Principles of Modern Riding for Gentlemen, in which The Late Improvements of The Manege and Military Systems are applied to Practice on the Promenade, the Road, the Field, and the Course. By John ALLEN [FIRST Edition – Repaired Full Leather Binding]

London: C. & C. Whittingham for Thomas Tegg, Glasgow: for R. Griffin & Co., and Dublin: for J. Cumming, 1825, FIRST Edition. Repaired full black morocco leather binding, with gilt titles to a rubbed and marked spine, repaired joints, original boards, marked and worn, sound, tight text block with broad-margined pages. First and only edition of an uncommon riding manual. A riding master teaching near Bryanstone Square, John Allen 'flatters himself that, at a time when riding has become so fashionable an exercise, his work will more than any preceding one ensure the security, ease, and grace of the rider, both in the practice of the manege, the only true and fundamental system, and in its application to the Promenade, the Road, the Field, and the Course'. With elegant equestrian engravings by Samuel Davenport (1783 1867), 'one of the first to engrave on steel' (Benezit). Pagination: xiv, [1], [1 (blank)], 286pp, with 32 steel-engraved plate by Davenport after Howard (one as frontispiece). Provenance: inscription to Allen William Sibthorpe from R Okes his God-father, Feb 6 1835. Approximately 10 inches tall (25.5cm). Condition Report Externally Spine – good condition – rubbed marked and worn, gilt titles and decoration. Joints – good condition – sound, repaired. Corners – fair condition – bumped and worn. Boards – good condition – coarse grained morocco, marked and scratched. Page edges – good condition – all edges gilt. Binding – good condition – solid binding. See above and photos. Internally Hinges – good condition – sound. Paste downs – good condition – yellow paper. End papers – good condition – yellow paper. Title – good condition – tanned. Pages – good condition – tanned and foxed throughout. See photos.…