1889 Athletic Sports in America, England and Australia - Including Baseball.
Lot 19. 1889 Athletic Sports in America, England and Australia - Including Baseball. This pioneering book focuses on Al Spalding’s 1889 baseball good will tour of four continents. It contains more than 400 pages of baseball history, including 300 pages by Chicago journalist Henry Clay Palmer, on the tour itself. It also has a three-page preface by Henry Chadwick, generally regarded as the “father of baseball.” Extremely interesting read, but also valuable for its hundreds of illustrations. It contains a dozen full-page b&w photos of the Baltimore, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Louisville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis and Washington Ball Clubs. Frontispiece is an amazing full-page chromolithograph of the Chicago and All- American Team Exhibition Game at the Crystal Palace Grounds in London. Published by Hubbard Brothers in 1889, it has a g-vg cover with pages that average ex; a few pages have tears. The book is complete with all three chromoliths, including one picturing the Chicago and All-America teams. This is an excellent baseball reference. The color lithographs are showstoppers! We’ve seen copies of this book in lesser condition offered for $1500. Current Bid $578.
