Richard Twiss’ Chess of 1787, the two vols.. in contemporary half calf, made £400 and an 1820, first English edition of The Incomparable Game of Chess, bound in half calf, reached £380.
This copy of J.S. Bingham’s translation is described on the title page as being from the Italian of Dr Ercole Dal Rio, but I have seen it suggested that this is a mistake and that it is in fact a translation of D.L. Poinziani’s Il Giuoco incomparabile degli Scacchi, first published in 1769. Formerly in the library of the American problem composer and chess writer R.B. Cooke, this copy contained an additional 1789 engraving of Eyles Irwin, whose theories that the game originated in China are reproduced as an essay as part of the book..
Printed for the author in Bombay in 1814 and in this instance bearing the ownership inscription of a Lieutenant, later Captain. Hutchinson of the 16th and 76th Regiments, a copy in contemporary binding of Trevangadachraya Shastree’s Essays on Chess adapted to the European Node of Play... was sold at £760.
The incomparable game
A CHESS sale held by Bloomsbury Auctions on April 14 included a small book section in which a 1745 edition of Philip Stamma’s The Noble Game of Chess, the half calf gilt bindings of the two vols. now a bit loose, sold at £920.
