About this Item
The Universal Directory for Taking Alive and Destroying Rats, And all other Kinds of Four-Footed and Winged Vermin, In a Method hitherto unattempted: Calculated for the Use of the Gentleman, the Farmer, and the Warrener. By Robert Smith, Rat-Catcher to the Princess Amelia. London: Printed for the Author, 1768. First Edition, Complete six plates (four folding). 218 p. Full leather binding measures 7 x 4.5?, 12mo.
In fair condition. FRONT BOARD DETACHED FROM BINDING; REAR BOARD ATTACHED VIA CORDING ONLY - FRAGILE. Boards normally scuffed at edges and worn/bumped at corners. Head and tail of spine chipped (head/tail bands remain intact); title label chipped (title illegible). Spine cracked parallel to hinges. Edges speckled red. Ownership bookplates on front paste-down and end-page. Normal toning in margins; scattered age-staining. Plates overall remain remarkably clean and intact with some normal toning/soling at edges/creases. Some top corners are creased from previous dog-earring. FRONT BOARD DETACHED - REAR BOARD ATTACHED VIA CORDING ONLY - FRAGILE BINDING. Please see photos and ask questions, if any, before purchasing.
Royal rat-catcher ? salary, 8d a week; dress, ?scarlet, embroidered with yellow worsted, decorated with the figures of mice destroying weat-sheaves?. Robert Smith, official rat-catcher to princess Amelia, the second daughter of king George II, in 1768 published this complete compendium to exterminating not only rats, but all manner of vermin from the ?sheep-killing dog? to the weasel, the mole, and the wood owl.
In addition to describing both the nature and habits of the animals themselves as well as the features of the various traps intended to thereby destroy them, Smith?s work contains six detailed plates ? the work of the London engraver Thomas Bowen (d. 1790) ? which depict the construction and machinations of his different deathly contraptions. It seems that Smith found some success in this business, both in exterminating the creatures themselves and in teaching others how to follow his example: his use of the live-trap was still being recommended as the best example thereof more than a century later.
Complete plates. First Edition.
RAREB1768DOPX - 03/26 - HK3389.
Seller Inventory # RAREB1768KOPX
Contact seller
Report this item
