This book is titled "The Art of Angling", by R. Brookes, M.D., In Two Parts, and the rest of the title page reads "I. Containing an Account of Fish, and Fish-Ponds: A new Art of Fly-making: The New Laws that concern Angling: The Secret Ways of catching Fish by Ointments, Pastes, and other Arts: Directions how to procure Baits, and for making all Sorts of Fish-Tackle, with the surest Method of finding Sport, &c. II. Of the great Whale, and Whale Fishery; the devouring Shark; the amphibious Turtle; the luscious Turbot and Sole; with Flying Fish, Sea-Devil, and other extraordinary Productions of the Sea. Likewise a Natural History of the Inhabitants of the Salt Water, and the various Methods of Rock and Sea-Fishing. Illustrated with One Hundred and Thirty-five Cuts, exactly describing the different Kinds of Fish that are found in the fresh or Salt Waters, The Whole forming A Sportsman's Magazine; And comprising all that is curious and valuable in The Art of Angling, The Fourth Edition, with great Improvements." The book was printed in London for [crossed out] in Fleet-Street. MDCCLXXIV [1774], with an ink inscription at the bottom which reads ""Ustonson fishing rod and Tackle Maker, No. 205 Corner of Bell Yard Temple Bar", and we believe it was printed for T. Lowndes, even though the name has been crossed out. The book has five raised bands, six compartments with gilt lettering on a red label and "1774" in gilt at the heel of the spine, polished calf boards, blank endpapers, with an owner's label on the front paste-down that identifies where the book went in the owner's library (the number and shelf for the book), an illustrated frontis with various flies (lures) for catching fish, then the title page, a two-page dedication to Richard Heath, four pages of angler's songs, 303 pages of text, and the illustrations in the text have the names of each type of fish above the illustration. Some unusual fish depicted are a hammerhead - here called the "balance fish" because of the shape of the head - as well as the morgay, a butterfly fish, the pogge, and other denizens of the deep. The highlight of the book is the inscription at the bottom of the title page, which refers to the Ustonson company, a famous fishing tackle maker in London, and we checked and discovered the inscription on the title page matches the signature of Onesimus Ustonson himself, who was the founder and owner of the Ustonson company. Onesimus Ustonson (1736 - 1810) was an English manufacturer of fishing tackle. In 1749, he was apprenticed for seven years to John Herro, a fishing tackle maker and owner of the Fish and Crown at 48 Bell Yard, Temple Bar, a narrow street in London between Carey and Fleet Street. Onesimus took over the business in 1760 and opened his shop in 1761. The firm remained a market leader for the next century. Ustonson is noteworthy because he invented the multiplying reel and his reels are highly desirable to collectors because they represent some of the earliest fishing reels made in the UK; most of the reels marked "Ustonson" were actually made by his daughter-in-law, Maria, who married his son Charles and took over the company after Charles died; she obtained favor with royalty and was allowed to mark her reels to reflect that, and the oldest reels bear the mark "Ustonson, Maker, Temple Bar, London", very much like the inscription on the title page here. The firm received successive royal warrants from King George IV, William IV, and Queen Victoria, and early Ustonson fishing reels are sought-after collectibles: a brass and ivory example sold at auction for £6,000 in 2007, an 1815 reel sold for £7,000, and a 1789 receipt handwritten by Onesimus to Lord Delaval for six guineas sold at auction in 1999 for £2,800. Ustonson also supplied fishing tackle to the naturalist Joseph Banks for the second voyage of James Cook (1772-1775), so these reels are considered some of the early great reels of Britain and highly collectible, and written records by Onesimus Ustonson are hard to come by. We've included a photo of a receipt signed by Onesimus Ustonson in 1772 so you can compare the two signatures - the one on the receipt and the one in this book - and we believe they are identical matches, so that should add a lot of value to the book. Ustonson also had a book printed for him in 1770 - the book had a similar title to the one being offered here - it was titled "The True Art of Angling, being a clear and speedy way of taking all Sorts of Fresh-water Fish …", and that copy had several angling songs inside, like the one here, but the titles were different and placed at the rear of the book, instead of at the front. The songs in the book being offered here are titled "The Banks of Indermay", "All in the Downs", and "The Angler's Song", and they all appear near the front of the book, and the book printed for Ustonson in 1770 goes for $754 to $1800 right now. Richard Brookes (ca. 1721 - 1763) was an English physician and author of books on medicine, surgery, natural history, and geography, most of which went through several editions, including The Art of Angling, and the first edition of "The Art of Angling, Rock and Sea Fishing, with the Natural History of River, Pond, and Sea Fish" came out in 1740. The book measures 6 7/8 x 4 1/2 in. wide, with a tight binding and occasional brown spots on some of the pages, but for the most part, the pages and lllustrations are clean. There is wear at the heel and crown and along the edges of the spine, mild wear along the edges of the boards and at the tips, there's offset on the title page from the frontis, and the endpapers have brown marks on them, but the marks are not from foxing, but from glue that was applied during the binding process and leaked through the binding and dried out. (You can tell the brown marks came from the glue because when you take the left endpaper in front and fold it on top of the right endpaper, the brown marks match - they are mirror images - and that's how you know they are glue marks from the binding process, and not from foxing.) There's also a small chip and hole on the front endpapers, a pencil note in the top right corner of the front flyleaf, a small tear on page 126, and a few corner creases on some pages towards the rear. The book is still an essential work for aficionados of fishing and angling, and books or receipts signed by Onesimus Ustonson are extremely rare - we found only one receipt signed by him in all the angling books we looked at - and it is clearly worth more with his inscription. #128 #1590