One of 25 Copies, Inscribed to His Wife
The River Dove; With Some Quiet Thoughts on the Happy Practice of Angling, near to the Seat of Mr. Charles Cotton at Beresford Hall, in Staffordshire.
[N.p: Privately Printed, 1845].
Price: $10,000.00
About the item
First edition, one of 25 large paper copies printed. Extra-illustrated with 13 wood-engraved illustrations on india-proof paper mounted in the margins. [iv], 241 pp. 1 vols. Tall 8vo (11-1/8 x 7-1/4 inches). One of 25 Copies, Inscribed to His Wife. Bound in contemporary quarter brown morocco and green cloth, titled on spine "The River Dove" between gilt rules. Front endpaper split at hinge, slightly rubbed. Westwood and Satchell p. 1; Heckscher p. 11.
Item #230508
AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED on half-title “To the most beloved from John L. Anderdon, 7th Nov. 1845”, of this colloquy on angling after the fashion of Izaac Walton and Charles Cotton, by a noted collector of Walton and Johnsoniana. Anderdon’s library included the 1653 Compleat Angler, and this discourse between Angler, Painter, and Host is both homage to the seventeenth-century masters and an attempt to elucidate some of their sources and influences. The author intended it "for the entertainment of a few gentlemen fishers," the work being based on a tour he made along the Dove. The privately printed large-paper edition, limited to twenty-five copies, appeared in 1845; a trade edition in small 8vo format was published by Pickering two years later.
The inscription is to his wife, Anna Maria (1796-1880, the second daughter of William Manning MP), whom he married on 4 March 1816.
“Anderdon was an enthusiastic fisherman, and a walking tour through Dovedale, the country of Charles Cotton, one of the earliest professors of the art of angling, gave him the idea of compiling a volume on The River Dove: with some Quiet Thoughts on the Happy Practice of Angling. Printed in 1845 for private circulation and for sale two years later, it contained many anecdotes of Cotton and his country life, with advice on successful fishing” (ODNB).
