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IZAAK WALTON & CHARLES COTTON
THE COMPLETE ANGLER
Or, The Contemplative Man’s Recreation
London: John C. Nimmo, 1885
No. 84 of 120 Large-Paper Copies
Further Extra-Illustrated with Nine Mounted Pieces
Two Volumes in Full Morocco Leather by Potter & Sons, York
A handsome collector’s edition of Walton and Cotton’s classic, with an extensive suite of engravings, etchings, and hand-colored fly plates, further enriched with nine mounted illustrations and historical printed pieces.
Copy no. 84 of the limited large-paper issue, finely bound in two volumes of full dark olive morocco leather by Potter & Sons of York, with the binder’s stamp Izaak, and Charles Cotton. The Complete Angler; or, The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Edited by John Major. With John Jackson’s Treatise on Flies and Fly-Hooks.
London: John C. Nimmo, 1885.
First Nimmo edition. The special large-paper, extra-illustrated issue, numbered 84 of 120 copies. Bound in two volumes.
The Publisher’s Illustrated Edition
Nimmo expressly designed this edition for collectors, combining Walton and Cotton’s text with an unusually extensive range of illustrations. The publisher’s stated illustration suite comprises:
Fifty steel-engraved plates
Six original etchings and two portraits
Seventy-four wood engravings
Ten hand-colored steel plates depicting 120 natural and artificial flies
The illustrations bring together portraits, landscapes, fishing subjects, and the detailed colored fly studies accompanying Jackson’s treatise. Generous margins and the two-volume binding allow the plates and text to be comfortably examined.
Nine Additional Mounted Pieces
Beyond the publisher’s illustration suite, this copy contains nine additional plates and printed pieces in Volume II, individually window-mounted.
These include historical title-page and frontispiece reproductions, an image of the early “Scholar Angler,” a Knights Templar seal engraving, and other material assembled for its historical and visual interest.
The “Scholar Angler” reproduces the familiar early image associated with the tradition of A Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle. It is offered here as a later reproduction, not as an original fifteenth-century impression.
The added pieces vary in paper, format, tone, and condition. Their individual printing dates have not been established; some are facsimile material. Their interest lies in the collector’s assembly and presentation of images relating to the historical world of the book.
Signed Binding by Potter & Sons
Full dark olive morocco leather, with five raised bands, gilt spine titles and volume numbers, and fine gilt borders to the boards. Broad inner turn-ins are decorated with elaborate gilt floral and foliate tooling.
Marbled endpapers. Top edges gilt; fore and lower edges untrimmed.
The restrained exterior gives way to richly decorated interiors, with the marbled papers and gilt dentelles providing a particularly attractive finish. The leather has mellowed to varying olive-brown tones.
Walton and Cotton’s Classic
First published in 1653, Walton’s Compleat Angler combines fishing instruction with pastoral conversation, natural history, poetry, and reflections on friendship and recreation. Cotton’s contribution develops the practical discussion of trout, grayling, and fly fishing.
This Victorian collector’s edition pairs that enduring literary text with an extensive visual record of angling, enhanced here by a signed morocco binding and an individual selection of mounted very good overall, firm and sound, with rubbing to the spines, raised bands, joints, corners, and exposed edges. Some variation in leather color between the boards and spines. Minor wear at the front joint of Volume I; the board remains firmly attached.
Gilt lettering and decoration remain clear. The inner gilt tooling and marbled endpapers are well preserved.
The principal text and publisher-issued illustrations are generally clean, bright, and well preserved, with generous margins. Fore and lower edges remain untrimmed.
The nine added pieces show varying toning, foxing, staining, and handling wear. One sheet has more pronounced discoloration and staining, visible in the photographs.
Please examine the photographs for the bindings, limitation, publisher’s illustration statement, mounted additions, and condition.
References: Coigney 127; Horne 123.
