ROBERTS, James.
The sportsman's companion: or portraitures, pedigrees and performances, of the most eminent race horses & stallions, represented in variety of attitudes.
London, J. Barker, [1798?]. 8vo (22.5×15 cm). With a letterpress title-page, 40 numbered plates of famous race horses drawn by James Roberts and engraved by Henry Roberts, each with a portrait of the horse and rider (ca. 8.5×12 cm), detailed information about the horse and owner and most with an engraved vignette at the foot, engraved index leaf, and publisher's 4-page letterpress catalogue (with woodcut of 2 cocks fighting). Contemporary tan laid paper wrappers. [6] pp. plus 40 plates and index plate.
€ 15,000
Extremely rare second edition of a book of plates depicting famous race horses active in England in the period 1708 to 1755, each shown with its rider and/or stable-hand, and recording its owner, pedigree (one traced back to a horse imported from Aleppo for Oliver Cromwell in 1657), qualities and racing record. It is printed from the original plates of ca. 1760. The final plate shows the most famous race horse of all, the Godolphin Arabian, foaled in Yemen around 1724.
With 2 small tears and a few minor spots and smudges, but still in good condition and mostly untrimmed, with nearly all deckles intact. Wrapper somewhat dirty and worn, with the foot of the back wrapper damage. A rare and remarkable record of race horses in 18th-century England. Cf. ESTC N23610 & T50352 (3 copies of 1st ed. [1760?]); Huth, Horses and equitation, p. 38 ("1760" & "1820" eds.); KVK & WorldCat (3 copies, "[1820?]").
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