HOYLE, Edmond (1671/2-1769)

An Improved Miniature Edition of Hoyle's Games [Original Cloth]

London: Henry Lea, 22, Warwick Lane, [1860]. Original Cloth. Superb pocket edition of this compendium of rules and directions for playing fifteen games of chance, including whist, cribbage, quadrille, casino, and rouge et noir. Foolscap 8vo (120 x 78mm): 36; 18; 10; 31,[1]; vii,8-32,[8]pp, with two full-page plates of game boards and table of odds. Publisher's mid-brown cloth, elaborately stamped in blind and gilt, all edges gilt; contemporary gift inscription in elegant hand to fly-leaf. FirstSearch locates only three copies worldwide, all in the United States; Literary Hub Discover adds Oxford. Virtually pristine. Jessel 849. Fine. Item #BB2722

According to Jessel, rules for each game also were sold separately as two-penny chapbooks (thus separate paginations for various games). Little is known of Hoyle’s life before 1741, when he began tutoring members of high society at the game of whist, selling students copies of his manuscript notes, which he later expanded and published as A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist, going through thirteen editions in his lifetime. Other titles followed, including A Short Treatise on the Game of Backgammon (1743), An Artificial Memory for Whist (1744), and short treatises on the games of piquet and chess and quadrille (1744). Over time, Hoyle's work pushed off the market Charles Cotton's The Compleat Gamester, the standard English-language work on gambling games since its publication in 1674. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).

Price: $199.00