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First Printing of this Special, Extra-Large Paper and Extra-Illustrated Edition, specially designed for collectors of this most famous work, originally issued unbound, though folded and collated, and left for the collector to bind to their personal specifications. This is copy number 38 of only 120 copies printed. Extra Illustrated, including fifty steel plate engravings designed by J. Stothard, James Inskip, Edward Hassell, Delamotte, Binkenboom, W. Hixon, Sir Francis Sykes, Pine and others, all engraved by famous engravers. And with six original etchings and two portraits, as well as seventy four engravings on wood by famous artists, the portraits of Walton and Cotton in two states at the beginning of each of the texts. To this are also added ten steel plates, coloured, of various flies both natural and artificial. Large, thick quarto, exquisitely bound in fine three-quarter red crushed goatskin over marbled paper covered boards, the spine with wide raised bands gilt tooled, the compartments decorated with gilt filleted panels incorporating elaborate inner borders surrounding central ornamental tools of fishermen at sport, fishes, and creel, lettered in gilt in two compartments, top and bottom edges gilt tooled, the joins at the covers gilt ruled, top edge gilt. A splendid binding indeed. xv, [1], 445, 16 pp. An excellent copy, beautifully preserved, the binding rich in colour, the gilt bright and unblemished, the text-block and illustrations in pristine condition. An especially fine copy. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING, EXTRA-LARGE PAPER AND EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED COPY OF ONE OF THE CORNERSTONE WORKS IN ALL OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. This edition was prepared especially for a small number of collectors of a literary masterpiece and the most revered of all books on fishing. This copy is especially handsome and visually appealing, in a fine and substantial binding of rich red morocco, gilt extra. The book is already a rare bird in commerce. Few copies ever make it to the marketplace. This copy is especially appealing and beautifully preserved. Walton's ANGLER has been described as "full of wisdom, kindly humour, and charity; it is one of the most delightful and care-dispelling books in the language." "More than most authors he lives in his writings, which are the pure expression of a kind, humorous and pious soul in love with nature, while the expression itself is unique for apparent simplicity which is really elaborately studied art" - DNB XX:732. The Compleat Angler was first published in 1653, but Walton continued to add to it for a quarter of a century. It is a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing in prose and verse; 6 verses were quoted from John Dennys's 1613 work The Secrets of Angling. It was dedicated to John Offley, his most honoured friend. There was a second edition in 1655, a third in 1661 (identical with that of 1664), a fourth in 1668 and a fifth in 1676. In this last edition the thirteen chapters of the original had grown to twenty-one, and a second part was added by his friend and brother angler Charles Cotton, who took up Venator where Walton had left him and completed his instruction in fly fishing and the making of flies. Britannica. Seller Inventory # 33690
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