VENABLES, ROBERT. 1612-1687. The Experienced Angler; or, Angling Improved. Imparting many of the aptest ways and choicest experiments for the taking most sorts of Fish in Pond or River. London: printed for Richard Marriot, 1662. 12mo (140 x 83 mm). Engraved title, 10 engraved plates of fish within text, woodcut headpiece and initial. Final leaf lines, 2 corners repaired, a few other neat repairs, light soil and minor staining. 19th-century green morocco, spine lettered in gilt, all edges gilt. Spine faded, lightly rubbed. Provenance: Robert Norman Ganz (bookplate). FIRST EDITION of a work by the parliamentarian army officer Robert Venables (1612-1687), with an epistle written by Izaak Walton 'to his ingenious friend the author'. Robert Venables' The Experienc'd Angler, first published in 1662, a third edition is occasionally found published in 1668, but no copies of a second edition have been located, the edition was reputedly destroyed by the Great Fire. The work is widely regarded as one of the most important technical manuals in early angling literature. Unlike the more pastoral and philosophical approach of Izaak Walton, Venables focused on practical observation and technical precision. His work was so highly esteemed by his contemporaries that Walton himself contributed a commendatory letter to the first edition, noting the author's 'ingenious' and 'choicest experiments'. As a standalone 1662 first edition, it represents a rare record of 17th-century sporting practices and a significant artifact of the pre-Restoration printing era. Rarebookhub.com records two copies only selling at auction, the most recent being 1942, and another in 1898. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing