Lot 637: [CRAWHALL, Joseph (1793-1853)]. Grouse Shooting made quite Easy to every Capacity. Exemplified

[CRAWHALL, Joseph (1793-1853)]. Grouse Shooting made quite Easy to every Capacity. Exemplified in a series of practical illustrations by Jeffrey Gorcock. 'Killhope-Cross': 12 August, 1827.

4° (295 x 225mm). Lithographed throughout with frontispiece portrait, title, 4ll. text, 33 plates after the author numbered 9-42 either printed or mounted on vari-coloured paper (plate 9 is an etching), with an extra unnumbered plate between plates 10 and 11. Contemporary red half morocco, gilt-lettered along spine, edges gilt (rubbed and scuffed). Provenance: Joseph Crawhall (bookplates and inscription; with 8 pp. manuscript notes and 2 printed forms of invitation to Park House Club meetings tipped in) -- Joseph Crawhall 'the second' (bookplate) -- R. Strathern (bookplate).

RARE FIRST EDITION, THE AUTHOR'S OWN COPY, EXTRA ILLUSTRATED with a working manuscript for the preface, two printed invitations to meetings, one with an etched and one with a lithographed vignette, and other ephemera recording the minutes of meetings and preparations for a shoot. Only plates 9-40 are called for on the contents list. This copy therefore has 3 more plates than the official number (and 3 more than the Schwerdt copy). Joseph Crawhall, rope maker, patron of the arts, and Mayor of Newcastle in 1849-50, is identified in 6 of the illustrations. These names of the other club members, who are also the subjects of his humorous scenes, are listed together in pencil on plate 9. NOT IN BL. NOT IN COPAC. Schwerdt I, p. 212: 'A rare book, unmentioned by Slater or any other bibliographer. During thirty years we have only seen one other copy, and that incomplete... The author states that he is offering this book with an experience of fifty years, mellowed by a thousand gallons of whisky, and claims that it is the most original this country has produced'.

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