Lot 828
  • 828

Walton, Izaak

Estimate
70,000 - 100,000 USD
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Description

  • Walton, Izaak
  • The Compleat Angler or the Contemplative man's Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, not unworthy the perusal of most Anglers. London: T. Maxey for Rich. Marriot, 1653
  • Paper, Ink
8vo (141 x 91 mm). First eight words of title engraved within a piscatorial cartouche, six engravings of fish in text (including trout, pike, carp and perch — possibly by Pierre Lombart), two pages of words and music for Henry Lawes’ "The Angler's Song" with the bass voice printed upside down to permit two singers to share the book while facing each other. Contemporary plain calf with only a little minor rubbing at ends; internally near fine but for very minor worming in the lower margin of early gatherings only, otherwise crisp and well margined, withal a lovely example of a book frequently found repaired and rebound, as one would expect for a work so often used streamside.  

Provenance

The Smith-Britwell-Sachs-Hartz Copy. acquisition: John Fleming, 1978

Literature

Grolier/English 31, Grolier/Wither to Prior 947; Pforzheimer 1048; Westwood & Satchell 217; Wing W-661.

Catalogue Note

First edition, an unusually unsophisticated copy of a cornerstone of angling and English literature. 
Written partially in quiet opposition to Cromwell’s “grave men,” the Compleat Angler has endured for some 350 years, as much a memoir of the solace to be found in nature as it is a technical fishing manual (though the dialogue between angler and traveller is inclusive from catch to cookery).

"...Sir, There are many men that are by others taken to be serious grave men, which we contemn and pitie; men of sowre complexiouns; mony-getting-men, that spend all their time first in getting, and next in anxious care to keep it: men that are condemn'd to be rich, and alwayes discontented, or busie. For these poor-rich-men, wee Anglers pitie them ... For (trust me, Sir) we enjoy a contentednesse above the reach of such dispositions..."

Westwood & Satchell noted that “a First Walton confers distinction upon its owner... Copies rarely reach the auction room" which might be amended slightly to take into account that lesser, heavily restored though nicely bound copies are not uncommon on the market, but examples for which no caveat is needed, such as the present, are rarely landed.

"The text of this charming idyll was greatly expanded in the second and later editions which gives to this edition an importance other than that due its priority" (Pforzheimer).