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Lot 247
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← Sporting Memorabilia 4th & 5th November 2013

A very scarce, important and early 20 page article on 'Lawn Tennis' written by 'John Latouche' the pen name of Oswald John Frederick Crawfurd (1834-19

Hammer Price:
£380
Estimated Price:

£200 - £300

A very scarce, important and early 20 page article on 'Lawn Tennis' written by 'John Latouche' the pen name of Oswald John Frederick Crawfurd (1834-1909) as published inside Volume V of New Quarterly Magazine, October to January 1876, this is a significant paper pre-dating the first Wimbledon Championships, and post-dating by one year the earliest known article 'Lusio Pilaris and Lawn Tennis' by George Cayley which was printed in the Edinburgh Review of 1875, Crawfurd's article refers to Cayley's ''...capital article', Captain Wingfield, Spahiristike, the history of handball games, lawn tennis styles, strokes and technique, and includes a copy of the 'Laws of Lawn Tennis - Revised by the M.C.C.' in May 1875, the volume is 492 pages, with some splitting along the front spine and a missing piece to the top of about 3cm., otherwise, a good and clean copy Crawfurd was a diplomat, writer and critic who worked at the Foreign Office before being posted to Portugal as consul. Here he wrote many articles and books about the country. not illustrated