[Rarebooks] fa: BOOK OF GAMES or HISTORY OF JUVENILE SPORTS 1805

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 26. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/ljpyb3g

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


The Book of Games; or, A History of the Juvenile Sports, Practised at the Kingston Academy. London: Printed by J. Adlard for Tabart and Co. at the Juvenile and School Library…, 1805. FIRST EDITION. Early/original quarter roan and paper-covered boards; 12mo (136 mm); 144 pp.; 13 (of 24) copper-engraved plates.

A very uncommon first edition, but alas, incomplete: lacking 11 of the plates and the last 5 leaves of the text (pp. 145-153). Binding very rubbed and worn; all but one of the plates loosely laid in at the front; page-gatherings coming loose but holding; some darkening to the edges, occasional light wear, spots and soiling. The paste-downs and the versos of a few plates are adorned with lively contemporary doodlings, including a number of penciled profiles of men and women and the cogent observation that "master Winstanley is a fool." The surviving plates are: Gardening, Blindman's Buff, Shuttlecock, Cricket (wear and two small holes, doodles on the reverse), Whip Top, Leap Frog, Bathing, the Young Archers, Flying a Kite, See-saw, Skipping (jumprope), Game at Ball, Trundling the Hoop.