The Book of Sports

Philadelphia: H.C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, No date [c. 1851-1862]. Cloth. [MINIATURE]. 64mo (3 1/16” 2 5/8”); vi-xi, 12-191pp + publisher’s ad following; brown ribbed cloth over board, gilt-stamped vignette of two children playing with hoops on front cover, gilt decoration and lettering on spine; all edges gilt; pale yellow endpapers, ownership on ffep; pictorial title page; 46 full-page wood-engraved plates including fp; sunning of cloth, split at front joint, crush to head of spine, general wear of boards, scattered foxing; very good minus. Welsh 1401 notes 48 plates but this copy collated shows 46. OCLC locates 12 copies. Very good. Item #1820

A wonderful miniature book for children introducing them to 45 sports and playtimes for boys and girls. Each chapter is accompanied by an engraving demonstrating the sport. Indoor games covered include tops, drawing, playing with dolls, magnetic amusements, reading picture books, painting vases, making a “bowing beau” and “prancing dragoon,” peep-shows, playing the game of draughts, dancing, and making and playing the Aeolian harp. Pastimes in the garden include keeping rabbits and doves, raising flowers, and studying insects. Water activities include swimming, and diving, as well as chapters on the caution of how to enter the water and strike out. Games with marbles and balls, sports with other toys (the pop-gun and the sucker), archery, skating, battledore and shuttlecock, stilt walking, and making a blowgun. Active sports include playing blind-man’s bluff, foot-ball, gymnastics and the horizontal bar, the high leap, vaulting, the plank, palms springs, stooping stretch, and others.

Price: $275.00