AIR AND WATER. A Complete Collection of the Artist's Fish and Fowl Engravings 1984-2004.

First edition. Limited edition. Signed by the artist. Publisher's original burgundy morocco with silver titles to the upper board and spine, with black and white pictorial onlay to the upper board, in the dark grey cloth slipcase. A publisher's notice, signed by the author, is loosely laid in. Marbled endpapers. Boldly illustrated throughout with 43 black and white wood engravings by Colin See-Paynton. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the leather bright and fresh, with just a touch of rubbing to the extremities. The contents are clean throughout, and without previous owners' inscriptions or stamps. Housed in the lightly marked, structurally sound slipcase.

Issued in an edition of 100 leather-bound copies, from which this example is numbered 40, and signed by Colin See-Paynton in black ink on the preface. A trade edition of 750 copies in a cloth binding was also issued. Widely regarded as the leading exponent of wood engraving in the UK, Colin See-Paynton's engravings are collected here for the first time into a complete portfolio, accompanied by extracts of text from piscatorial and ornithological literature chosen by Keith Harwood, from such writers as Arthur Ransome, W. B. Yeats, and Thomas Bewick. "Colin has brought a new vitality to one of the earliest forms of printmaking. Although his work is based on the meticulous observation of the natural world, his talent is to invent compositions which distil the ecological and behavioural relationships of the species and their habitats. He uses his knowledge and imagination to construct engravings of great complexity and refinement and has evolved something new by the patterning and layering of his images. Later compositions, particularly those from an underwater viewpoint, use an increasingly abstract and fluid line to capture the fast and fleeting movements of birds and fish" (artist's website).