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London : International Horse Agency & Exchange, 1910. An undesignated reprint of the original 1909 edition. A pacy tale of fraud on the race-course - might a ringer win the Leger? - from William Allison, novelist, sporting journalist and historian of the thoroughbred. A deliberately provocative novel intended to sharpen up the entries in the Stud Book and to prompt the Jockey Club into action.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [xii],(228),[vi],[2]pp. Photo frontispiece and plate. Original red cloth in a striking question-mark design; minor rubbing and wear; a few slight marks; mild tanning of endpapers; light spooting to prelims, but overall a very good copy.

£40

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London : Sands & Co., 1903. First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed (to Arthur Weston), signed and dated (1903) by the author - racing and other lively reminiscences from the sporting journalist, high life and low life, with sidelights on the leading jockeys and horses of the day, some Phil May stories, etc. A book regarded by E. V. Lucas as the most authentic of all guides to the Bohemian life of the late nineteenth century - a mixture of Juvenal, Rabelais and Pierce Egan.
Crown 8vo. [ii],(10),292pp. Original pictorial cloth, gilt and enamelled; top edge gilt; a few marks; slight crease to lower cover; some mild spotting, mainly to edges, but a very good, sound and still bright copy.

£100

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 31162 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Rogerson & Tuxford, 1864. First edition. Entertaining stories, essays and occasional pieces, including extracts from the diary of A. Softun Esq. - mainly on horse racing and the racing fraternity. Corbet was both editor of "The Steeple Chase Calendar" and secretary of the Central Farmers' Club.
Foolscap 8vo. [vi],202pp. Colour frontispiece and extra pictorial title, chromolithographed by Leighton Brothers from designs by the author's brother, the sporting artist Edward Corbet. Bound in a slightly later nondescript binder's cloth, lightly worn; frontispiece laid down; some discolouration to first and last leaves; a little shaken, but a good and serviceable copy with a fine racing provenance - bearing the blind-stamps of the Rosebery Library at The Durdans, the house near Epsom purchased by the Fifth Earl of Rosebery (later to win the Derby three times) in 1872. Also with the later armorial bookplate of Francis Bailey.

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London : Chapman & Hall, 1892. First edition. A lively overview of late nineteenth-century horse racing - especially its finances, gambling, administration, the Jockey Club, etc. - with a particular journalistic emphasis on the "frauds and chicaneries" and "practices that will not bear the light of day". The mercurial Bertram, Scottish newspaperman and variously bookseller, novelist and strolling player, was the author of several books of personal memoir, and also wrote on subjects as diverse as fishing, fisheries, flagellation, and the language of flowers.
Demy 8vo (22cm). (viii),372pp. Original cloth; small mark on upper cover; neat shelfmark on spine; rear endpaper just starting to crack; a few slight spots, but overall a very good and little used copy. With the interesting contemporary yellow library label of the Guille-Allès Library of Guernsey on rear cover ("books must not be entrusted to children; nor must they be exposed to rain ..."). Similar labels partially removed and partially covered by an anonymous later peacock bookplate on front endpapers.

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London : Sportsman's Press, (1990). First edition. Combines a history of racing with material on publishers and engravers, details of engraving methods, and a full-scale artist catalogue of racing prints.
Demy 4to. 200pp. Illustrations throughout, many in colour. Original boards; lightly bruised at two corners, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket.

£25

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London : Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1879. First edition. A handsome, lively and extensive history of horse-racing in the British Isles, published to commemorate the first centenary of the Derby. With material rich in anecdote on the early history, the fathers of the turf, famous racers, the first Derby, Chifney, leading owners and patrons, the whip, the Jockey Club, Ascot, Mr Weatherby, Nimrod, tipsters, famous jockeys, scandals and disputes, Tattersall's, Epsom, Doncaster, York, Newmarket, Goodwood, etc., racing abroad, training, betting, steeplechasing, Voltigeur, winners of the classics, and much more.
Two volumes. Demy 8vo (216 x 135mm). xii,396; viii,390,[iv]pp. Portrait frontispieces. Bound (without the first half-title) in a later (mid twentieth-century) lavish half crimson crushed morocco, banded and gilt with racing motifs, by Zaehnsdorf; top edges gilt; marbled endpapers; occasional mild browning, a few slight marks and spots, but a very good and attractive set.

£250

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 38780 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Hutchinson & Co., 1898. First edition. Memoirs of Lord George Bentinck, John Gully, the Chifneys, Colonel Mellish, John Scott, Sir Tatton Sykes, Lord Palmerston, the earls of Derby and Rosebery, the Marquis of Hastings, Prince Soltykoff, Baron Meyer de Rothschild, Richard ten Broeck, Pierre Lorillard, Harry Custance, Tom Cannon, Fred Archer, the Duke of Portland, and a host of other racing legends.
Demy 8vo (211 x 140mm). viii,378pp. Thirty-two portrait plates. Bound (for Hatchard's) in a contemporary half red morocco, banded and gilt with racing motifs; top edge gilt; a little rubbed and lightly worn; some occasional spotting, but still a handsome copy of an attractive production.

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