WALTON I., COTTON C. - English handbook of fishing. London 1808

WALTON Isaac, COTTON Charles - The Complete Angler or Contemplative Man's Recreation, being a Discourse on Rivers, Fish-Ponds, Fish, and Fishing. In Two Parts [...]. With the Lives of the Authors and Notes Historical, Critical, Supplementary and Explanatory by John Hawkins. The seventh edition. London 1808. printed for Samuel Bagster. 8, pp. [4], VI, 7-512, [2], plates 17. period leather binding.
Losses of edges of spine and corners of covers, spine cracked in lower part, traces of woodworm in binding and several extreme pages, minor stains, otherwise good condition inside. Needs bookbinding treatment. Illustrations on plates, and additionally 20 copperplate engravings in the text (mainly drawings of fish species). On the front pastedown a color illustration (foreign) depicting an angler with a book in his hand and the caption "I always studies Walton when I goes a hangling" ("I always read Walton when I go a fishing"). The seventh edition of one of the most famous (and oldest; first published in 1653) fishing manuals by Isaac Walton, indulging his passion on the rivers of central England. Subsequent editions of the book were supplemented by the author (the number of chapters increased from the original 13 to 21), after whose death his friend Charles Cotton added a chapter on fly fishing.