Lot n° 42
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BLOME, Richard - Lot 42
BLOME, Richard
The Gentlemans Recreation... an Encyclopedy of the Arts and Sciences... [and] Horsemanship, Hawking, Hunting, Fowling, Fishing and Agriculture. With a Short Treatise of Cock-Fighting.
London, S. Roycroft for Richard Blome, 1686
AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE AND THE ARTS AT THE END OF THE 17th CENTURY, DUPLICATED WITH ONE OF THE GREATEST HUNTING TREATIES PRINTED IN THIS LANGUAGE.
FORMER LE VIVIER COLLECTION
ORIGINAL EDITION
2 parts in one folio volume (402 x 253mm). Title printed in red and black, with privilege leaf given by King Charles II, woodcut headbands and initials, with plate of English fanfares.
ILLUSTRATION: engraved frontispiece title, 10 plates bearing the coats of arms of the subscribers, 30 plates representing the encyclopedic tree-like breakdown of the arts and sciences, 45 plates of hunting and falconry scenes, a total of 86 copper engravings, many of the hunting scenes engraved after Francis Barlow's drawing.
ENGLISH BINDING CIRCA 1820. Brown Russian leather, cold-stamped decoration, framed with fillets and roulettes, ornate ribbed spine, marbled edges.
PROVENANCE: George Watson Neish (carte de visite ex-libris; 1849-1931) -- Earl of Aylesford (London, March 6, 1888, lot 203) -- Kurt Lindner (ex-libris Bibliotheca Tiliana) -- Le Vivier (London, October 30, 2012, no. 134)
Two shorter plates. Restored spine
The Gentlemans recreation is as much a hunting book as an encyclopedia. It deals with the arts (including hunting) as well as philosophy and metaphysics. It includes "A Brief account of Des Cartes's Philosophy being the New and general Received Philosophy". The book enjoyed considerable success. It offers a remarkable panorama of hunting and fishing in England in 1685, and above all marks the birth of Sport.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Schwerdt, I, pp. 72-73: "contains an enormous store of information (...) perfect copies are rarely found; the imprimatur, some of the plates of arms especially the 10th, and the plate of horsemanship inscribed to Sir John Skeffington are often missing" -- De Futaie en folio, I, p. 80 -- Souhart, 685 -- E. Hodnet, Francis Barlow. First master of English book illustration, 1978, p. 106
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