[?BEAUFOY, Henry Benjamin Hanbury (1786-1851, attributed)]. Scloppetaria: or Considerations on the Nature and Use of Rifled Barrel Guns, London, 1808, 8vo, 13 engraved plates (stained), contemporary calf. FIRST EDITION. With another related work. (2)

[?BEAUFOY, Henry Benjamin Hanbury (1786-1851, attributed; see note)].  Scloppetaria: or Considerations on the Nature and Use of Rifled Barrel Guns with Reference to their Forming the Basis of a Permanent System of National Defence, Agreeable to the Genius of the Country. By a Corporal of Riflemen. London: "Printed for C. Roworth, Bell Yard, Temple Bar, for T. Egerton, Military Library, Near Whitehall," 1808. 8vo (213 x 130mm). Engraved frontispiece captioned "Experto Crede", 12 engraved plates, errata leaf at the end (the frontispiece and title lightly browned, some dampstaining to the frontispiece and other plates, some mainly marginal spotting and staining, sometimes more pronounced to the plates). Contemporary half calf (crudely rebacked preserving old label, rubbed and eroded at corners, new endpapers). Provenance: From the Collection of Wilfrid Ward; "Agnew & Son, Gun Makers, 79 South Street, Exeter" (old stamps on the front free endpapers); old illegible initials at the head of the title. FIRST EDITION of the first book in English on target rifle shooting. Despite the British Library's advocacy of the attribution, there is scant evidence for Henry Benjamin Hanbury Beaufoy's authorship. Apart from the fact that Beaufoy would have been a callow 21 or 22 at the time of the book's publication, he is described variously online (he has no entry in DNB) as a vinegar factory owner, philanthropist, numismatist and politician, but with no mention of any connection with shooting or the military. A more likely contender for the author, we would suggest, is his father, Colonel Mark Beaufoy (1764-1827), an English astronomer, physicist and British army officer who became colonel of the Tower Hamlets militia in 1797, although his entry in DNB makes no mention of the book. The first word of the title has nothing to do with a type of eye injury ("Sclopetaria") but is instead a rather unwieldy Latinisation of "Militiaman". A second edition of the book was published in 1812. Riling Guns and Shooting. A Bibliography 350. With Ezekiel Baker's Remarks on Rifle Guns: Being the Result of Sixty Years' Practice and Observation: with Specific Remarks on Fowling Pieces, The Percussion Lock, and Fire Arms in General ... The Eleventh Edition (London, Printed by Joseph Mallett, 1835, 8vo, 7 hand-coloured engraved plates and 2 un-coloured plates, tables, contemporary green half calf, rather worn). Please see lot 305 for another copy of the same edition of this second work, with a collation identical to the present copy and detailed in full, with each plate separately described. (2)