< Back

Coigney, Rodolphe L.
Izaak Walton A New Bibliography 1653-1987.
Publisher: James Cummins, New York;
Date of Publication: 1989
Stock Code: 10338
FIRST EDITION. Copy E, SIGNED by the Author; one of only 26 De Luxe Edition copies with an original leaf from the 1653 first edition of “The Compleat Angler”, from an edition limited to 531 copies only in total. Quarto, pp. xix, [1], 434. Colour frontispiece of Walton’s house and 26 monochrome plates. Full maroon morocco with gilt titles to spine and upper board, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. The 1653 leaf is pp. 107-8 and is tipped-in to captioned leaf to fore. Housed in plain red cloth-covered slipcase. Small attractive pictorial bookplate to front paste-down, with fish motif, otherwise a Fine copy in like slipcase. Exceptionally comprehensive volume by Walton collector, author and keen angler Rodolphe Coigney, and the standard work on the subject, covering all editions of Walton’s book, the Lives, catalogues and other reference works. Coigney (1911-2001) was a Parisian wartime hero who amongst other acts of bravery managed to steal German stamps and papers which enabled resistance fighters and refugees to leave the Nazi occupied zone, and who helped to persuade Himmler to release French women from the concentration camp at Ravensbruck. Awarded the Croix de Guerre, Coigney later worked with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency, and headed the World Health Organisation’s New York office. £1500.00