Story of the Davis Cup First Edition - A. Wallis Myers - Bauman Rare Books

Story of the Davis Cup

A. Wallis MYERS | TENNIS

Item#: 89385 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Story of the Davis Cup

“INTERNATIONAL GOOD WILL, FOSTERED BY THE DAVIS CUP”: FIRST BOOK ON THE DAVIS CUP, FIRST EDITION OF MYERS’ STORY OF THE DAVIS CUP

(TENNIS) MYERS, A. Wallis. The Story of the Davis Cup. London: Methuen, (1913). Small octavo (measures 4-1/4 by 7 inches), original light green paper boards, silver-embossed front board.

First edition of the first book on the Davis Cup, covering its first dozen years, authored by winning tennis player and journalist A. Wallis Myers, founder of the International Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain, illustrated with frontispiece and five full-page photogravures, with silver-embossed Davis Cup on the front board.

Arthur Wallis Myers’ Story of the Davis Cup, the first book on the Davis Cup, covers its first matches from 1900-1912. Myers recounts its origins when tennis player Dwight Davis offered to supply a silver tournament “Cup, to be a sort of International Challenge Cup.” With that the Davis Cup was born. Davis is later reported to have said that had he known the Davis Cup would prove so successful, he would have ordered the original trophy to be “hammered in gold instead of silver.” Myers, a winning tennis player, was also the lawn tennis editor of Field Magazine, founded the International Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain, authored several books on tennis, and was the authoritative “tennis writer for the Daily Telegraph. His ranking of the world’s leading tennis players had the equivalent of official standing” (Courier-Mail). With frontispiece and five full-page black-and-white photogravures. Publisher’s advertisement to verso of half title, also printed on rear board.

Text and plates fine, faint soiling, lightest edge-wear to original boards. A scarce about-fine 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.
Book-Plate Label, generally affixed to the front pastedown, identifying a book’s owner.
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.
Colophon Printed note at the end of a text containing information about the printing of the book.
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.
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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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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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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.
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