xxi, 284 pp. With 8 (of 9) plates from paintings, engravings, etchings, etc., including 2 duotone lithographs, 1 color plan of the golf course over St. Andrew's Links and frontispiece, with tissue-guards; plus numerous wood engravings and facsimiles throughout the text; title page with decorative gilt margins; decorative initials. Illustrations by Clark Stanton, C.A. Doyle and G. Aikman. 9½x7¼, original gilt-decorated green cloth. First Trade Edition.
An important and scarce first edition. "Widely regarded as one of the most significant, as well as best produced, early books on the history of golf, Clark's work is a compilation of the earliest literature on the game. In assembling the book, Clark, a well-known Edinburgh printer, collected early press reports, biographical sketches, significant acts of Parliament, municipal records, diaries, and extracts from the minutes of the earliest golf clubs. The book also contains obituaries of...Alan Robertson and Tom Morris, Jr." - D&J C12760; D&M 900; Murdoch 128.
Condition:
Worthy of restoration, with edge wear, some mild soiling, front cover detached, spine detached from page block along one joint; rear hinge weakened; bookplate of golf collector Victor T. McConnell on rear pastedown; period ownership inscriptions in ink on half title and on page i; good.