FIRST EDITION OF HOUGHTON’S BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES, WITH 41 FINE FOLIO COLOR PLATES

HOUGHTON, Rev. W[illiam]. British Fresh-Water Fishes. London: William Mackenzie, [1879]. Two volumes. Folio, publisher’s brick textured cloth over beveled boards with black-, gilt-, and blind-stamped, with piscatorial vignettes and motifs on boards, all edges gilt.    $4500.

First edition of this beautifully illustrated study of British fresh-water fish, with 41 brightly colored large folio chromolithographed plates, as well as numerous in-text engravings.

The superb plates, providing a colored illustration of each species, were drawn from nature by A.F. Lydon. “Houghton, a Shropshire clergyman, aimed his book at the fisherman rather than the naturalist, and the text (of which there is, unusually, plenty) gives information about recognition, feeding and breeding habits, habitat, bait and so on” (Buchanan, Nature into Art, 168). Litchfield 52. Nissen, ZBI 2009. Westwood & Satchell (supplement) 247.

Occasional very light scattered foxing; faint marginal dampstain to lower corner of plates in Volume I, not touching images. Plates bright. Volume I recased with minor expert restoration to corners and spnie ends; original cloth very nice with only minor rubbing to corners of Volume II. A near-fine copy.