1818 BOXIANA OR SKETCHES OF ANTIENT & MODERN PUGILISM ANTIQUE ILLUSTRATED BOXING

1818 BOXIANA OR SKETCHES OF ANTIENT & MODERN PUGILISM ANTIQUE ILLUSTRATED BOXING

[Boxing]

Egan, P(ierce), and John Babcock

Boxiana; or, Sketches of Antient and Modern Pugilism...

London: Printed for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1818, 1818, 1821.

In three volumes

First volume:

From the Days of the Renowned Broughton and Slack, to the Championship of Cribb;

Second volume:

From the Championship of Cribb to the Present Time;

Third volume:

During the Championship of Cribb to Spring's Challenge to all England

First editions

viii, 483, (1), (483)-497; viii, 310, 305-574; viii, 640 pp.

Illustrated with three engraved frontispieces, an engraved vignette title-page, and 37 engraved plates.

Full crimson morocco, decorated in gilt,

gilt dentelles; marbled endpapers;

armorial book-plate of Alexander Dennistoun on front paste-down of each volume;

-Hartley 587, 1-3-

Together with:

(Babcock, John)

Boxiana; or, Sketches of Modern Pugilism, Containing All the Transactions of Note, Connected with the Prize Ring, During the Years, 1821, 1822, 1823...

London: Printed for Sherwood, Jones and Co., (1824).

First edition

viii, 672 pp.

Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece portrait; other plates bound into third and fifth volumes of this set.

Bound as above.

- Hartley 587, 4-

Together with:

Egan, Pierce

New Series of Boxiana: Being the Only Original and Complete Lives of the Boxers

London: Published by George Virtue; 1829

Second Volume (of two)

First edition

viii, 794 pp.

Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece portrait and seven engraved plates.

Bound as above.

-See Hartley 587-

From the family libraries of Americana collectors and bibliophiles Amor L. and Zachary T. Hollingsworth.

Size 5.5 by 9 inches

Very good condition, minor wear, some foxing

Text in English

A near-complete set of this classic work on boxing.

Boxiana first appeared in parts and as a single volume in 1812 by publisher George Smeeton.

Later, between 1818 and 1821, Pierce Egan, a journalist and one-time compositor in Smeeton's office, produced three volumes under publisher Sherwood, Neely, and Jones.

Much of the material and plates for these were taken directly from Smeeton's 1812 edition.

Due to a legal dispute between the publishers and Egan, the fourth volume was published in 1824, in part or full, by sports journalist John Bee (Babcock).

Following a court battle in 1828, Egan was allowed to continue to publish under the title Boxiana, so long as he appended the qualifier "New Series".

Under this title he then published two more volumes in 1828 and 1829.

Subsequent collected editions then followed into the 19th century.

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