Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$315.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: half of p37-38 missing, lacks frontis, other chromolithographs present Front board is loose/reglued, title page torn. All edges gilt in good condition. Boards heavily rubbed w/ wear to extremities. Quantity Available: 1. Category: Sports & Pastimes; Baseball; Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 21784.
Seller: Archer's Used and Rare Books, Inc., Kent, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Original brown cloth with gilt lettering on front cover and spine. Light edgewear to cloth. Hinges stong, with original endpapers. Color frontispiece and three additional color chromolithographic plates. 711 pages, with many b/w illustrations. Three of the earliest known baseball-related color illustrations in a volume heavy on early baseball history in the United States, as well 1887-1888 world tour of American baseball teams. Fourth color plate on cricket. Additional sports covered in the volume include tennis, la crosse, polo, football, college baseball, rowing, cricket and cycling. Extensive section of portraits and biographical sketches of early baseball writers.
Seller: A Book By Its Cover, Louisville, KY, U.S.A.
Price: US$950.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, Introduction by Henry Chadwick; preface and edited by J. Austin Fynes. Small quarto brown cloth boards lettered and illustrated in gilt and black on front and spine; top edge gray; patterned endpapers. Illustrated with numerous full-page plates, four of which are in color: "Baseball at Crystal Palace Grounds, London (frontispiece); "Royal Night Feast at Honolulu"; "Ready for Play in the Villa Borghese"; and "Cricket Game at Lord's, London." As well as with black-and-white portraits of players, teams and games (mostly baseball). Cloth at spine ends a bit frayed, corners lightly rubbed, rear endpaper repaired at hinge, otherwise very good. An attractive copy.
Seller: Quill & Brush, member ABAA, Middletown, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$1200.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition. Royal octavo in plain brown cloth lettered in gilt. 711 pp. Four full color chromolithograph plates including frontispiece; profusely illustrated throughout with photographs and drawings, including full page photographic team portraits of 13 National League and American Association baseball clubs. A cornerstone title for sports collectors and invaluable resource on 19th century baseball. The book covers other sports (cricket, football, lacrosse, tennis, rowing and cycling) in small sections, but is predominantly about baseball (more than half the book), with a history of the sport in the amateur and early professional eras, the emergence of the National League and with commentary about the looming Players League. There is also a significant section on the 1888-89 Spalding World BaseBall Tour (of which Palmer acted as secretary and reporter). We know of no other work containing many of the illustrations contained here (especially the baseball team photos). A better than usually encountered copy, binding firm, only a touch of rubbing at the extremities.
Seller: Old Book Shop of Bordentown (ABAA, ILAB), Bordentown, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$1200.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First edition. Thick small quarto. Pale brown cloth lettered in gilt. 711pp., illustrated, four color chromolithograph plates. Hinges tender, some streaking to the spine, a sound good or better copy, with the plates nice and clean. Although the book covers most popular field sports of the era, it is overwhelmingly devoted to baseball, and includes profiles of all the current professional teams, college baseball, and with what would, in another context, be a book-long account of the 1888-9 world barnstorming tour between the Chicago Baseball Club and an opposing all-star squad. Three of the four color illustrations are of baseball (including the wonderful frontispiece view of a baseball game outside London's Crystal Palace), the fourth is of a cricket match. Many black and white illustrations of individual baseball players, as well as of teams and important games. A nice, sound copy of a keystone title for any serious baseball collection.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$1300.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition. Thick small quarto. Pale brown bevelled cloth lettered in gilt. 711pp., illustrated, four color chromolithograph plates. Modest wear, a very good or better with the plates nice and clean. Although the book covers most popular field sports of the era, it is overwhelmingly devoted to baseball, and includes profiles of all the current professional teams, college baseball, and with what would, in another context, be a book-long account of the 1888-9 world barnstorming tour between the Chicago Baseball Club and an opposing all-star squad. Three of the four color illustrations are of baseball (including the wonderful frontispiece view of a baseball game outside London's Crystal Palace), the fourth is of a cricket match. Many black and white illustrations of individual baseball players, as well as of teams and important games. A nice, sound copy of a keystone title for any serious baseball collection.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Fine Copy In Decorative Light Brown Cloth Classic Book with the Earliest Baseball Illustrations in Color.Beautiful Copy Without Wear Gold to Text Block.Gorgeous Exquisite Book with Major Chapters on Early Baseball.
Seller: Jeff Bergman Books ABAA, ILAB, Flemington, NJ, U.S.A.