The Maryland Hunt Cup: Past and Present.

ROSSELL, Jr..

Item Number: 96118

Baltimore: The Sporting Press, 1975.

First Signed Deluxe Edition of John Ellis Rossell’s work on the history, horses, and people of the Maryland Hunt Cup. Quarto, original cloth, gilt titles to the spine and front panel, pictorial endpapers of colors carried by Hunt Cup winners, colored frontispiece from a painting by Michael Lyne, illustrated with photographs. One of seventy-five deluxe copies signed by the author. From the library of American tennis player William J. Clothier with his pictorial book plate to the verso of the front free endpaper. In near fine condition. A sharp example.

The Maryland Hunt Cup was first run in May of 1894 and is considered one of the most difficult steeplechases in the world; its four mile course contains 22 timber fences. Unique to North America, this form of steeplechasing using 5 foot tall timber fences to mimic the hunt country have proved particularly challenging. In 1922, a permanent location for the Maryland Hunt Cup was established in Worthington Valley, where it remains to this day.