Beschreibung:

NEWCASTLE, William Cavendish, Duke of (1592-1676). Methode et invention nouvelle de dresser les chevaux. Antwerp: Jacques van Meurs, 1658. 2° (434 x 292mm). Mounted on guards throughout. Double-page engraved additional title and 42 plates by Peter de Jode and others after Abraham van Diepenbeeck, 50 wood-cut illustrations. (Title neatly repaired at lower outer corner, some plates and text leaves with small expert repairs). (Panelled calf gilt preserving the 18th century panels, rebacked to style, neat repairs to corners and edges) Provenance : Earls of Chesterfield (bookplate of Bradby Hall, the Devonshire seat of the Earls of Chesterfield). FIRST EDITION OF THIS FAMOUS WORK ON THE TRAINING OF HORSES. The Duke of Newcastle, a staunch royalist went into exile to Antwerp in 1644. Newcastle had bought a pair of Barbary horses in Paris and set up a stables for training of his horses. This work, partly paid for by his friend Sir Hugh Cartwright is a celebration of Dukes' horses and their training. The plates include five equestrian portraits, four of the author; five plates of his own horses; and 24 scenes showing horses being trained (most featuring the Duke, Captain Mazin and occasionally, a groom named Palfrenier). There are also two allegorical designs, in which the Duke is adored by a circle of reverential horses, and at the end a portrait of the Cavendish family. Brunet I, 1699; Mellon Books on the Horse and Horsemanship 26; Mennessier de la Lance II, p. 246