[Charles Cotton] | The Compleat Gamester, 1674, 19th-century crushed morocco

[Charles Cotton]

The compleat gamester. London: A.M. for R. Cutler, 1674

8vo (160 x 95 mm), engraved frontispiece, nineteenth-century maroon crushed morocco by Riviere & Sons, lozenge design stamped in gilt to covers, gilt edges, slight adhesive residue to leaf with frontispiece explanation poem, erased early ownership inscription to frontispiece, endpapers renewed and browned at extremities

SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST KNOWN COMPENDIUM OF GAMES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, containing instructions on how to play chess, in addition to "all manner of usual and most gentile games either on cards or dice" and the "arts and mysteries" of activities such as riding, racing, archery, and cock-fighting.

Though published anonymously, this work has been attributed to the poet and writer Charles Cotton (1630–1687), the Royalist poet and writer known for his English translation of Montaigne and his contributions to Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler.

LITERATURE:

USTC 3091634; ESTC R23124