Walton and Cotton's Complete Angler; or, Contemplative Man's Recreation: Being a Discourse on rivers, Fish-Ponds, Fish, and Fishing. With Lives, and Notes, by Sir John Hawkins, Knight. Edited by James Rennie.

FORE-EDGE PAINTING - WALTON, Izaak, & Charles Cotton.

Published by London: Allan Bell & Co.; Simpkin & Marshall; Fraser & Co., Edinburgh; W. Curry, Jun. & Co., Dublin, 1834

About this Item

A fine Zaehnsdorf binding, with a detailed fore-edge painting from 1925 depicting an 18th-century riverside view of Broxbourne. Traditionally, fore-edge paintings did not represent subjects or scenes relevant to the books they adorned, but this depiction appropriately celebrates the pastoral life characterized in Walton and Cotton's piscatorial masterpiece. The Compleat Angler was first published in 1653. Provenance: Stephen C. Massey. Duodecimo (164 x 101 mm). Engraved frontispiece and 3 plates, further illustrations in text. Early 20th-century green morocco by Zaehnsdorf, spine lettered in gilt, compartments with gilt central tool of fly fishing hook, gilt rule to spine, covers and turn-ins, Dahlia pattern marbled endpapers, edges gilt, fore edge with colour fore-edge painting by C. Wain, 1925, their stamp on rear turn-in. Blue morocco book label of American philanthropist and book collector Doris Louise Benz (1907-1984). Superficial split to front inner hinge, sporadic foxing, a couple of neat pencil annotations, a fine copy.

Seller Inventory # 180996

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Walton and Cotton's Complete Angler; or, Contemplative Man's Recreation: Being a Discourse on rivers, Fish-Ponds, Fish, and Fishing. With Lives, and Notes, by Sir John Hawkins, Knight. Edited by James Rennie.
• Publisher: London: Allan Bell & Co.; Simpkin & Marshall; Fraser & Co., Edinburgh; W. Curry, Jun. & Co., Dublin, 1834