Beschreibung:

ALKEN, Samuel (1784-1824?). Delineations of British Field Sports … together with the Various Methods of Poaching . London: J. Hudson, 1821.
ALKEN, Samuel (1784-1824?). Delineations of British Field Sports … together with the Various Methods of Poaching . London: J. Hudson, 1821. Oblong 2° (291 x 458mm). 6 leaves of letterpress, 24 hand-coloured lithographs. Without a letterpress title. (Light spotting to first three plates.) Mid 20th-century brown morocco gilt, spine in black morocco, original pictorial front wrapper with title, price, imprint and date bound in at front, an original rear wrapper with printed advertisements also bound in at rear (repairs to wrappers); quarter brown morocco clamshell box, spine titled longitudinally in gilt. Provenance : Joseph Widener (purchased from his sale, New York, 28 November 1944. Spitz notes that the book was erroneously catalogued as having 20 plates instead of 24, which made Ernest Gee refuse to bid). PARTS ISSUE OF GREAT RARITY, issued without a letterpress title. This is the only book illustrated by Samuel Alken Henry Thomas Alken's brother; and was first issued in six monthly parts in wrappers, then in book form in two states: uncoloured on drab paper, as Mellon, or the more luxurious state with coloured lithographs on white paper, as Schwerdt. Schwerdt considers the book in its coloured state to be ‘one of the rarest sporting books of the period,' but also says of the parts issue that ‘no copy, in that state, is known to exist’. The Spitz copy is thought to be bound from the parts since it has an original printed wrapper bound in as title. The plates are watermarked 1820 and 1821, and the wrapper dated 1821, a year earlier than the two states in book form (the Schwerdt copy is watermarked 1821 and dated 1822). The wrapper records details of the publication in parts, giving the price as ‘5.8.0 coloured’ (altered in pen from 18s. per number); the alternative price of ‘12s. plain on crayon paper’ has been crossed through, suggesting that all part issues were coloured. Mellon/Podeschi 115 (uncoloured, and bound with an additional plate); Schwerdt I, pp. 27-8; Siltzer, p. 75 (noting that the parts issue is dated 1821).