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

HOUGHTON, W. British Fresh-Water Fishes. London: William Mackenzie, [1879]. Two volumes in one. Folio, contemporary half black calf gilt. $3000.

First edition of this beautifully illustrated study of British fresh-water fish, with 41 bright folio color lithographs of various fish, as well as numerous in-text wood-engraved vignettes of well-known fishing holes.

These superb folio plates, providing colored illustrations of each species, are drawn from nature by A.F. Lydon and were intended to "enable any one to identify any fish that may be met with." "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. Thacher, 269.

Plates generally fresh and bright, only light scattered foxing to preliminary leaves and occasionally fore-edge margin, edge-wear to contemporary cloth, joints rubbed. An exceedingly good copy.