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Renowned color-plate study of British fresh water fish in two volumes. The 41 exceptional color plates generally show one, two, or a few fish lying on the banks of their natural habitat or superimposed over a landscape view.  Sometimes they are depicted naturalistically, swimming in an underwater setting.  The books also contain 38 engraved heading views of regions where the fish are found and numerous diagrams.  Extensive text discusses the characteristics of the species and their habitats.  The volumes are bound in decorative embossed pictorial covers with a central gilt pictorial vignette of an angler holding a fish and decorative freshwater fish motifs in each corner.

According to the title page of British Fresh-Water Fishes, the author, Rev. W. Houghton, served as rector of Preston-on-the-Weald Moors, Shropshire.  At the same time, he was a serious naturalist who had previously authored Sea-side Walks of a Naturalist, and was a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London, a scientific society for the study of biology founded in 1788.  For this work, Houghton studied the specimens in the collection of the British Museum.  British Fresh-Water Fishes was originally printed in 2 volumes in 1879, and was notable for its incorporation of the naturalistic backgrounds of the fish habitats.  The fact that this work has been reprinted in subsequent editions from the 19th century through the 1980s attests to the quality and interest of the descriptions and illustrations, even though taxonomists have since revised some of the classifications.

Benjamin Fawcett was a printer in Diffield, Yorkshire, England, noted for his mastery of color woodblock printing.  Alexander Francis Lydon was a painter and draftsman who began as Fawcett’s apprentice and became his frequent collaborator.  Together they produced the plates for many illustrated natural history and topographic works, including a number of works by Francis Orpen Morris, such as A History of British Birds (1851-1857) and Picturesque Views of Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland (1880).  They also contributed illustrations to natural history books by other authors, such as William Thomas Greene's three-volume Parrots in Captivity (1882-87).

Full publication information from title page: “London: William Mackenzie, 69, Ludgate Hill E.C.  Edinburgh and Dublin.”

References:

Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs.  France: Librairie Gründ, 1966.  Vol. 5, p. 670.

Nissen, Claus. Die Zoologische Buchillustration: ihre Bibliographie und Geschichte. Stuttgart:1969-78.  2009.