throughout the country.Westwood & Satchell p. 135.

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41. [ThEAKsTOn, Michael]. British Angling Flies. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 1862. £100

8vo. Original green cloth, gilt lettering to upper board and spine; pp x + 154, 9 plates, 1 text engraving;previous owner’s bookplate to front pastedown, binding a little sunned to edges, very good.Second edition of A List of Natural Flies, retitled to emphasise that Theakston’s observations appliedbeyond Ripon.

42. ThOMPsOn, Francis Benjamin. Dipple’s handbooks: containing complete treatises on thefollowing subjects:- swimming, songbirds, poultry, baths, angling, pigeons, rabbits, bathing.Edwin Dipple. [c. 1850]. £600

8vo. Original printed paper wrappers, in custom-made brown buckram fall-down-back box with redmorocco gilt lettering piece to spine; pp. 14 + 38 + 16 + 44 [angling] + 16 + 5-14 + 4-16, textillustrations; previous owner’s angling bookplate to inside of box, wrapper chipped to edges, first pageof angling section marked with tab, very good. Mixed editions of handbooks bound up into one volume. Very scarce. Written by Francis BenjaminThompson, best known for The Universal Decorator (1859) on interior design, these little handbookswere cheap introductions to a variety of sports. The angling section provides a brief guide to all thedifferent aspects of the sport and belies its London origins by including a section on Thames fishingregulations and details of the conditions of the river. The bathing section includes a dedication to thevictims of the cholera outbreak of 1849.COPAC records no copies; not in Thacher or Westwood & Satchell.

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43. WALLWORK, James. The Modern Angler; comprising angling in all its branches. Manchester:James Cheetham. 1847. £800

8vo. Original blue cloth; pp. 108, engraved title page, 3 copper engraved paltes (2 hand coloured), 2loose flies at pp 28-29; previous owners’ signatures to ffep, very good.First edition. Copies have emerged with a varying number of plates; however, all copies seem to havethe two coloured plates.

44. WELLs, J. The Contemplative and Practical Angler. Being a complete treatise on that pleasing andhealthful recreation, with all the most approved methods of angling. Thomas Miller. 1842. £1,000

Small 8vo. Original green cloth, gilt lettering to upper board, sometime rebacked, in custom-madegreen cloth fall-down-back box with green morocco glt label to spine; pp. 123, frontispiece; previousowners’ signature and bookplate to front pastedown and signature to title page, very good.First edition. This book is unrecorded in Westwood & Satchell but appears to be the first appearanceof the author’s Temperance Fishing Book (Westwood & Satchell p. 239). There is certainly a moralinstruction at the end of this little book not to exaggerate the size of one’s catch: “avoid the shiftingsandbank of falsehood, which always endangers the fabric that rests upon it” (p. 122).

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45. WEsT, Leonard. The natural Trout Fly and its imitation. St.Helens: Published by the author.[1912]. £4,000

8vo. Original green morocco, double gilt fillets to sides, gilt lettering to upper board and spine, giltturn ins, marbled endpapers, a.e.g; pp. 144, 16 plates in colour and b&w, with 9 step mounted platescontaining 100 flies; three flies with slight loss, otherwise very good indeed.First edition, scarce in this state. It is unknown exactly how many copies were issued with the flies,but a letter from the author to the printer of the book, A.D. Bartlett, dated 2nd September 1912states that there were 30 copies with the flies, plus two extra illustrated copies for the author himselfand his collaborator, J. Unsworth. These special copies cost 2 guineas as opposed to the 10s 6d priceof the ordinary first edition.Many of the flies seem very unconventional compared to those used by Halford and Skues, andinclude such unusual species as crane-flies and spiders.

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Gosden binding with the binder’s bookplate

46. WiLLiAMsOn, John. The British Angler. J. Hodges. 1740. £1,000

Small 8vo. Bound by Thomas Gosden in full brown calf, sides with blind stamp replicating thedesign on the title page of the first edition of Walton’s Compleat Angler with single gilt fillets,spine with gilt centre tools and black morocco gilt lettering piece, gilt turn-ins, marbledendpapers, all edges marbled; p. viii + 318 + [8], frontispiece and 3 folding plates; slight rubbingto extremities, very good. Provenance: bookplate of Thomas Gosden to front pastedown.First edition. A handsome copy of this scarce classic from the library of the celebratedbookbinder and sportsman Thomas Gosden.Westwood & Satchell p. 241.

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47. YOUngER, John. River Angling for salmon and Trout: more particularly as practised in theTweed and its tributaries. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons. 1840. £1,000

12mo. Original green ribbed cloth, gilt lettering to upper board, a.e.g, in custom-made green buckramfall-down-back box with green morocco gilt lettering piece to spine; pp. 94, table of flies; previousowners’ signatures to ffep, front hinge tender, very good.First edition. Scarce. Younger was a shoemaker from St Boswells. His fly patterns pre-date Scrope’s,who published his work on the same subject in 1843, and represent the classic Tweed flies.Westwood & Satchell p. 244.

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