Foreign field sports

Foreign Field Sports, Fisheries, Sporting Anecdotes, published in London by Edward Orme in 1814, is a lavishly illustrated compilation showcasing hunting, fishing, and sporting customs from around the world. The work features finely hand-coloured aquatint plates after drawings by Thomas Howitt, John Heaviside Clark, Samuel Howitt, Atkinson, Manskirch, and others, capturing exotic scenes from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Designed to appeal to the sporting gentleman and armchair traveller, the volume blends ethnographic curiosity with sporting spectacle, presenting detailed depictions of falconry in India, elephant hunting in Ceylon, Inuit seal fishing, and Arab horsemanship, among many others. Renowned for the quality of its aquatint engravings, this work remains a significant example of early 19th-century colour plate books and a vivid window into how British audiences imagined global sporting traditions during the age of empire.