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Gorcock, Jeffrey [Crawhall, Joseph I].
Grouse Shooting Made Quite Easy.
Publisher: Privately printed, Kilhope Cross;
Date of Publication: 1998
Stock Code: 9623
Limited edition of only 300 copies. Facsimile of the exceptionally rare first edition printed in 1827 of which very few survive. Quarto, pp., [88]. Illustrated with lithographed reproductions throughout, and two coloured plates. Bound in quarter maroon cloth and paper over boards with gilt grouse ornament to upper-board and gilt titles to spine, with scarlet endpapers. Near Fine. Facsimile of one of the earliest book produced by lithography in England and quite possibly the first book produced by lithography in the North East of England. The series of humorous yet instructive plates are very early lithographs, a technique which produces images using a combination of oily ink and moistened limestone and was a new process in the 1820s. Patriarch of three generations of artists Joseph Crawhall I (1793-1853) was the wealthy owner of a Newcastle rope-making business and was successively Sheriff, Mayor, and Alderman of Newcastle Upon Tyne. A keen sportsman and talented artist, Joseph came from a family well-known for their eccentricities and sense of humour. This work is full of in-jokes aimed at friends and family, members of the Gourock Club or Park House Club, who met for autumnal shoots on the wild moors of Hexhamshire and Weardale. The humour begins with the name of the supposed author and his frontispiece portrait aged 83- at the time Crawhall was just 34 years old. Riling suggests of the original that “the issue of this book probably did not exceed twenty copies” and every copy is slightly different to the other. The author states that he is offering this book with an experience of fifty years, mellowed by a thousand gallons of whisky, and claims that it is the most original this country has produced'. £75.00