Browne, Bellmore H.; Beard, Dan [editor]. Guns and Gunning. Chicopee Falls, Mass.: Written and Published for J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co., 1908. First Edition. [12043]
Dark green cloth with a bright gilt title to front, illustration of a hunter with two dogs shooting a bird on the front cover, title in black to spine, a few nicks/scuffs to the binding, corner tips & spine ends a bit frayed, 8 x 5 1/2 inches, tight. Former owner's small ink name stamp inside front cover, 105 pp. plus adverts at end. Generally clean with a few blotches/smudges in the text. Illustrated throughout in the margins, plus six b/w plates by Belmore Brown. Good. Hardcover.
A promotional book for the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company, intended to inspire boys to start up Stevens Rifle Clubs. Information on shore hunting, decoys, boats & boots, hunting with the rifle, the shotgun, wild fowl, guns and ammunition shooting over decoys, calling ducks, upland shooting, grouse and woodcock, marksmanship, and an entire chapter on camping.
The author and artist is Bellmore Browne (1880-1954), b. Thompkinsville, Staten Island, New York; d. Rye, New York.
"Artist, explorer, mountaineer, and great exponent of northern outdoor living and wilderness travel...one of the last of the pioneer north-woods travelers who remained active right up to the end. It has been said that he was the ideal of what an explorer and mountaineer should be. His early years in Europe, the school years in the East, and his years in the Northwest, exploring, climbing, traveling by early means, and painting, had all combined to develop in him quiet strength, modesty, charm, and skills which we may not soon again see duplicated in one individual." - American Pine Club, online.
