James Edmund Harting | Manuscript copy of Perfect booke for kepinge of sparhawkes, 1886, with the limited edition

The Property of the Downside Abbey General Trust

James Edmund Harting

Manuscript copy of "The Fawkner’s glass… A perfect waie and order to be observed in chosing & keeping of sparhawkes”, together with copy number 1 of the limited edition

HARTING'S MANUSCRIPT COPY OF THE TOWNELEY MS, on paper, with AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED from Lord Amherst of Hackney loosely inserted, 4to, contemporary vellum

WITH:

James Edmund Harting (editor). A perfect booke for kepinge of sparhawkes or goshawks. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1886, 4to, COPY NUMBER ONE OF A LIMITED EDITION OF 100 COPIES, 2 full-page illustrations, one or two MS notes or marks in Harting’s hand, related cuttings loosely inserted, contemporary morocco-backed cloth, upper cover detached

HARTING'S MANUSCRIPT COPY AND HIS COPY OF THE FIRST LIMITED EDITION OF A NOTED EARLY SOURCE FOR FALCONRY. A note by Harting on the fly-leaf indicates that the original anonymous MS (c.1575) was with Bernard Quaritch in 1885 when he copied it, and that it was then sold to Tyson Amherst. It was then purchased from Amherst’s estate in 1908 by C.F.G.R. Schwerdt. It was re-acquired by Quaritch at the sale of Schwerdt’s estate in 1946, and was sold to Yale the same year. It is now in the Beinecke Library (MS 100).

LITERATURE:

Harting 81; Schwerdt 1:233; Swift 255.01

PROVENANCE:

J.E. Harting, armorial bookplate; Downside Abbey, book label