Coates's Herd Book: containing the pedigrees of Improved Shorthorn Cattle. Volumes 22, 23, 31.: [John Thornton's copy]

Shorthorn Society of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Volumes 22, 23, 31. 1875, 1876, 1884. xx, 688pp; xx, 791pp; xxii, 756pp. Bound in matching brown cloth, attractively grained leather labels with gilt lettering to spines. Renewed endpapers. Edges sprinkled red, darkened. A handsome set.

Provenance:
Dated signature (October 30 1883) of John Thornton to half title of Volume 31, 1884, with neat informative annotations in his handwriting to the text. John Thornton, publisher of Thornton's Shorthorn Circular from 1868, the most famous pedigree livestock auctioneer of all time. Assistant editor (with Strafford) of Coates's Herd Book.

A poem, "The Golden Shorthorns" was published in PUNCH 1867, commemorating the Shaw Farm Windsor Sale
'Twas Strafford raised his sandglass, and Thornton held the pen, When to a Windsor coffee-room flocked scores of Shorthorn men ;
They crowded round the table, they fairly blocked the door- He stood champagne, did Sheldon, of Geneva, Illinois...

In 1875 Thornton sold Lord Dunmore's bull, Duke of Connaught, for 4500 guineas.

At his retirement presentation dinner in 1905, Thornton said: "The breed is a splendid inheritance, the immense value of which has been conclusively proved. Modern supporters, appreciating the work of the master breeders who have gone before, and whose mantle has fallen on worthy shoulders, will doubtless do their utmost to preserve in all its excellence this famous race of cattle, for the continued benefit of all those vast regions in which the improvement of live stock is an object of solicitude and study as one of the chief sources of the wealth of nations."