The Story of the Sporting Gun

David & Charles, Newton Abbot, first edition, 1991. Cloth, oblong 4to, 29 cm,. 96 pp, ils (many colour). From the blurb: "Over the past two centuries, few field sports have changed as much as that of game shooting, particularly in recent years. But although the development of the sporting gun had the greatest influence on game shooting during the nineteenth century, during the twentieth century it has not been so much the weapons that have changed but more the attitude of those that use them -known also, in our sometimes ill-defined English language, as sporting 'Guns'. Most early paintings of shooting, often portraits of proud sportsmen armed with flintlocks and with spaniels at heel, were completed during the first half of the nineteenth century, with artists such as Stubbs and Ben Marshall elaborating on the theme. But paintings of driven game were slow to materialise, possibly due to that sport's initial unpopularity. Now, however, shooting scenes by painters of that period - Archibald Thorburn, J. C. Harrison, George Lodge or his pupil Philip Rickman - are in considerable demand. Today's young stars also have a bright future: none more than Andrew Ellis, who, complemented by those great sporting artists of yesterday, has provided Ranulf Rayner with more than thirty splendid paintings of contemporary scenes, each of which was commissioned especially for this book. The author, who has shot game in many countries, traces the sport from the early development of the shotgun to the way game shooting is practised around the world today. Quoting many anecdotes and intriguing facts about the world's principal varieties of game birds - grouse, pheasant, partridge, woodcock, duck and snipe, among others - he follows the changing pattern of game shooting and game management, the effect on the environment, and the future of the sport as a whole. Illustrated throughout with Andrew Ellis's glorious paintings, charming pencil sketches, evocative photographs and maps, this fascinating and compelling book certainly deserves a place of honour in the library of every sporting 'Gun'. Front board slightly marked, otherwise Very Good in Very Good dustwrapper.