Details
BOWLKER, Charles. The Art of Angling and compleat Fly-Fishing. Describing the different kinds of fish, their haunts, and places of feeding and retirement. With an account of the generation of fishes ... Also the various kinds of baits, adapted to each particular kind of fish ..., Birmingham: by John Baskerville for the author, and sold by G. Robinson in London, M. Swinney, Birmingham, and T. Wood, Shrewsbury, [1774]. 12 (occasional marginal soiling), mid 19th-century red straight-grained half morocco and marbled boards, spine directly lettered in gilt in one compartment and with repeated flower tool in the rest (lightly rubbed). Provenance: T. P. Brome, 1781, Ludlow (ownership signature on title); Ernest A. Bagot (bookplate).
Second edition. AN ATTRACTIVE COPY WITH WIDE MARGINS. As Gaskell notes, this is a revised edition of a work by Richard Bowlker (The Art of Angling Improved, 12, Worcester, [? 1758]), and actually Charles Bowlker's first edition. The "third edition" (Swinney and Evetts, Birmingham, 1780) was a re-issue of the sheets of this "second edition", with new title page and preface and a frontispiece. Charles Bowlker, "the most finished fly-fisher of his day," died at Ludlow, 31 December 1779. "After his death," writes Hills, "the book continued to be issued under his name till 1854, some sixteen editions or more ... It is the best book by far of the period and an excellent manual. Its excellence lies in three features: the directions for fly fishing, including some of the early recommendations of upstream fishing, the directions for fly-dressing, and the knowledge shown of the life of the natural fly, which is much in advance of anything that had appeared before." Hills A History of Fly Fishing for Trout p. 90; Gaskell Baskerville 53; W. & S. p. 39; Petit 255: "Exemplaire trs grand de marges".
Second edition. AN ATTRACTIVE COPY WITH WIDE MARGINS. As Gaskell notes, this is a revised edition of a work by Richard Bowlker (The Art of Angling Improved, 12, Worcester, [? 1758]), and actually Charles Bowlker's first edition. The "third edition" (Swinney and Evetts, Birmingham, 1780) was a re-issue of the sheets of this "second edition", with new title page and preface and a frontispiece. Charles Bowlker, "the most finished fly-fisher of his day," died at Ludlow, 31 December 1779. "After his death," writes Hills, "the book continued to be issued under his name till 1854, some sixteen editions or more ... It is the best book by far of the period and an excellent manual. Its excellence lies in three features: the directions for fly fishing, including some of the early recommendations of upstream fishing, the directions for fly-dressing, and the knowledge shown of the life of the natural fly, which is much in advance of anything that had appeared before." Hills A History of Fly Fishing for Trout p. 90; Gaskell Baskerville 53; W. & S. p. 39; Petit 255: "Exemplaire trs grand de marges".