Sports

1706 · 314397 — London: sold at the Gold Ring in Little Britain Price 6 d. 1706. First edition. Woodcut frontispiece of an angler with fish on the line. iv 140 pp. 1 vols. 48mo. Later 18th-century red straight-grain morocco flat spine lettered in gilt gilt rules marbled endpapers gilt edges. Extremities a little worn a very good copy. First edition. Woodcut frontispiece of an angler with fish on the line. iv 140 pp. 1 vols. 48mo. A superb copy of this rare miniature angling work. "Exceedingly rare but not unique as stated in the sale catalogue of the Huth Library" Schwerdt. Although the work is undated ESTC and bibliographies usually date it to 1705 but on page 31 is a reference to "a Curious book lately printed The Angler's Sure Guide" published in 1706.<br /> <br /> First edition thus a compendium consisting of extracts from the section on angling in The Pleasures of Princes from Hungers Prevention on "low-belling" and other methods of bird-catching Country Contentments on hunting coursing dogs and Markhams Method poultry etc. The publisher was George Conyers one of the most prominent chapbook publishers of the period.<br /> This first edition is rare with no copy in the British Library. ESTC locates one copy only in the UK at the Bodleian and four in North America: Harvard Houghton Library; Princeton; Yale University Center for British Art; and Beinecke. The second edition of 1712 is almost equally rare.<br /> <br /> A manuscript note on the front free endpaper verso gives the ownership as E. A. Hunter 13 Angel Hill Bury St Edmunds Suffolk noting its gift to him by Coleman in 1874. The receipt Edmund Arthur Hunter 1866-1937 was eight years old at the time; his father was a wine merchant. The note claims that "This book originally belonged to Lord Byron's grandson by whom it was given to Rushbrook who gave it to Coleman." If this story is true the most likely candidate for first owner in this chain of provenance is Ralph Gordon King Noel Milbanke 2nd Earl of Lovelace 1839-1906. ESTC N14392. Westwood & Satchell p.146-7; Schwerdt II 13; Poynter 1.1. Huth sale 4 Jul. 1916 lot 4717 Schwerdt sale 2 Mar. 1946 lot 1739 Thompson sale 14 Oct. 1968 lot 115; Schiff sale 11 Dec. 1990 lot 216; Simpson sale 15 Feb. 2005 lot 404. For Lambert cf. N.Y.A.M.Bulletin 18:4 April 1942 pp. 293-296 sold at the Gold Ring in Little Britain, Price 6 d. unknown