London and Melbourne: Ward, Lock & Co., 1931. 1st Edition. Hardcover. A wonderfully illustrated history of playing cards, with 242 illustrations promised on the dust jacket. Unclipped dust jacket in mylar, with 'King of Diamonds' card pasted on, slight loss to tail of spine. Green covers. [i]-vii, 1-195 pp. 9.75.....
London: John Lane the Bodley Head, Ltd, 1924. Hardcover. 'Happiness is the great thing in this world. We each are free to seek it according to our own desires. If wealth is the main contributing factor, then the quickest route would appear to be via Monte Carlo, since all roads.....
New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1880. Hardcover. John Blackbridge, identified as 'Actuary and Counsellor at Law' provides a guide to 'The American National Game', combining a scholarly approach with the zeal of the committed player. Jessel 122. Brown covers with gilt title, author and playing cards, beveled edges worn. Wear.....
New York: G.W. Dillingham Co., 1902. Hardcover. Brown, Garrett How to Beat the Game New York: G.W. Dillingham Co., 1902 'At the earnest solicitation of a number of gentlemen (some of whom claim to be sufferers by reason of my superior knowledge of our national game) I have been led.....
London: John Russell Smith, 1848. Hardcover. Jessel 256: In his Bibliography of Works in English on Playing Cards and Gambling (1905) Jessel described it as 'A learned and exhaustive work which is still the leading authority of the subject'. Wonderfully illustrated, with images, some in color, of playing cards throughout.....
New York: David A. Curtis, 1901. Hardcover. Jessel 349 (Bibliography of Works in English on Playing Cards and Gambling, 1905). Jessel describes it as 'The most elaborate, as it is the most handsome, of the many treatises on this Game'. Extraordinarily detailed study of draw poker, with a colored illustration.....
London: J. Butterworth, 1806. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Gaming from the perspective of the law. An introduction to the laws relating to gambling at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Although Disney presents it as a practical book, "a useful Compendium to the Profession", his frequent citations of, and quotations from.....
London: Lawler and Quick, 1823. Hardcover. An attack on the gaming clubs of London, controversial when it was published. As in most copies, pages 311-428 were redacted, containing the chapter naming "Evil-disposed persons". Hand coloured frontispiece "La Roulette" depicts fashionable gamblers. Touches on law, mathematics, and morality. Jessel 459. Contemporary.....
Paris: De L'Imprimerie de Monsieur, 1779. 1st Edition. Hardcover. A study of gambling, its history and place in society by Jean Dusaulx, French politician and follower of Rousseau. Dusaulx's account is striking for its interest in the psychological character of the gambler, bringing the concerns and approaches of the age.....
Chicago: The Charles T. Powner Co., 1944. Hardcover. The enlarged edition of 1944 of the influential work on magic, in a clipped jacket. Discoloration of the clipped jacket, minor wear to head and tail. Bookseller's label affixed to the rear endpaper (Golden Gate Magic Co., San Francisco Calif.) 218 pp.....
Dick & Fitzgerald, 1869. Hardcover. Jessel 663 describes this work as an abridgment of Green's Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling and Gambling Exposed 'without the moral and religious element. The work is the first I have met with to describe "eucre" (sic) and poker. The author states.....
Chicago: The Reilly & Britton Co., 1907. Hardcover. Playful ode to poker, smoking, and drinking, lavishly illustrated and printed in blue and orange. Includes a tongue-in-cheek history, rules of the game, 'gratuitous advice', 'smoke quotes', recipes (mostly sandwiches), and mixed drinks, all mixed up with aphorisms, puns, and verse. 'Designed.....
London: J.J. Stockdale, 1820. Soft cover. Third Edition. A collection of anecdotes demonstrating the evils of gaming, presented as filling in material missed by more influential works on the subject. Unbound, protected in new paper covers, with older later paper covers preserved. 179 pp., one page of ads. 7.25 x......
Cambridge: J&J Merrill, 1784. 2nd Edition. Hardcover. Second edition of the dissertation that won Richard Hey a prize of 50 guineas from the University of Cambridge. Hey considers 'Pernicious Effects upon the Fortune of the Gamester', 'Misery suffered by him', and 'Harm derived upon others', with duels and suicide considered.....
New York: White, Stokes, & Allen, 1887. Hardcover. Horr 806; Jessel 1032. A small, concise introduction to the rules of poker, carefully printed. From the introduction: 'The existing and increasing popularity of Draw Poker as a means of amusement to the better classes of American people, and the various methods.....
New York: 1901. Hardcover. This slim work begins with a preface by Henry B. Alexandar, arguing for roulette as a game to play at home ('In my opinion, Roulette is the King of all games'), before offering an 'explanation' of the technical and French vocabulary, an 'illustration of the table'.....
London: T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., 1919. Hardcover. In a blue dust jacket, now in protective plastic, with wear to the corners and the edges of the spine. The jacket offers the following advertisement: 'The author has had an extensive experience in studying roulette playing at Monte Carlo, and the result.....
New York: G.W. Dillingham Co. Publishers, 1900. 1st Edition. Hardcover. A sensational novel set among the gambling tables of Monte Carlo, once owned by the noted magician C.A. Newmann. Newmann's bookplate is affixed to the front endpaper and his raised stamp to the title page, while a stamp on final.....
Amserdam: Theodore Boeteman, 1697. 1st Edition. Hardcover. The final work published by Gregorio Leti, all of whose books were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Born in Milan in 1630, Leti traveled and published widely, producing many controversial and influential works as a historian. Having completed an early biography of.....
New York: John Day Company, 1933. 1st Edition. Hardcover. A semi-autobiographical novel of adventures in the American West, seeking and losing fortunes. Minor wear to the vividly illustrated jacket, now in a protective plastic cover, with creasing to the head and tail of the spine and a short, closed tear.....
Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson & Brothers, 1877. Hardcover. 'No sedentary game is more popular, or so generally played for amusement in domestic circles, throughout the wide spread "eminent demense" [sic] of the United States, as Euchre - the Queen of all card-games; and but few, we regret to say it, possess.....
Canton, Ohio: J.P. Quinn Co, 1912. Hardcover. 'For a quarter of a century the author witnessed and practiced every variety of gambling known to the profession. The next quarter of a century he has devoted to exposing the frauds of the gambler. Starting out in the lecture field, he realized.....
London: W.J. Ham-Smith, 1912. Hardcover. Rasch promises to provide: '(1) Absolute Proofs of the fallacy of all known Systems; (2) to my knowledge, the only correct table of the Law of Chance or Average; (3) a set of about 15,000 consecutive coups, taken by myself and a partner in twenty-three.....
New York: John E. Lovell Company, 1882. Hardcover. Inscribed by the translator. An English translation by M.I. Smithson of the noted French magician Robert-Houdin's Les Tricheries des Grecs dévoilées ; l'art de gagner à tous les jeux, 1861, identified here on the title page as 'Robert Houdin, Prestidigitateur', as sometimes.....
Printed by Gye & Balne, Gracechurch Street, for the Author, Published by Lackington, Allen & Co., 1814. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Gaming from the perspective of mathematics: with an introduction that serves as a tutorial in basic mathematics and many demonstrations of the process of working out 'problems' posed by gaming.....