THE COMPLETE ANGLER. Extensively Embellished with Engravings on Copper and Wood, from Original Paintings and Drawings, by First-Rate Artists. To which are added, An Introductory Essay; The Linnaean Arrangement of the Various River-Fish Delineated in the Work; and Illustrated Notes

London: John Major, 1823. The Important First Major Edition, Large Paper Copy. With 2 engraved portraits, 2 copper engraved plates of music, 10 copper plates engraved by Cook and Pye after drawings by Wale and Nash, and 77 woodcuts in the text. 8vo, Large Paper, in an especially handsome contemporary binding of full green crushed morocco, covers bordered and stamped in gilt with wide ruled frames featuring gilt dolphin fish corner tools and a central gilt tool of a fish and fisherman's net, spine lettered in gilt in two compartments between elaborately decorated raised bands and with gilt central tools of fish and a reel in three others, board edges gilt ruled, gilt ruled turn-ins, a.e.g. lx, 412 pp. A very appealing copy of this fine illustrated edition of Walton's classic, the very handsome binding sturdy and strong, the hinges fine and solid, the text well preserved with the inevitable foxing to which the edition is prone being light and less than typical and only occasionally present. FIRST EDITION IN VERY FINE BINDING OF JOHN MAJOR'S SUPERB ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF WALTON'S COMPLETE ANGLER, a great sporting book, and one of the most treasured works in the English language. 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).