[FINE BINDING - ANGLING]
WALTON, IZAAK. The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing not Unworthy the Perusal of most Anglers. Chiswick: Caradoc Press, 1905. Copy 37 of 350 paper copies (and fourteen on vellum). Green morocco gilt by Bayntun (Rivière), the covers and spine emblematically tooled (rod and net on the front, creel on the rear), the upper cover inlaid with a miniature hand-painted portrait of Walton under glass [likely by Stanley Hardy], broad dentelles with a line and fly motif, watered grey silk linings, all edges gilt, cloth box with felt lining. 8 x 5 3/8 inches (20.5 x 15.5 cm); engraved frontispiece (signed by the printer and engraver, Harry George Webb), engraved title, x pp., 155, [1] pp. In fine condition.

A Cosway-style binding likely dating from the 1950s or 1960s; the Angler is not commonly met in bindings of this type, and this is a well-wrought example of the style, and quite rare thus. The portrait on the upper cover is after the Jacob Huysmans portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, London, and was likely rendered by Stanley Hardy, who was painting for Bayntun at this time. The frontispiece by Webb is after the same painting.