March 2012 | Rebecca Rego Barry

Jason Dickson Antiquarian Books

Catalogue Review: Jason Dickson Antiquarian Books, Spring 2012

Screen shot 2012-03-30 at 9.29.55 AM.pngWith Canada on my mind this week, I turn to the spring catalogue of the young, Ontario-based bookseller, Jason Dickson. Turns out the timing couldn't be better -- fishing season opens Sunday in New York, and Dickson offers here a selection of antiquarian books on fishing. William Scrope's Days and Nights Salmon Fishing in The Tweed, published by John Murray in 1843, is highly regarded by anglers ($1,800). Jean Cussac's Pisciceptologie, ou L'Art de la Peche, an illustrated book on fishing, is lovely in a bright red half-leather binding ($700). There's also Fly-Fishing in Salt and Fresh Water, London, 1851, in its original green cloth ($950).  

Continuing the aquatic theme, Dickson has an 1897 London edition of The Buccaneers and Marooners of America by Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin, edited by Howard Pyle ($30). The pictorial cover is classic.

Beautiful, sharp pictorial covers also can be found on the first American edition of G.A. Henty's A Jacobite Exile ($75), a second edition of Peter Bisset's The Book of Water Gardening ($50), and a first edition of Cy Warman's Weiga of Temagami and Other Indian Tales ($25).

Written in a straightforward style and accompanied by color images, Dickson's catalogue is a grab bag that is great fun to rummage through -- from John Dryden to John Irving; A 1660 first edition of A Discourse and Defense of Arms and Armory ($400) to The Cook and Housewife's Manual from Edinburgh, 1833 ($100); to bee-keeping and millinery.

Visit his shop in Bracebridge, Ontario, or online at http://jdicksonbooks.com.