Original Rare Fencing Books
Angelo, [Domenico
& Henry]
The School of Fencing.
Book Description: London. 1787. Oblong 4°. 44 copperplates showing
47 positions [Numbers 2/3, 11/12 & 13/14 each form one plate.]. Full calf
binding, small portion of title on spine missing.
Book Condition: Very Good. Plates and text clean and crisp.
$2750
Images:
Cover, Spine,
Plate 17, Plate
33
Angelo,
Mr. [Domenico]
Book
Description:
Book Condition: Excellent. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Excellent- Gold lettering on the spine. Scuffing to the top and tail of the spine. Dust Jacket has a small tear and is lightly scuffed and creased along the back, top edge.
$110
Barbasetti, Luigi, Illustrated by Plates & Drawings
The
Art of the Foil (ISBN:0760709432)
Book
Description:
Book Condition: Excellent. Dust Jacket Condition: Excellent. Lightly edge worn dust jacket.
$45
Barbasetti, Luigi, Illustrated by Ciro
Barbasetti
The
Art of the Sabre and the Epee
Book
Description:
Book Condition: Good Plus. Spine is faded from light exposure. Front Cover is faded and has changed color in a few places. Slight edge wear. Clean tight copy.
$175
Barbasetti, Luigi, Illustrated by Ciro
Barbasetti
The
Art Of The Foil; With a Short History of Fencing
Book
Description:
Book Condition: Near Fine. Pages clean and binding tight. some sunning to spine and board edges. Light wear to spine ends. Previous owner’s dedication and address on inside cover and first page.
$200
Beaumont, Edouard de
L'Epée et les Femmes.Book Description: Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles,1881. Small folio. Frontispiece plus 4 photogravures in duplicate out of text by Meissonier. Green half-morocco binding with gold tooling on spine.) [The first of a planned five volumes covering the history of the sword in Europe. Much like Burton's Book of the Sword series and possibly for the same reason of lack of public interest, the project never progressed beyond this first volume. Perhaps not surprisingly, since L'Epée et les Femmes is a long dissertation on the pernicious effect women have had on the manly art of swordsmanship.
Book Condition: Near Excellent. Some foxing. Baron Howard de Walden and Malcolm Fare bookplates.
$1050
Images:
Title Page,
Spine, Illustration, Illustration 2
Dörnhöffer, Friedrich
Albrecht
Dürers Fechtbuch.
Book Description: 1910. Folio. 107 photographic plates [5 duplicates in colour] showing wrestlers and fencers using two-handed swords and badelaires. Dark blue cloth binding with gold titling on the spine in a red panel.
Book Condition: Near Excellent. Tear in margin of one page [pictured]. Jack Gorlin and Malcolm Fare bookplates.
$1950
Images: Spine, Tear in Margin, Plate 17a, Plate 42a, Plate 49a, Plate 51a, Plate 59a, Plate 64, Plate 68,
Grassi,
Giacomo di
Ragione adoprar sicuramente l'arme si da offesa, come da difesa, con un trattato dell'inganno, & con un modo di essercitarsi da se stesso, per acquistare forza, giudicio, & prestezza.
Book
Description: Venetia: appresso Giorgio de’ Cavalli,
1570. First Edition. 4vo.
Book Condition: Very Good. Illustrations and text are in great condition. Some margin notes from former author in Italian.
SOLD
Images: Title Page, Portrait, Guardia
Hutton,
Alfred
Fixed Bayonets: A Complete System of Fence for the British Magazine Rifle,
Explaining the Use of Point, Edges and Butt, Both in Offence and Defence;
Comprising Also a Glossary of English, French, and Italian Terms Common to
the Art of Fencing, with a Bibliographical List of Works Affecting the Bayonet
Book Description:
London: William Clowes and Sons Limited, 1890. First Edition. 8vo in original
gilt lettered, illustrated brown cloth and black coated endpapers with photogravure
frontispiece (portrait) signed in print and 23 wood engraved plates illustrating
moves. ix,[3],183,[1]pp. Rare.
Book Condition: Very Good. Covers slightly bowed and a bit soiled with
light foxing to recto of frontispiece and some offsetting to title page from
frontispiece, else a clean copy.
$1100
Images: Cover, Title Page, Portrait
Jacob, Jules
Le jeu de l'épée.
Book Description:
Paris: Paul Ollendorff, 1887. Second edition. 12vo. Edited by Emile André.
Unillustrated. Black half-morocco binding with gold titling on spine. Jacob
is credited with creating modern epee fencing in the late 1860s. He was the
first master to abandon the conventions of foil in response to the need, still
strongly felt in France at that time, for practical preparation for a duel
where the ability to hit without being hit was of paramount importance. In
so doing, he started a war of words between traditionalist, who regarded foil
as 'real' fencing, and the new followers of epee, practical fencing, that
was to last more than 30 years before epee was finally accepted as a weapon
in its own right, requiring a method of teaching quite distinct from that
of foil. The first edition appeared in 1886.
Book Condition:
Excellent. Signature of previous owner on title page. Slight rubbing to spine
and corners.
$550
Images: Title
page, Spine
L'Abbat
The Art of Fencing, or the use of the small sword. Translated from
the French of the late celebrated Monsieur L'Abbat, master of that Art at
the Academy of Toulouse, by Andrew Mahon, Professor of the Small Sword.
Book Description:
London: printed for Richard Wellington at the Dolphin and Crown, without Temple
Bar, 1735. 8°. 11 copperplates out of text [plus the missing plate #12,
copied by hand onto tracing paper]. Original paperback cover bound at end.
Contemporary calf binding, rebacked. First published in France in 1696. Ex-Aylward
collection.
Book Condition: Good. Front and end papers missing. some foxing and
browning throughout. Edmonstone bookplate.
$1750
Images: Title
Page, Spine, Plate
10, Plate 5, Plate
12 (traced by hand)
Pollock,
Walter H; Grove, F C; Prevost, Camille; Michell,
E B & Armstrong, Walter
The
Badminton Library: Fencing, Boxing & Wrestling.
Book
Description:
Book Condition: Near Excellent. Text is clean and tight, the covers have some edge wear. Light rubbing of binding, endpapers foxed.
SOLD
Pollock,
Walter H; Grove, F C; Prevost, Camille; Michell,
E B & Armstrong, Walter
The
Badminton Library: Fencing, Boxing & Wrestling.
Book
Description:
Book Condition: Excellent. A little rubbed at head and heel of spine.
$150
Radaelli,
Giuseppe
Istruzione per la Scherma de Sciabola e di Spada.
Book Description:
Milano: Dumolard, 1885. 8vo., 103pp., ten quadruple foldout plates--7 on sabre
and 3 on foil. Plates are 8 inches high and open to 21 inches long. Index,
original wraps bound in full vellum with ties. Gilt lettering on spine. Gilt
medallion on front board. Title, author, place publisher and date handwritten
in black and red ink on rear board. Rare (often cited as Frate, Simon del)
Book Condition: Excellent. Ties cut at ends.
$1500
Roland,
Joseph
The
Amateur of Fencing; or a treatise on the Art of Sword-Defence,
theoretically and experimentally explained upon new principles; designed chiefly
for persons who have only acquired a superficial knowledge of the subject.
Book
Description:
Book Condition: Very Good. Some pages with a small wormhole at top (no loss to text). Full 19th century leather binding, slightly rubbed. Cover is separated from the book, otherwise a handsome & internally crisp copy.
SOLD
Tavernier,
Adolphe
L'Art du Duel.: Préface par Aurélien Scholl.
Book
Description:
Book Condition: Very Good. Edge wear to the board edges and the corners. Leather portion heavily Scuffed
$750
Images: Cover, Title Page, Illustration, Illustration 2
Images: Title page, Spine, Section 2, Original Cover
All
sales are subject to availability.