Falconry in the British Isles. - 1855

London: John Van Voorst,, 1855. The best English book on falconry First edition of Francis Salvin's first work, with attractive illustrations by the falconer William Brodrick, himself the owner of a remarkable collection of working birds. Salvin's (1817-1904) lifetime of devotion to the sport lead his fellow falconer C. H. Fisher to call him "the father of the craft in England" (p. 178). "Salvin's early love of hawking was stimulated by an acquaintance with John Tong, a one-time assistant falconer to Colonel Thomas Thornton. In the manner of Thornton, he made a highly successful hawking tour of northern England in 1843 with John Pells (then in the pension of the hereditary grand falconer of England)" (ODNB). When serving with his regiment in Ireland in 1855, Salvin used to fly peregrine falcons at rooks and tiercels at magpies. William Brodrick (1814-1888) owned "most, if not all, of the hawks and falcons usually employed in modern falconry. Under his care, examples of the Greenland, Iceland, and Norwegian gerfalcons, sakers, and lanners lived for years, a source of admiration to all who saw them" (Fisher). The stones for Brodrick's plates were destroyed after publication, so they had to be redrawn for the second edition (1873). The plates in the first edition are celebrated as "much superior" (Harting). Quarto (279 x 184 mm). Twentieth-century dark green half morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe for R. D. Steedman, pale green cloth sides, raised bands with gilt dotted roll, second and third compartments lettered in gilt, bird devices to remaining compartments within single fillet panel, spine and corners bordered with gilt rules, grey-green endpapers, top edge gilt. With 2 hand-coloured and tissue-guarded lithograph frontispieces heightened with gum arabic, 22 similar plates, all by Brodrick and printed by Ford & West. A little shelf wear, light soiling to boards, plates generally bright. A very good copy. Harting 67; Nissen, IVB 147; Schwerdt II, p. 145; Souhart 419; Wood, p. 541; not in Thiebaud. C. H. Fisher, Reminiscences of a Falconer, 1901.