THE COMPLEAT ANGLER; or, Contemplative Man's Recreation: Being a Discourse on Rivers, Fish-Ponds, Fish, and Fishing. In Two Parts: The First Written by Mr. Isaac Walton; The Second by Charles Cotton, Esq. With The Lives of the Authors: And Notes, Historical, Critical, Supplementary and Explanatory;by Sir John Hawkins

The First Bagster Edition, a RARE, EXTRA ILLUSTRATED AND LARGE PAPER COPY. Vignette half-title, engraved portrait frontispiece, 17 illustrations of fish within the text, 17 additional full-page hand coloured plates of the fishes depicted,15 full page engraved plates in black and white, 2 pages of engraved music, some additioinal wood cuts in the text. A unique copy, EXTRA ILLUSTRATED. Royal 8vo, bound in full contemporary calf, the covers with double gilt fillet rules at the borders, the spine with raised bands gilt stopped and coloured, compartments richly tooled in blind, lettered in gilt in one compartment, marbled endleaves. vi, 512 pp. A very good copy with some mild rubbing to the extremities, the binding is strong, the text-block and illustrations are clean and well preserved.

Edizione: very rare extra illustrated copy of the first bagster edition. the additional plates are of fishes and are all hand coloured.<br> a beloved classic of the english language and what many call the finest "how-to" book ever written; walton's angler has been described as "full of wisdom, kindly humour, and charity; it is one of the most delightful and care-dispelling books in the language." "more than most authors he lives in his writings, which are the pure expression of a kind, humorous and pious soul in love with nature, while the expression itself is unique for apparent simplicity which is really elaborately studied art" (dnb).