James Cummins Bookseller

Great Britain: 1855-1872.

Price: $37,500.00

About the item

Comprised of: 1) a disbound set of the first edition sheets which have been heavily-corrected throughout in manuscript by Salvin, with 9 additional pages of manuscript tipped in (i.e., 1-94, 101-105, 111-147 [without the title, table of contents and a portion of Chapter 8 lacking]), with a manuscript note in the upper margin of the first page: "Revise & Proof returned to Printers Nov. 25th 1872"; 2) a complete unbound set of proof sheets, being reset intermediate(?) sheets between the first and second editions, with a few minor manuscript pencil corrections, and with lithographed proofs of plates I-III and V-XXIV (12 hand colored presumably by Brodrick), and with plate IV from the first edition (Female Peregrine Adult) present an an original watercolor by Brodrick; 3) 3 sets of tall galleys of the 2-page Glossary of Terms from the first edition, each with manuscript corrections by Salvin for the second edition; and 4) folded 8vo sheet with three original watercolors attributed to Salvin of an Elizabethan lady's hawking purse (depicted from both sides) in green velvet with gold embroidery, as well as a wooden case covered in green silk to hold it. 4to. The Author’s Revisions for the Second Edition. Housed in a chemise and black morocco backed box. Harting 67; Nissen IVB 147; Souhart 419; Schwerdt II, p. 145 (“the best English book on falconry,”); Wood p. 541.

Item #333270

Falconry in the British Isles by Francis Henry Salvin (1817-1904), with plates by William Brodrick (1814-1888), is the most important work on the subject produced during the nineteenth century, and an essential standard work. The first edition was published in 1855, and a new edition in 1873. Harting states that this “second edition is to be preferred for the emendations and additions to the text” and describes it as the “best modern book in English on the art and practice of Falconry.”

Salvin’s set of working proofs for the expanded edition includes two sets of sheets of the 1855 first edition (from slightly varying settings of type). The first set is heavily revised and emended, with the insertion of nine full sheets of holograph additions in ink, and a multitude of smaller corrections and additions throughout the text. With title, contents, and index; and with corrected long galleys of the glossary. The first sheet is marked in manuscript: “Revise & Proof / returned to Printers Nov 25th 1872.” There are several minor corrections in pencil to the second set of sheets.

The stones for the 24 plates to the 1855 edition were destroyed after publication, requiring the complete revision of all images. Present here are an original watercolor by Brodrick of an adult female peregrine and 23 lithographic plates, of which 15 are proofs before letters; eleven are fully or partially hand-colored.

THE AUTHOR’S WORKING MANUSCRIPT OF THIS LANDMARK IN THE LITERATURE OF FALCONRY.