RANSOME, J. Allen.

8vo, pp. xi, 276. With numerous illustrations in the text. Original brown cloth (a little rubbed and worn at ends of spine), yellow endpapers. Some small marks throughout but a very good copy. Presentation copy, inscribed on the title-page “Wm Crosskill with the author’s respects” (William Crosskill, 1800–1888, iron founder who produced bells, railings, lamp posts and agricultural implements); bookplate of the Royal Institution of Cornwall).

FIRST EDITION. “This was the most important book on its subject published in the mid-nineteenth century” (ODNB). The firm of Ransome’s was established by Robert Ransome (1753–1830) in 1789. The author of the present work, James Allen Ransome (1806–1875), was his grandson under whose direction the business assumed huge proportions. “The small brass foundry established by the elder Robert Ransome in the latter half of the eighteenth century had, by the 1850s, become one of Britain's leading agricultural engineering firms, employing more than 1000 workers. From producing and sharpening ploughs and other agricultural implements, the firm had diversified widely, especially into railway equipment. It was one of the first companies to build cast-iron bridges and later it also became renowned for its lawnmowers” (ibid). Although Ransome’s made the first steam thresher in 1841 it is not mentioned in this book, but one on Lord Ducie’s farm is described at length. The presentee of this copy invented a patent clod crusher, described and illustrated on pp. 96–97, a nice association.