One of the rarest books on fishing, the only privately owned first edition of Thomas Barker’s The Art of Angling, is the star lot in the sale of the Angling Library of Alan Jarvis at Bonhams, Knightsbridge on Tuesday 22 May. It is estimated at £50,000-70,000.
Described as the ‘Black Tulip’ of angling books because of its rarity, The Art of Angling is the first book in English devoted to fly fishing, the first to mention the reel and the first to describe fly patterns and tying.
Although the book has been reprinted several times since its first appearance in 1651, only one other first edition copy is known to exist and it is in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.
The Art of Angling provides solid, practical advice to anglers based on Barker’s own experience as well as suggestions on how to cook the end product including a recipe for pike with stewed oysters. Barker set the template for fishing writing and it is said that he helped Izaak Walton directly with his The Complete Angler (1653) which over the centuries has become the most famous fishing book of them all.
For more information on the sale, go to www.bonhams/books.
