Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2006 Issue
Five Centuries From Joseph J. Felcone Antiquarian Booksellers
none
For those interested in athletics, how about the fine old sport of pigsticking? Pigsticking? This is a sport where hunters on horses chase wild boar and try to kill them with spears. Now that name makes sense, although I'm not sure the sport does. The author of the quintessential pigsticking guide, Pigsticking or Hoghunting. A Complete Account for Horsemen; and Others, was Lord Robert Baden-Powell. Baden-Powell would become a general in the British army, and founded the boy scouts early in the 20th century. However, this book was written in an earlier time in his life, published in 1889. For those of you less than enthralled by the concept of this sport, Baden-Powell writes, "Try it before you judge. See how the horse enjoys it, see how the boar himself, mad with rage, rushes wholeheartedly into the scrap..." Not to be unfair, but I think I'll make my judgments without actually trying it. And my guess is that if the boar could speak, he would not be so fond of the sport as Baden-Powell implies. After all, he was the one getting stuck. Item 17. $750.
For magazine collectors, item 7 is a complete run of the American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine. This was published in Baltimore and New York from 1829-1844. The 15 volumes include 189 plates, and articles cover sporting topics such as racing, hunting, shooting and fishing. But no baseball, football, or basketball. Too early for that. $12,000. There is also a complete run of Tullidge's Quarterly Magazine. This was published in Salt Lake City from 1880-1885, and contains much information about Utah. Item 192. $1,200.
Audubon works can be enormously expensive. A copy of the folio edition of his "Birds of America" recently sold at auction for $5,616,000. Here is a much less costly, but more personal related item. It is a letter from Audubon to Benjamin Tappan, concerning his subscription to the octavo edition of the aforementioned book. Audubon inquires as to where to send the latest installment. The letter is signed and dated January 28, 1841. Tappan was a U.S. Senator from Ohio, and Audubon wanted to know whether to forward the pages to Washington. Item 14. $2,800.
Plymouth, Massachusetts, is well known for many things, but book publishing isn't one of them. Not many books were published there, but here's one. From 1812, it is Observations on Hydrophobia, Produced by the Bite of a Mad Dog, or other rabid Animal... Author James Thacher advocated the use the plant "skull-cap" as a cure. We don't know whether this book was a success, but the cure was not. Item 138. $500.
Joseph J. Felcone Antiquarian Books may be found at www.felcone.com or reached at 609-924-0539.
