Tennis, illustrated, 1878 | The Annals of Tennis, London ‘The Field’ 1878, (8)+226 pp., illustrated, bound in original green cloth (with racquets and balls). Very good copy.

Julian Marshall, a late-19th-century tennis correspondent for the British magazine “The Field”, revised and expanded upon a series of his columns to author The Annals of Tennis. The work, presented here as a first-edition in its original, vibrant green cloth binding with decorative gilding, offers one of the most important overviews of the sport published during the 19th century. The text proceeds from outlining the historical origins of tennis, to the import of the sport in England, to a discussion of the game’s rules and styles of play.