ALKEN, Henry Thomas (1785-1851); C. F. G. R. Schwerdt (introduces)

[Fox Hunting] [Sports and Pastimes] A panorama of the progress of human life : fashionably displayed, illustrating "Shakespeare's Ages" and exhibiting the manners, costume, character and field sports of the English people ; the whole illustrative of modern character, in a series of many hundred moving figures [Signed]

London: published by S. and J. Fuller, 34 Rathbone Place / privately printed [by Waterlow & Sons Limited] by the Author of "Hunting Hawking Shooting" 1930. First Edition thus. Card Covers. First Paperback Edition of Alken's most detailed work, the forerunner of Nimrod's The Life of a Sportsman. Oblong folio (348 x 445mm): 10pp, including title-page vignette, colored portrait of Alken and facsimiles of 11 wrappers on one plate, and photographic illustration of the scroll case, followed by 35 colored aquatint scenes (miniature adaptations of plates in National Field Sports), depicting incidents in the life of a squire's son, mounted on five stiff-card leaves. Original publisher's mottled tan card covers lettered in black. Signed by the editor, C. F. G. R. Schwerdt, on limitation leaf. A pristine example in the original publisher's stiff card decorated envelope, lightly nicked. Fine. Item #BB2546

Originally published in scroll form, in 1820, the Panorama is extremely scarce; in the preface Schwerdt states: "apart from the writer's own copy, only one other complete specimen has come to his notice during the forty-five years that he has been collecting." Four hundred copies of this edition were published: this is no. 4 of 250 copies printed for Great Britain, with a further 150 copies for sale by Ernest R. Gee, in New York. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).

Price: $199.00