This FIRST EDITION SIGNED hardcover book was privately printed by the author in 1949 and has 92 pages including illustrative plates. The text is unmarked on moderately toned pages. The binding is exceptionally tight. The dust jacket is moderately rubbed with some tanning and has multiple small closed tears and some chipping along the edges. The page edges are moderately foxed. The signature book plate of Mr. Francis Fretwell is attached to the front paste down. THIS BOOK is the first to deal specifically with dog literature, and should therefore prove useful to the student of dogs and dog books. It opens with a general approach to the early material from which our first dog books were drawn and treats in chronological order all the more important contributions which have been published in the British Isles, thus running through five centuries of books from Edward, Second Duke of York's " litel symple book" to the monumental work of Edward Ash. British dog books are traditionally illustrated works, and in this introductory essay on dog literature the author has reproduced several of the important illustrations of early dog books, including a plate from the first coloured dog book and another from the first breed book. Portraits of celebrated dog writers also illustrate this book, which is intended mainly for the reader who already knows something about dogs and wishes to study their specialist literature. It is hoped that this work, brief though it is, will give the reader a fair knowledge of the beginning of dog books and their development and modifications up to the present period. The book has been designed and produced with a view towards reflecting the old-world atmosphere in which our first dog books were leisurely compiled, yet the text is factual and concise, and carries a characteristically full index.

SIGNED  DOG  Books,  Clifford  Hubbard,  Canine  Bibliography