Doyle will auction an extensive collection of angling books assembled by Arnold “Jake” Johnson (1930-2017) of Bozeman, Montana. Property from this remarkable collection will be offered in an ongoing series of live and online auctions.
The Collection of Arnold “Jake” Johnson offers a wide range of material, from rare works dating to the 18th century through finely produced recent publications. Fishing for trout, salmon, and fly-fishing are well represented, as are deep sea and sport-fishing. Featured are copies of important titles with inscriptions or fine provenance, including books from the libraries of Dean Sage, Edward Sands Litchfield, Samuel B. Webb, C.R. Morphy, Bibliotheca Piscatoria Lynniana, and Robert Hoe. Also noteworthy are volumes signed by Zane Grey and other major anglers and artists. The sale offers books in a range of price points and presents an exciting opportunity to add to an established collection, form the foundation of a new collection, or find a unique gift for an angling enthusiast.
A true bibliophile, Johnson was an inveterate collector of rare items related to angling, travel, expeditions in India and Africa, English sporting and color-plate, 19th-century big game hunting, and Western Americana. His collection comprises hundreds of rare books, hand-written accounts of hunting expeditions, striking examples of 19th-century photographic travel albums, and elusive bibliographies and facsimiles of major works.
Lovely to see “Jake” Johnson’s Indian fishing titles during a quick whirl through the Lots – Lacey, Thomas etc. I was collecting the same as a very young man back in the early-mid 1970s and getting them, in many cases, for mere goold old British, yard-sale and junkshop, Pence.
Including one Thomas from a famous antiquarian book dealer and seller situated in Crane Street just outside the Close of Salisbury Cathedral, a place where I spent a lot of my childhood, playing (and paddling, swimming and fishing in the River Avon at the bottom of the garden) with four same-age friends who lived there -: a postcard from the seller:
“Dear Paul, I have an original printers’ typescript copy of H.S. Thomas’s lesser-known title, Tank Angling in India, with handwritten corrections in black ink by the author himself. £8.50 plus postage.”
Scandalously high price for me at the time, but I had it!