[Poker] | Full runs of Poker Chips and The White Elephant

[Poker]

Poker Chips, A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Stories of the Great American Game [and] The White Elephant. New York: Frank Tousey, 1896-97

12 issues, 8vo (233 x 154 mm). Engraved illustrations of playing cards, inhabited initials; long, uniform diagonal tear to last 2 leaves of advertisements in all issues excepting December 1896. Color lithographic wrappers; a little rubbed at spines, a little wear to front wrapper of June 1896 issue. Slipcase with folding chemise.

A complete run of Tousey's poker magazine. The magazine ran 6 issues titled Poker Chips before changing its name to The White Elephant, which was to offer a broader range of content. The lithographic wrappers of each issue are striking, with Poker Chips featuring particularly handsome Art Nouveau colors. 

In advertising The White Elephant, Tousey promised writing by an impressive roster of authors—Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, Brett Harte, and Rudyard Kipling among them—none of which are to be found in the issues. Among the writers who did appear in the magazine are "Hermann, the Prestidigitateur," Lew Dockstader, Alfred Bigelow Paine, Marie Dressler, Marshall P. Wilder, Congressman Amos J. Cummings, John Habberton, and more.