Arc (tir à l')

First edition, small 8vo (131 x 81 mm), [24], 112, 117-172pp., (i.e. 168pp., as 113-16 omitted in the pagination), mounted woodcut frontispiece of a male archer, early ownership signature to title partially erased, upper corner of D1 restored with a loss of a few letters which have been added in ms. blank lower corner of M3 repaired, occasional light soiling and staining, marbled endpapers, eighteenth-century green morocco, tooled in gilt, overall a very good copy. Written when he was sixty-six years old, this is probably the last book which Markham wrote, and is one of his scarcest. "The practical instruction which he proceeds to give to the would-be-archer, of the bow and its use, the shooting-glove, the string, the shaft, the steel of the arrow, the feather, and the arrow-head, is reminiscent of Asham and may indeed be derived from his Toxophilus."?Poynter. Only two other copies have appeared at auction over the last 70 years, the Macclesfield copy sold by Sotheby's 14th April 2005 lot 1311 ?6,600 and the Fox Pointe copy sold by Forum Auctions 10th July 2019 lot 104 ?5000. STC 17333; Poynter, 40; Cockle, 129; Schwerdt II, p.10; Lake & Wright, p.199.