Golf: A Royal and Ancient Game First Edition - Robert Clark - Bauman Rare Books

Golf: A Royal and Ancient Game

Robert CLARK

Item#: 76900 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Golf: A Royal and Ancient Game

“ALL THAT HAS BEEN SAID AND SUNG OF THE ROYAL GAME”: FIRST ATTEMPT AT A HISTORY OF EARLY GOLF, 1875

CLARK, Robert, editor. Golf: A Royal and Ancient Game. Edinburgh: R. & R. Clark, 1875. Quarto, original green cloth stamped in black and gilt. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First trade edition of this first documentary history of golf, “to which every writer on this phase of golf must acknowledge his indebtedness,” profusely illustrated with frontispiece, nine full-page plates, and numerous wood-engraved borders and head- and tail pieces.

“To write a history of golf as it should be done demands a thorough study of all Scottish Acts of Parliament, Kirk Sessions records, memoirs of Scottish literature, legislation, and history from the beginning of time… [Such an historian] will be so ancient before he finishes that he will scarce see the flag on the short hole at St. Andrews from the tee” (Andrew Lang). Clark’s Golf is the first attempt at a history of the early game, based upon “extracts from an immense variety of ancient documents,… to which every writer on this phase of golf must acknowledge his indebtedness” (Browning, v). Includes an appendix of rules as played at the Royal and Ancient Club of St. Andrews. Preceded the same year by a signed limited edition of only 50 copies. Donovan & Murdoch 900. Small stamp of ownership. Dealer description tipped to front pastedown.

Inner hinges reinforced, very handsome original cloth expertly restored, gilt bright. An excellent copy.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
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Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
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Broadside Sheet printed on one side, typically for public display, usually larger than folio size (a folio being a broadside-size sheet printed on both sides and folded once, to make four pages).
Calf Binding material made from cowhide—versatile, durable, usually tan or brown in color, of smooth texture with no or little apparent grain. Readily marbled (“tree calf”), mottled, diced, colored, polished, tooled in gilt or blind, even scented (known as “russia”). Reverse calf, with a distinctive suede-like texture, is occasionally used.
Chromolithograph Lithograph printed in colors, typically three or more.
Collation Process by which the contents of a book are inspected for completeness, checking against internal evidence, the table of contents and/or plate list, and reference works. Also a shorthand bibliographical description of a book’s composition by its leaves and signatures, rather than its pages. A-C, for example, would indicate a quarto volume composed of three signatures or gatherings of eight pages each for a total of 24 pages.
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Doublure Pastedowns made not of paper but of leather, for decorative purposes.
Duodecimo (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.
Edition Print-run from a single setting of type without substantial change. Depending on demand, any number of printings can be made from a setting of type For example, a first printing might consist of 1000 copies, followed by a second printing of 2500 copies; in which case the book would have a first edition, first printing of 1000 copies, and a first edition, second printing of 2500 copies.
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Engraving Illustration produced by carving lines into a metal plate. This is an intaglio process, in which ink is poured over the plate, then wiped from the surface, leaving ink only in the recesses made by the engraver’s tools. The image is then transferred by pressing thick dampened paper against the metal plate with great force—requiring engravings to be printed on a separate stock and separate press from any text.
Errata List of mistakes and corrections noted after printing, often compiled on a separate sheet or slip and inserted into the text block.
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Foxing Light brown spots that naturally appear on some papers due to oxidation as they age.
Frontispiece An illustration facing the title page of a book.
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Half Title Leaf preceding the title page that bears the book’s title, originally used to identify the unbound text block. The book’s binder would often remove and discard the half title at the time of binding. Remaining half-titles are therefore of interest to collectors.
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Incunable From the cradle of printing, i.e., any book printed before 1501.
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Marginalia Handwritten notes made in the margins by a previous owner.
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Morocco Binding material made from goatskin—versatile, durable, with a distinctive pebbled texture and visible grain. Readily stretched (“straight-grain”), crushed (flattened smooth), tooled in gilt or blind, inlaid with leathers of different colors. So-called because much of the raw material originally came from the tanneries of North Africa (other types of goatskin bindings denoting regions of origin include levant, turkey, niger).
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Recto The front side of a leaf. The back side is known as the “verso.”
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Woodcut Illustration or textual decoration made by cutting away from the surface of a block of wood until the reverse of the image is left in relief; this is then inked and pressed to the paper to leave the image. The woodblock, or multiple blocks, can be fit into the page along with the type, allowing text and illustrations to be printed in the same print run and share the same page (not possible with engravings, which require thicker, damp paper and much more force; nor with lithographs, which require a different printing process altogether). Woodcuts preceded moveable type and are the earliest known printing technology.
Wood-Engraving Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.
Wormhole Tiny pinhole-sized trails left by bookworms as they eat through a text block. Much more common in older books printed on handmade papers with a high rag content than in books printed on manufactured papers made from wood pulp with a higher acidic content.
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