very rare first issue with fine provenance

The Schwerdt-Jeanson copy of the rare first edition, first issue with the additional title dated 1820.

One of the great 19th-century colour-plate works. Illustrated with 50 fine aquatints of exceptional quality, it is probably Alken's finest work. 'Perhaps Alken's best known and most comprehensive work' (Schwerdt, I, p.19), The National Sports of Great Britain contains illustrations of horse racing, angling, shooting, fox hunting, and coursing, as well as prize fighting and cock fighting.

'the size and beauty of the plates make this the cornerstone of any Alken collection' (Tooley).

First edition, first issue; folio (46.7 x 30.4 cm); aquatint additional title & 50 aquatint plates after Henry Alken, title and plates with contemporary hand-colour, occasional light offsetting and spotting; late 19th-century green half morocco, ruled and tooled in gilt, spine gilt in compartments, all edges gilt, extremities rubbed.

Bobins II, 746; Litchfield 14; Mellon/Podeschi 111; Schwerdt I, p.19; Souhart 10; Tooley 41.