Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Beckford, Peter. Thoughts Upon Hunting. J. Debrett, London, 1802.
Price: US$75.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Bound in original paper boards with uncut pages. The binding is tight and strong, despite its poor quality, with some minor rubbing and expected wear. There are a couple of period previous owners names. The book has been well protected as it is housed in a three sided limp stiff cloth bound cover, which itself sits in a similarly custom made five sided slipcase, made of half calf over brown cloth.
Seller: Gaabooks, West New York, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$75.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo; pp 360; Fair condition; dark brown spine with gilt text; raised bands to spine; no jacket; front board and endpaper detached at joint, as is; some noticeable rubbing to edges; gilt borders to panels; text block has age toned exterior edges; some pencil marks inside, mostly faint and in margins; previous owner's name to half title page; frontispiece; repair to pp 133, 137; illustrated; NOTE: Shelved in Netdesk office, in bookcase next to Ephemera section in a protective plastic sleeve. 1327023. FP New Rockville Stock.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$96.06 + shipping
Description: pp. xiv, 360. Frontispiece and 2 engraved plates [without the half title]. Later full calf, front joint wearing along the outside edge but both joints firm, and contents clean, one plate [plan of kennel] cropped at the lower margin affecting the last line, 'H', of the description [but I have seen other examples similarly cropped, perhaps all copies were thus treated].
Seller: Patrick Pollak Rare Books ABA ILAB, SOUTH BRENT, DEVON, United Kingdom
Price: US$102.47 + shipping
Description: Hardback, Size 8 x 6.5 inches. In speckled full calf leather binding with gilt banding to spine and gilt lettering to black leather spine label. Speckled page edges and plain endpapers. Gilt dentelles to outer board edges. In very good condition. Some rubbing to edges. Corners slightly bumped, top corners slightly chipped. Small chip to top rear corner of spine. Lacking front free endpaper. Bookplate to front ?Austin Mackenzie.? Inside pages all very clean, bright and tight, throughout. One tiny inscription to top of p99 (?Thoughts on hunting.?) and neatly patched tear to p191. Else a very clean and tight copy. 360pp. Illustrated with 3 B&W engraved plates including frontis and plan. A classic book on hunting in England, with hounds, for foxes, rabbits, and deer. Each chapter is a letter which details different aspects of fox and hare hunting etc covering kennels, scents, diseases, care and feeding of hounds, breeding and care of a hunter. First published in 1781 and reprinted many times, this being the 4th edition from 1802.
Seller: PROCTOR / THE ANTIQUE MAP & BOOKSHOP, DORCHESTER, United Kingdom
BECKFORD P. Thoughts Upon Hunting. J. Debrett, Picadilly, London, 1802.
Price: US$211.90 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: pp xiv,360. Engraved frontis by Bartozzoli after Cipriani. 2 plates. Page of contemporary hand-written notes on Peter Beckforde bound in at rear. New binding in full leather (grained goatskin). Raised bands to spine, with gilt bars and gilt labels. Facsimile frontis and title page. Fine, robust copy.
Seller: Goldcrestbooks, Hartlepool, United Kingdom
Price: US$220.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Square Quarto, in contemporary spotted calf, with some evidence of past reinforcement. Lighter spine with simple paper label, and compartments ruled in (now faded) gilt. Bookplate of Bayard Tuckerman Jr., to front pastedown, and inscription to front free endpaper reading: "Richard Morrtimer Jr., Esq. from Bayard Tuckerman, Jr. Esq. June 20th, 1916. A series of letters from a more experienced hunter, to a friend, covering all aspects of fox hunting, with attention paid particularly to care of the all important hounds. Some uneven trimming to bottom edges of several pages, and one 2" x 1/2" chip missing from very bottom margin of p. 264. Frontis portrait, and one of a kennel, at rear. MISSING second plate at rear, depicting elevation of a kennel. Clean pages. Nice, thick, high-quality paper, wide margins, quite bright. Letters include information on Hunting in general, The Kennel and all its parts, Hounds in General (Feeding, Breeding, Coupling, Entering, Diseases, Placing, Casting, etc.), Hare-Hunting, Hare catching, Bad Sportsmen described, Killing a Fox, Treeing a Fox, The Whipper-in, Hounds that Kill Sheep, Wanton Destruction of Foxes Censured; Bag-Foxes, How Cubs should be Treated; Badgers Objected to; Management of a Hunter, Quotations from other authors. Peter] ".Beckford's reputation rests largely on the two works he issued in 1781, Thoughts upon Hare and Fox Hunting in a Series of Letters and Essays on Hunting: Containing a Philosophical Enquiry into the Nature of Scent.Beckford's works were remarkable because they detailed the grubby nitty-gritty of animal husbandry in a light, eloquent prose. Clearly an expert in every aspect of managing hunting animals, Beckford offered detailed advice on all aspects of animal welfare, specializing at various periods in the breeding of harriers, foxhounds, and buck-hounds." (ODNB).
Seller: Aardvark Rare Books, ABAA, EUGENE, OR, U.S.A.
Peter Beckford. Thoughts upon Hunting. J Debrett, London, 1802.
Price: US$256.17 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Thoughts upon Hunting in a Series of Familiar Letters to a Friend by Peter Beckford. Fourth Edition. Very Scarce Edition. Condition is Near fine. Internally some age toning and discolouration. External is excellent, as has been rebound.
Seller: UK Countryside Booksellers, Cromford, DERBY, United Kingdom
Price: US$312.50 + shipping
Description: Small 4to, pp. [iii]-xiv, [15]-360; engraved allegorical frontispiece, 2 engraved plates; very good copy in contemporary diced russia, gilt-lettered direct on gilt-decorated spine, marbled edges and endpapers. Engraved armorial bookplate of Lucius O'Brien.
Seller: Rulon-Miller Books (ABAA / ILAB), St. Paul, MN, U.S.A.
Beckford, Peter. Thoughts Upon Hunting. Debrett, London, 1802.
Price: US$320.22 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Bound in full contemporary brown leather,spine relaid with original decorative gilt spine and label on top: a workman-like job! Size 21cm x 17cm; X1V-(15) 360pp;engraved frontis by Bartolozzi after Cipriani, two other plates after prelims. half title and endpapers all present;bookplate of Victor Sefton-Smith to fixed front endpaper, and small news cutting affixed to free front endpaper.Conrners have been neatly strengthened by binder, original red headbands in place.Minor foxing to front endpapers, otherwise handsome binding.
Seller: Camilla's Bookshop, Eastbourne, SX, United Kingdom
BECKFORD, PETER. Thoughts on Hunting: in a Series of Familiar Letters to a Friend. , 1802.
Price: US$345.00 + shipping
Description: BECKFORD, PETER. Thoughts on Hunting: in a Series of Familiar Letters to a Friend. London: For J. Debrett, 1802. 4to. [iii]-xiv, [1], 16-56, 43-56, 57-360 p. 3 engraved plates. Early 20th-century calf, spine gilt in compartments with sporting motif. Preface leaf misbound, hinges a bit scuffed, small chip at head of spine, endpapers and plates considerably foxed. Bookplate. "Fourth edition" of the book that Ernest Gee called "The corner-stone of a huntsman's library--as sound today as when it was written." The first edition was published in 1781. The plates depict an allegorical hunting scene and an elevation and floor plan of a hunting kennel. Gee, Sportsman's Library, p. 8.
Seller: Joseph J. Felcone Inc., ABAA, Princeton, NJ, U.S.A.