Rare early edition (the fifth?) of a popular angling handbook that went through many editions far into the 19th century, all the 18th-century ones in 12mo format. Charles Bowlkers father Richard wrote the text for the first two editions (Worcester [1758?] and London 1766) but Charles reworked his fathers handbook for the 1774 edition. "This was the standard textbook of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century ... Charles was considered the most finished fly-fisher of his day. For such a small volume it is very wide-ranging, with more advice on the choice of tackle than on tactics, and with much of the material taken from seventeenth century writers. It is an important milestone in popular angling literature" (Westwood/Satchell).
The editions printed by Swinney (all rarer than Baskervilles and rarer than the first edition) are important typographically, showing types in the Baskerville style: Handy may have retained duplicate matrices for some of the types he cut for Baskerville, but others are almost certainly new types he cut in the 1780s. The present edition of Bowlkers handbook still uses the engraved frontispiece from the 1774 Baskerville edition.
In very good condition. ESTC T112413 (8 copies); Gingrich, Fishing in print, pp. 69-74; Heckscher, 251; Sage catalogue, p. 41; Westwood/Satchell, p. 39.