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Ludlow : by H. Procter, 1806. First Ludlow edition. Originally published at Worcester in an undated mid-eighteenth-century edition under the name of Bowlker’s father, Richard, this became one of the most popular angling guides ever produced, appearing in various revisions and fresh editions at least as late as 1854. Charles Bowlker was considered the most accomplished fly-fisher of his day – “never regard what bunglers and slovens tell you”. This edition was the first to be published in his home town of Ludlow.
Demy 12mo (185 x 111mm). x,98pp. Engraved frontispiece by J. Ross, depicting six flies, a trout, and a vignette fishing scene. Bound in neat modern drab boards, paper label, in period style; some minor interior discolouration and browning; some nicks, creases and small flaws, but overall an attractive and uncut copy of an attractive book.

£200

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London : Seeley Service & Co., (1956). A reprint of the pre-war Lonsdale Library volume on sea fishing. Contributors include Eric Parker, etc. "Certainly the most comprehensive book on the subject ever published" (British Sea Anglers’ Quarterly).
Demy 8vo (23cm). 352pp. Plates. Illustrations. A very good, clean and bright copy in a price-clipped dust-jacket with one short tear.

£20

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London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1908. First edition. A most attractively produced and charming account of wild life and sport – mainly in the woods, streams and chalk downs of north-west Hampshire. With two coloured plates by Archibald Thorburn, illustrations from photographs, etc.
Medium 8vo (24cm). xii,274pp. Eight plates. Four photogravures. Two colour plates. Original pictorial cloth gilt; some slight spotting, mainly of edges; endpapers a little tanned, but a very good, bright and sound copy in the original dust-jacket – just lightly worn and a little tanned. Neat contemporary (1912) inscription of A. G. D. Moger of Bath – Alfred George Derwent Moger (1843-1919), the City Treasurer – on front free endpaper.

£50

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London : Edward Arnold, 1897. First edition. The barrister and artist Sir Francis Newbolt, brother of the poet, with tales of fishing – in Scotland, on the Thames, and especially in the salmon rivers of Norway – with a concluding piece on “The Angler’s Library”. “There is a freshness and a certain refined choice of language in these three-and-twenty chats on angling topics which raise them above the usual level of fishermen’s stories” (St. James’s Gazette, 26th April 1897). “Some capital reading of an unhackneyed kind” (Morning Post, 13th April 1897).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (256)pp. Frontispiece – a signed original etching by the author – and twelve atmospheric plates by Thomas Hope McLachlan (1845-1897). Original blue cloth, ruled and blocked in blind and silver; just a hint of rubbing; a few edge spots; mild tanning of endpapers; one leaf slightly creased, but a very good copy of a most attractive production.

£125

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London : Chapman & Hall, 1834. First edition. “A bottle of Reading sauce, a box of ‘peptic pills’, and a portable frying-pan ought to form part of every angler’s travelling equipage”. Fly-fishing in Coquetdale, Glendale and the Northern Hills, together with an appendix – “a well-written review of the older angling literature” (Westwood & Satchell), as well as a list of trout streams all across the north of England and the Borders. Father of the publisher, Chatto was also the editor of “The New Sporting Magazine” – “must have a place in every library” (Blackwood’s Magazine).
Foolscap 8vo (166 x 100mm). [iv],212pp. Wood-engraved head and tailpieces, mostly by Ebenezer Landells (1808-1860). Contemporary half green sheep, banded and gilt; marbled sides and edges; some minor rubbing and wear; some internal marks, chips and small flaws, but a good copy of an attractive book. With the later armorial bookplate of Mackenzie of Gairloch – probably Sir Kenneth John Mackenzie (1861-1929).

£125

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London : Seeley, Service & Co., 1929. First edition. An excellent guide to all aspects of the subject, from its literature, to tackle, casting, entomology, trout-flies, fly-dressing, etc., with additional chapters on trout scales by G. Herbert Nall, and on the legal aspect of fishing by Alban Bacon, etc. In the much-admired “Lonsdale Library” series.
Demy 8vo (179 x 132mm). 448pp. Numerous plates and illustrations. Bound in an attractive later half morocco; a few minor marks and spots, but a very good copy.

£100

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London : George G. Harrap & Co., (1931). First Rackham edition. The great classic of angling literature, here delightfully illustrated by Arthur Rackham. “A very attractive volume which (unlike some ‘gift books’) can be read with pleasure as well as looked at” (Yorkshire Post, 2nd December 1931).
Crown 4to (240 x 177mm). (224)pp. Twelve tissue-guarded colour plates. Illustrations in text. Bound in a fine slightly later (mid twentieth-century) half green crushed morocco by Frost & Co. of Bath, banded and gilt with a variety of angling motifs in compartments; top edge gilt; marbled endpapers; a few slight spots; frontispiece tissue slightly creased, but overall a handsome copy.

£400

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London : John Major, 1824. The second Major edition. Despite the publisher’s introductory essay and verses (dismissed as a “farrago of twaddle” by Westwood & Satchell), a much admired edition, very prettily illustrated.
Foolscap 8vo (164 x 99mm). lviii,416pp. Fourteen plates, mainly by W. R. Smith from the eighteenth-century designs of Samuel Wale. Seventy-seven wood engravings by Bonner, White, Hughes, and others. Contemporary half black sheep, ruled and lettered in gilt; marbled sides; just lightly rubbed; lacks front free endpaper; a few slight marks, spots and small flaws, but overall a nice copy. Neat ownership inscription of a Wm. H. Smith.

SOLD

London : Faber & Faber, (1935). First edition. The perilous journey home through Devon rivers of a twenty-pound salmon – “a rare and beautiful book that should take its place as a classic among the few that are written at once with a poet’s insight and a naturalist’s knowledge” (New York Times).
Crown 8vo (184 x 119mm). (320)pp. Title-page and colophon decorations by C. F. Tunnicliffe. Bound in an attractive later half russet morocco, banded and gilt with salmon, by Bayntun; top edge gilt; a few slight spots; very mild tanning of endpapers, but a very good copy.

£250

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