Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$416.28 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First Nicholas edition. Volume 2 only. Book measures 27x20.cm. Colllation, 131-436pp, 32pp index, 33 plates, of which 26 have accompanying text illustration, 7 plates in 2 states. Bound in elaborate green moroco by Riviere, full gilt edges, marble endpapers. Calf has some light minor wear, slightly faded. Binding in good clean firm condition. Internally, previous owners bookplate. Pages and plates in very good clean condition. A very nice copy. Size: Quarto
Seller: George Jeffery Books, HERTFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom
Price: US$1099.00 + shipping
Description: THE COMPLETE ANGLER; THE CONTEMPLATIVE MAN'S RECREATION BEING A DISCOURSE OF RIVERS FISH-PONDS FISH AND FISHING AND INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO ANGLE FOR A TROUT OR GRAYLING IN A CLEAR STREAM WITH ORIGINAL MEMOIRS AND NOTES BY SIR HARRIS NICOLAS, William Pickering, 1836, 2 volumes, a vg+ or better copy rebound in contemporary cloth. Illustrated with engravings. A most uncommon edition with only one copy showing up at the major auction venues after 1974.
Seller: THE FINE BOOKS COMPANY / A.B.A.A / 1979, ROCHESTER, MI, U.S.A.
Price: US$1146.37 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: 2 Volumes both Bound in Green Morocco with Gilt Spines. Ex Reference Library copies, Usual stamps and marking, Library stamp on reverse of fep in both volumes. Volume 1 - Boards with rubbing, edge and corner wear, light marks/scratches, Gilt Top, Tail and Fore edge with scratches/marks. First page has writing in pencil, staple marks to top edge of first 2 pages, odd pencil mark to top of a few pages. Internally - Pages with Age discolouration, light marks, foxing, spotting, some water marks to a few pages, mottling. Volume 2 - Boards with rubbing, edge and corner wear, light marks/scratches, Gilt Top, Tail and Fore edge with scratches/marks. Front board a little loose from binding at first few pages, binding loose at Title page exposing netting, page 4/5 have been repaired with clear tape along page edge. Age discolouration to pages, a little foxing, spotting, light marks. Both Volumes are Good reference/personal copies for Books of this Age. **3828g** All orders are sent with a tracking /signature service for your peace of mind, so that you can keep tabs on your parcel. For overseas customers - on some sites we use, parcels weighing over the standard rate may incur an additional charge and we will then contact you with the additional shipping fee required. This is for the postage only we do not charge you for our time or our excellent packaging, which we are noted for. Dispatched in cardboard mailers within 24/48 Hours Mon - Friday 2pm, except bank holidays, otherwise next business day - excellent service guaranteed. AANBE17385
Seller: Nugget Box (PBFA), Stafford, United Kingdom
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Description: 2 vols. Illustrated from engravings. Small folio, full green morocco elegantly gilt, a.e.g., by J. Wright. A large-paper copy of the first Nicolas edition. Coigney 44. Horne 43. Oliver 41. Spines uniformly tanned; slightly rubbed at extremities; bur a fine, fresh copy. Edited by Sir Harris Nicolas and printed by the younger Charles Whittingham for William Pickering.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1291.11 + shipping
Description: 280mm x 190mm (11" x 7"). ccxiv, 436pp + index. 16 b/w plates + 43 b/w vignettes. With Original Memoirs and Notes by Sir Harris Nicolas. Heavy set extra shipping needed for overseas. G : in good condition. Covers rubbed. Spines faded. Some foxing. Hinges repaired and strengthened Maroon tooled hardback leather cover
Seller: Barter Books Ltd, Alnwick, NORTH, United Kingdom
Price: US$1402.46 + shipping
Description: sm4to, 27cm, in 2 volumes, [16],ccxii,[2],129 & [2],[131]-436,[32]pp., with 61 steel engraved plates and text illustrations, (including engraved title-pages, 48 engraved plates, two pages of music and two woodcuts of the Walton seal, 9 head-pieces, and 2 portraits of Walton), in the original dark green crushed morocco, wide raised bands with gilt borders, full gilt decorations in the panels, gilt titles, elaborate gilt corner decorations on the boards, triple gilt ruled inner dentelles, all edges gilt, expertly rebacked, a fine set. One of the finest illustrated editions of Walton ever published. Pickering employed 27 of the most prominent artist, painters, and engravers to illustrate it.
Seller: J. Patrick McGahern Books Inc. (ABAC), Ottawa, ON, Canada
Price: US$2013.00 + shipping
Description: A handsome set of the large paper first Nicolas edition of Walton, acclaimed as the finest "Angler" ever published. Sir Harris Nicolas not only secured excellent illustrators and an outstanding publisher for his edition, he also brilliantly edited and annotated the text, which is that of the 1676 fifth edition. The fifth edition was the first edition of Cotton, the first issue combining Walton and Cotton, and the last edition of "Angler" to be revised by Walton himself. Sir Nicolas was the first to divide the text into the natural days of the narrative, and he also provides many useful notes and comments, along with new material on Walton and Cotton. The illustrations are from original drawings and paintings by Thomas Stothard (scenes) and James Inskipp (fishes and portraits). The frontispiece portrait of Walton is engraved from the original painting by Jacob Huysmans. A desirable edition of this classic, and an impressive addition to the angler's library. Ref. HORNE 43; HAND W102. Dark green leather spines and fore corners with marbled paper sides, gilt ruled boards, marbled endpapers, and all edges of textblocks gilt. Spines are titled and ornamented in gilt with five raised bands. Mild rubs to leather along joints, some light rubs to board edges, and some faint scattered foxing inside. Front endpaper of volume I has separation along hinge but still sound. Very good overall. 3/4 leather and marbled boards. Quartos. ccxii, 129 and [130]-436, [32] pages
Seller: Back Creek Books LLC, ABAA/ILAB, Annapolis, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: First Nicolas Edition. Engraved title-page, 48 engraved plates, two pages of music and two woodcuts of the Walton seal, 9 head-pieces, and 2 portraits of Walton. Title pages printed in red and black. 2 vols. 4to (10-1/8 x 6-/12 in.). A Nice Contemporary Binding. One of the finest illustrated editions of Walton ever published. For it, Pickering used 27 of the most prominent artist, painters, and engravers to illustrated it. Coigney 44 Full contemporary green morocco, sides with triple gilt fillet borders and elaborate rectangular frame comprised of gilt arabesques, spine richly gilt in six compartments with angling motifs, titles in gilt, a.e.g. Spines a bit darkened and rubbed, some foxing. Very good Engraved title-page, 48 engraved plates, two pages of music and two woodcuts of the Walton seal, 9 head-pieces, and 2 portraits of Walton. Title pages printed in red and black. 2 vols. 4to (10-1/8 x 6-/12 in.)
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Description: 2 volumes, 4to (270 x 180 mm; 105/8 x 71/8 in.). Half-titles, titles printed in red and black, 61 steel engravings in two states, many printed on india paper. Contemporary dark green morocco by Hering, wide borders gilt, fish tool cornerpieces gilt, spines in 6 compartments with 5 raised bands, gilt-lettered in two, fish tool gilt in the rest, edges gilt. Some occasional spotting; some light wear, spines somewhat dry and slightly darkened. Provenance: William George Prescott (1800-1865) British banker (bookplate); Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (1865-1922) British newspaper and publishing magnate (bookplate). DELUXE EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED LARGE-PAPER COPY, WITH THE ADDITION OF A SECOND SUITE OF PLATES, nearly all on india paper on thick paper mounts. First Nicolas edition. This deluxe issue is enhanced by the addition of a second suite of plates, nearly all on india paper on thick-paper mounts. "One of the best, possibly the very best of . [the 146 editions of The Compleat Angler published between 1836 and 1901] was the superb edition edited by Sir Harris Nicolas for Pickering with engravings after Stothard, Inskipp and others. It was printed by Whittingham. and was one of Pickering's most profitable ventures" (Percy Muir, Victorian Illustrated Books, 1971, p. 21). Pickering employed 27 of the most prominent artists, painters, and engravers to illustrate it. Coigney 44; Horne 43; Keynes, p. 94; Oliver 41.
Seller: Riverrun Books & Manuscripts, ABAA, Ardsley, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$3202.16 + shipping
Description: First Nicolas edition, large paper "special" issue with the plates in two states, handsomely bound by Riviere & Son. High praise has long been lavished on this fine edition, edited by the antiquarian Harris Nicolas: Percy Muir describes it as "one of the best, perhaps the very best. it was printed by Whittingham and in the special edition with the plates as proofs on india paper it makes a very handsome book" (Muir, p. 21). The publisher William Pickering was himself a keen angler and collector of angling books; for this edition he "commissioned the artist Thomas Stothard to visit Dovedale [in the Peak District] to produce sketches" (ODNB). In orotund prose, the bibliographer of angling Thomas Westwood conjures up a memorable picture of this edition: "Walton's simple work puts on the purple of an unaccustomed sovereignty, and is scarcely to be recognized in its new and splendid investiture. The result of seven years continuous labour, and of much patient research and fostering care on the part of its publisher, this edition requires, more than most, our mature and critical consideration". Horne, Compleat Angler, 43; Westwood, The Chronicle of the 'Compleat Angler' of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton: being a bibliographical record of its various phases and mutations, 1864, pp. 51-55; Westwood & Satchell, p. 228. Percy Muir, Victorian Illustrated Books, 1985. 2 volumes, quarto (283 x 200 mm). Finely bound in green crushed morocco by Riviere & Son, spines with five raised bands, lettered in gilt to second and fourth compartments, remaining compartments richly gilt with intricate flower and leaf tools, triple gilt fillet border to covers, red coated endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With 122 engraved plates and woodcut vignettes by Stothard and Inskipp, all on india paper, with tissue guards. Title pages printed in red and black. Bookseller stamp to front free endpaper verso. Bindings lightly rubbed, a few small marks and bumps, slight foxing and damp staining to plates, contents otherwise clean. A handsome set.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$3202.16 + shipping
Description: First Nicolas edition, large paper "special" issue with the plates in two states, handsomely bound by Rivière. Percy Muir describes this edition as "one of the best, perhaps the very best. it was printed by Whittingham and in the special edition with the plates as proofs on india paper it makes a very handsome book" (p. 21). The publisher William Pickering was himself a keen angler and collector of angling books; for this edition he "commissioned the artist Thomas Stothard to visit Dovedale [in the Peak District] to produce sketches" (ODNB). In orotund prose, the bibliographer of angling Thomas Westwood conjures up a memorable picture of this edition: "Walton's simple work puts on the purple of an unaccustomed sovereignty, and is scarcely to be recognized in its new and splendid investiture. The result of seven years continuous labour, and of much patient research and fostering care on the part of its publisher, this edition requires, more than most, our mature and critical consideration". Provenance: originally in the collection of Arthur Dalrymple (d. 1868), with his armorial bookplate on the front pastedowns. Dalrymple was a solicitor of Norwich, clerk of the peace from 1856, and a member of the Society of Antiquaries; he owned a collection of Norwich portraits. This copy was subsequently owned by Rupert Sackville Gwynne (1873-1924), a British politician, with his bookplates below Darlymple's; later in the library of Noel B. Spurway (c.1888-1961), a Leicester-based archaeology collector, with his attractively designed bookplate on the front free endpapers. Horne, Compleat Angler, 43; Keynes, p. 94; Westwood, The Chronicle of the 'Compleat Angler' of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton: being a bibliographical record of its various phases and mutations, 1864, pp. 51-5; Westwood & Satchell, p. 228. Percy Muir, Victorian Illustrated Books, 1985. 2 volumes, quarto (268 x 180 mm). Mid 19th-century green morocco by Rivière, spines with gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt lettering and ornaments in compartments, covers framed in blind and in gilt, inner frame with gilt fleurons at corners, oval centrepieces, board edges and turn-ins ruled in gilt, marbled endpapers, edges gilt. With 61 engraved plates and vignettes including frontispiece, of which 60 are in double state (regular and india paper), with tissue guards; title pages printed in red and black. Spines faded, small split to front joint of vol. II, but firm, a little foxing to plates and occasionally to contents, faint offsetting from engravings, otherwise bright and clean. A very good set.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$4000.00 + shipping
Description: First Nicolas edition of this classic of English literature. Quarto, two volumes bound in full morocco, gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, triple gilt ruling and fleuron cornerpieces to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, illustrated with engraved frontispieces and plates. In near fine condition. Bookplate. A superb example of this classic work. Although it was originally intended as a practical guide for fisherman, Walton's Complete Angler stands as one of the finest examples of long prose-pastoral in the English language and is widely considered a classic of English literature. "This superb edition contains the variations of all the first five editions, voluminous notes, with original and elaborate memoirs of Walton and Cotton, presenting many new facts" (Westwood Satchell).
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Price: US$4350.00 + shipping
Description: (ccxii) 436 pages (16 pp. Index at rear). 27 x 18 cm. Large Paper copy of the first Nicholas Edition, half titles, titles printed in red and black, numerous engraved head pieces, illustrated throughout, and extra Illustrated with forty five full page engraved plates, including fifteen proofs on India paper. With an additional portrait of Walton laid-in. PERCY MUIR, VICTORIAN ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. p.21. "one of the best, possibly the very best of ,the 146 editions of the Compleat Angler published between 1836 and 1901, with engravings after Stothard (scenery), Inskipp (fishes) and others." The text follows that of the fifth edition of 1676 which was the last edition revised by Walton himself and the variations of the four preceding editions are indicated at the foot of each page. Marginal spotting, minor offsetting of plates to text, a few leaves with dampstain at margins. Contemporary dark green morocco, double gilt cover border panels, gilt paneled raised bands. Aeg. Near fine. 3 Vols
Seller: Royoung Bookseller, Inc. ABAA, Ardsley, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$5200.00 + shipping
Description: 280 x 188 mm. (11 x 7 1/2"). Two volumes. VERY FINE GREEN MOROCCO, GILT, BY J[OHN]. WRIGHT (stamp-signed on verso of front free endpaper), covers with mitered frame composed of gilt rules and decorative floral roll, outer edges of frame with triangles formed by twining botanical tools, (one each at head and foot, two on each side), oblique floral sprays at corners, raised bands, spines densely gilt in compartments with central spray of sunflowers surrounded by elaborate pointillé tooling, gilt titling, gilt-rolled turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. WITH 61 ENGRAVINGS after Stothard and Inskipp, ON MOUNTED INDIA PAPER, 15 of these full-page. A Large Paper Copy. Verso of front free endpapers with bookplate of David Godine. Coigney 44; Oliver 41; Bibliotheca Piscatoria, pp. 228-29. âSpines slightly sunned (with gilt faintly dulled as a consequence), a handful of insignificant marks and spots to boards, occasional minor foxing (final leaves of both volumes more affected), but still AN EXTREMELY PLEASING COPY--almost entirely clean, fresh, and bright internally, in elegant bindings with few signs of wear. This is an especially desirable copy, very attractively bound and in quite pleasing condition, of one of the finest illustrated editions of the "Angler" ever produced. Walton (1593-1683) lived in turbulent times, and he suffered personal tragedy (enduring the deaths of both his wives and eight of his nine children), but, largely because of the present work, he is forever identified with quietude and serenity. First published in 1653, his "Compleat Angler" is the classic work on the art of angling, infused with wise fish lore, written by an indomitable angler who knew every haunt of fresh water fish in the south of England. But, as Day says, "the love of angling is only the outward sign of a gentle inward grace, the soul of a thoroughly good man who loves peace and quiet meditation. If any one man created the idyll of the English countryside, it was Walton." Oliver notes that our edition "is conspicuous for its illustrations," done by "some of the most prominent artists of the time," and "Bibliotheca Piscatoria" tells us that "this superb edition contains the variations of all the first five editions, voluminous notes, [and] original and elaborate memoirs of Walton and Cotton, presenting many new facts." According to Coigney, it was produced in a regular and a Large Paper version, the latter (including the present copy) with plates on India paper. The Grolier Club Checklist pronounced that "no finer edition of the 'Complete Angler' will ever be published." Our volumes were bound by John Wright, listed by Packer as working in London for 13 years until the summer of 1854, when he died of cholera (along with his nephew and four workers in his bindery). Ramsden says that Wright "was a binder of the first order," and the present elegantly and delicately decorated volumes--showing materials and workmanship of the highest quality--bear out that characterization. First Nicolas Edition. A Large Paper Copy.
Seller: Phillip J. Pirages Rare Books (ABAA), McMinnville, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$6500.00 + shipping
Description: Large paper copy. The First Nicholas Edition. Extra-Illustrated and expanded to four volumes. There are 318 extra plates, 23 colored. Bound by Riach in full green morocco with marbled endpapers, a.e.g., the spines with gilt titles and simple panel ornaments, the covers with a series of ruled frames with cornerpieces, dentelles. This edition was a favorite of the extra-illustrator. [a set] was exhibited at the International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883. containing some 5,000 extra-illustrations. [and] extended to 41 volumes. (Coigney 44). Kelly. Pickering Checklist, 1836.17; Keynes, p. 94 (a Keynes "Special Merit" title; Horne 43. Moderate foxing primarily due to the properties of the various papers of the extra plates. Large paper copy. The First Nicholas Edition.
Seller: First Folio A.B.A.A., Paris, TN, U.S.A.