COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF SPORTS AND GAMES, WITH 457 ILLUSTRATIONS
D’ALLEMAGNE, Henry René. Sports et Jeux d’Adresse. Paris: Librairie Hachette, [1904]. Folio (10-1/2 by 13 inches), modern three-quarter maroon polished calf gilt, raised bands, marbled boards, top edge gilt. $1000.
First edition of this exhaustive history and iconography of sports and games, with 29 full-page hand-colored plates, 100 full-page engravings and lithographs, and 328 in-text wood-engravings.
Following the success of his first iconography of games, Histoire des Jouets (1902), Henry d’Allemagne produced both this expanded edition and Récréations et Passe-Temps (1905). He is perhaps best known for his authoritative work on antique playing cards, Les Cartes a Jouer du XIV au XX Siècle (1906). Scholar and collector d’Allemagne was the librarian of the Bibliotéque de l’Arsenal. Text in French.
Scattered patches of foxing (more to first and last gatherings). A near-fine copy.