Mats Rehnström Rare Books Archives

Les ruses innocentes, dans lesquelles se voit comment on prend les oyseaux passagers, & les non passagers: & des plusieurs sortes de bêtes à quatre pieds. Avec les plus beaux secrets de la pêche dans les rivieres & dans les estangs. Et un traité tres-utile pour la chasse. Et la maniere de faire tous les rets & les filets qu’on peut s’imaginer. Le tout divisé en cinq livres, avec les figures. Ouvrage tres-curieux, utile et recreatif pour toutes sortes de personnes qui font leur sejour à la campagne. Par F. F. F. R. D. G. dit le solitaire inventif.

Paris, chez C. de Sercy, 1688. 4to. (16),445,(1 blank),1-12 pp. Title in red and black, with engraved headpiece and initial, 66 full-page woodcut illustrations (9 of which are folding) all included in the pagination, and woodcut initials. Contemporary sprinkled calf, spine in compartments with raised bands, elaborately tooled and lettered in gilt, rubbing to surfaces and extremities, head of spine with some loss at upper joint, tail of spine chipped exposing headband, upper joint cracked exposing cords but holding. Upper cover with two small worm holes, rear cover a little stained, corners bumped and worn. Browned throughout with some foxing, and marginal dust-soiling, with dampstain at gutter from p. 414 through to the end, affecting a few plates, and further sporadic dampstaining. Gutter of title page and outer margin of front free endpaper reinforced, and with rather crude repairs to margins of plates 256, 263, 264, 269, 277 and 415. Outer margin of p. 217 torn with loss though not touching text, with page number of p. 256 torn and missing. Annotations on front free endpaper that the book was bought at the auction after Michael Törnflycht on 11 June 1740 by Carl Fredric Piper and further annotations recording that it was given in 1780 from his son Adolph Ludvig Piper to forester Joh. Er. Cons, inherited by his son J. E. Cons in 1818 and from him given in 1852 to his nephew, captain Ax. Fr. M. Lundeberg. Lundeberg has also recorded the births of his children and their height on the last leaf and rear endpaper. With the bookplate and signature of Gunnar Brusewitz. Schwerdt Hunting, hawking, shooting I:181. Souhart Bibliographie générale des ouvrages sur la chasse 636-637. Thiébaud Bibliographie des ouvrages français sur la chasse 408-409. Westwood & Satchell Bibliotheca piscatoria 180. Third edition of this celebrated work on the art of capturing game, fish and vermin with traps, nets and other means, first published in 1660. A second edition was published in 1668, a fourth in 1695, and this edition was reissued in 1700 with a cancel title page. The work is split into five books of which the last deals extensively with fishing. The striking and instructive woodcut illustrations show a variety of nets and traps. The plates are the same as appeared in the first edition. This edition includes for the first time the short 12-page "Traité tres-utile de la chasse" by Charles Strosse present at the end of the work. This work was to prove immensely popular and influential, inspiring the work of many subsequent authors, notably Liger in his "Amusements de la campagne", and who reproduced the first part of "Les ruses" without alteration, according to Westwood & Satchell. Michael Törnflycht (1683-1738) was a military, civil servant, and country gentleman. Under King Charles XII he took part in the Battle of Poltava 1709 and the siege of Fredrikshall 1718. Carl Fredric Piper (1700-1770) was his nephew and one of Sweden's foremost book collectors in his time. His extensive library at Ängsö castle was inherited by his son Adolf Ludvig Piper (1750-1795), married to Sophie von Fersen. Forester Johan Cons, or Conz, (1739-1818) was born in Strassbourg and lived in Dyvik by Ängsö. His daughter Hedvig Sophia Cons (1785-1864) was married to the factor at Ängsö Johan Petter Lundeberg. Their son was Axel Fredrik Marcus Lundeberg (1809-1873). Brusewitz's signature is dated 1975. Laid in is also a catalogue clipping from Hagelin Rare Books, where Brusewitz bought this book.