Why it matters

Smith's manual is the best-known English pest-control book of the eighteenth century, written by a working exterminator who styled himself rat-catcher to Princess Amelia, daughter of George II, and it treats roughly forty species of "vermin" with practical trap designs illustrated in engraved plates. Institutional records credit the engravings to Thomas Bowen and record the edition as ESTC T132212, making it a documented landmark of trade and agricultural literature rather than a mere curiosity. It's also a reminder that in Georgian England, poisoning was a trade as well as a crime, practised daily in kitchens, barns and royal households.

Why we're looking

At US$464 this complete first edition in a contemporary binding sits roughly $130–$220 below the two complete 1768 first editions we found offered on AbeBooks at US$595 and US$681.99, though those copies are described in sounder bindings, so part of the gap plausibly reflects the cracked joints here. The contemporary mottled sheep and double provenance (a defaced armorial plate plus the J. Hainstock Anderson bookplate) add object interest beyond the text.

Watch out for

The seller is candid that the spine ends are worn and the joints cracked though firm, and that one armorial bookplate has been defaced — all structural/cosmetic issues a buyer should see photographed before committing. The description doesn't comment on the condition of the folding plates (offsetting, tears at folds) or on the printed piracy-warning slip that the Biodiversity Heritage Library's record for this edition notes pasted to the title verso, so both are worth asking about directly.