The National Sports of Great Britain. With Descriptions in English and French. A New Edition.

This is a rare or used book from the Berkelouw Rare Books Department.

London: Methuen and Co. 1903. Folio (47.5 x 31 cm). Half maroon buckram with maroon cloth boards (backstrip and endpapers renewed corners slightly bumped cloth boards slightly rubbed/soiled). Top edge gilt and other edges uncut. With additional chromolithographic title-page; and 50 full-page colour plates each fully captioned and accompanied by descriptive letterpress text. Occasional foxing a closed tear to the top of the text page adjacent to Plate 41 and a few other repaired closed tears otherwise a fine and complete copy. Henry Alken (1785-1851) was "the dominant sporting artist of the early nineteenth century" (Oxford DNB 2008). He received early instruction from J. T. Barber a painter of miniatures and exhibited miniatures twice at the Royal Academy before publishing his first sporting prints in 1813. The National Sports of Great Britain first issued in 1820 is his most notable work. It's a fascinating review of sporting pastimes "in vogue" in early nineteenth-century Britain "the land of Sportsmen" (Preface) and in former times. It includes entries - some sports being more objectionable than others - on hawking (falconry) and owling horseracing hunting (stag- fox- etc.) shooting (grouse- partridge snipe- etc.) various horse and dog breeds fishing (pike- and salmon-) including 'Fishing in a Punt' as well as prize-fighting cock-fighting bull- bear- and badger-baiting and otter-spearing.