Sports and Leisure
Rare Sports and Leisure Books for Sale Online
View our selection of rare and vintage sports and leisure books and ephemera below. Find items related to golf, baseball, football, fox hunting, fishing, or whatever leisure activity you are searching for. Be sure to check back often for new product additions as our catalog changes frequently, sometimes daily.
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Rare first edition of James Bolton's magnificently illustrated Harmonia Ruralis; containing eighty copper-plates of life-size male and female songbirds drawn, engraved, and coloured by the author
BOLTON, James.
Harmonia Ruralis; or, An Essay Towards A Natural History of British Songbirds.
London: Printed For and Sold By the Author, 1794.
Rare first edition of Bolton’s magnificently illustrated work on British songbirds. First issue with the original plates 7 and 13 which differ in later issues. Quarto, two volumes bound into one in three quarters morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, illustrated with eighty copper-plates of life-size male and female songbirds drawn, engraved and colored by the author, index. In near fine condition. First editions are rare, with only a handful appearing at auction in the last 100 years.
Price: $12,500.00 Item Number: 111071
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"I would advise anyone who wants to get to the kernel of the life of a Polar explorer to read the book": Edition De Luxe of Antarctic Days; Signed by Shackleton, Murray and Marston
SHACKLETON, Ernest; James Murray and George Marston.
Antarctic Days. Sketches of the Homely Side of Polar Life by Two of Shackleton’s Men: Introduced by Sir Ernest Shackleton.
London: Andrew Melrose, 1913.
Limited edition de luxe, numbered 85 of 280 copies signed on the recto of the limitation leaf by E.H. Shackleton, James Murray and George Marston. Octavo, original blue cloth, gilt titles to the spine and front panel with a mounted color illustration, top edge gilt, 4 mounted color plates after watercolors by C. Day, 34 photo illustrations on 28 plates. In near fine condition with a light rubbing. A very nice example, as most copies have been rebound. Introduced by Sir Ernest Shackleton.
Price: $9,500.00 Item Number: 103746
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Ice Axe Signed by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
HILLARY, Edmund and Tenzing Norgay.
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Signed Ice Axe.
Ice axe boldly signed by both Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first two people to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Circa 1955. Wood and steel shaft measures 35 inches; steel blade measures 12 inches.
Price: $8,800.00 Item Number: 104783
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Forest, Lake and River: The Fishers of New England & Eastern Canada; From the Library of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt
JOHNSON, Frank M. (Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt).
Forest, Lake and River: The Fishers of New England & Eastern Canada.
Boston: Printed For Subscribers, 1902.
Limited to 350 copies this is number 106, from the library of President Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt with their signature to both volumes. Thick quarto, two volumes, original full tan reverse calf with hand painted salmon-fly designs and embossed cartouches on both front covers, beveled edges, leather straps with snaps, silk doublures. Each volume is on handmade paper and richly illustrated with 75 full-page illustrations of fish and flies, and numerous in-text photolithographs of fishing holes and tackle. Contributors include such notable anglers as William Harris, Archibald Mitchell, John Quackenbos, and George Van Siclen. In very good condition. Books from the library of the Roosevelts are scarce and desirable.
Price: $4,500.00 Item Number: 92756
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"The First Angling Book Written in America": First Edition of the John J. Brown's The American Angler's Guide
BROWN, John J.
The American Angler’s Guide.
New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co, 1845.
First edition of the first angling book written in America. Small octavo, three quarters morocco bound over marbled boards, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, gilt raised bands, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers, engraved frontispiece, two engraved plates of hooks, original cloth bound at rear. Ownership signature of American entomologist Townend Glover, “Townend Glover, New York, 1845,” and from the extensive fishing, sporting and ornithological library of John Gerard Heckscher of New York with his three bookplates. Heckscher’s collection was the second largest collection of its type in mid-19th century America with a particular focus on Walton’s Complete Angler, of which he had numerous editions as is illustrated in his bookplates. In very good condition. A rare piece of American angling literature with exceptional provenance.
Price: $2,200.00 Item Number: 88000
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"The First Angling Book Written in America": First Edition of the John J. Brown's The American Angler's Guide
BROWN, John J.
The American Angler’s Guide.
New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co, 1845.
First edition of the first angling book written in America. Small octavo, original brown cloth, gilt titles and tooling to the spin and front panel. In very good condition. Period name to the front free end paper. A rare piece of American angling literature.
Price: $2,150.00 Item Number: 88015
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"Under all possible conditions it is desirable that the dry-fly man should be cast upstream": Signed limited deluxe edition of Frederic M. Halford's The Dry-Fly Man's Handbook
HALFORD, Frenderic M.
The Dry-Fly Man’s Handbook: A Complete Manual. Including The Fisherman’s Entomology, and The Making and Management of a Fishery.
London: George Routledge & Sons, Limited, 1913.
Edition De Luxe of Frederic M. Halford’s authoritative manual on the theory and practice of dry-fly fishing. One of one hundred signed numbered copies, this is number 30. Quarto, bound in the original publishers three quarters morocco, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised bands, marbled endpapers, engraved frontispiece and other engraved illustrations with tissue guards, bookplate. In near fine condition.
Price: $2,000.00 Item Number: 88024
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"The main object is to render the state of the river as favourable as possible for sport": First signed limited edition of Frederic M. Halford's Making a Fishery
HALFORD, Frederic M.
Making a Fishery.
London: Horace Cox, 1895.
Signed limited first edition of Frederick Halford’s extensive guide on the creation of river and stream fisheries for sport. One of 150 numbered copies signed by Halford, this is number 35. Large octavo, original publisher’s full green morocco, gilt titles to the spine, gilt ruled, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, frontispiece portrait of Halford with tissue guard present, four engraved plates of netting methodology, index at rear. In near fine condition, from the library of Noel B. Spurway with his bookplate to the front panel and library stamp of the Aquatic Research Institute to the title page. A very nice example.
Price: $1,050.00 Item Number: 88001
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"We are told that the trouble with Modern Man is that he has been trying to detach himself from nature": First Edition of Lewis Thomas' Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher; Inscribed by Him
THOMAS, Lewis.
Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher.
New York: The Viking Press, 1974.
First edition of this classic work. Octavo, original half cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Margaret Carson with regards Lewis Thomas.” Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Rare and desirable signed.
Price: $975.00 Item Number: 118459
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"Passions are likened best to pools and streams; the shallows murmur, but the deep are dumb": First edition of Frank Gray Griswold's The Cascapedia Club; Inscribed by Him
GRISWOLD, Frank Gray.
The Cascapedia Club.
Norwood: The Plimpton Press, 1920.
First edition of Griswold’s guide to fishing the Great Cascapedia. Octavo, original cloth. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “Percy R. Pyne 2nd from G. Gray Griswold 1921.” In near fine condition. A nice example.
Price: $950.00 Item Number: 88022
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"To Dick, one of the All-City boys. Hope you enjoy it as much I enjoyed living it": First Edition of Walter Cunningham's The All-American Boys; Warmly Inscribed by Him
CUNNINGHAM, Walter.
The All-American Boys.
New York: Macdonald and Co, 1977.
First edition of “the best of all the astronaut books” (Los Angeles Times). Octavo, original half cloth, illustrated. Presentation copy, warmly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Dick, one of the All-City boys. Hope you enjoy it as much I enjoyed living it. Walt (ex-writer).” The recipient, Richard J. V. Johnson was the long-time chairman and publisher of the Houston Chronicle and covered the Apollo 7 mission. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Robert Silverman. Written with the assistance of Mickey Herskowitz.
Price: $475.00 Item Number: 117869
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Limited First edition of Aiden Lassell Ripley's Sporting Etchings; one of 500 numbered copies
RIPLEY, Aiden Lassell.
Sporting Etchings.
Barre, Massachusetts: Barre Publishers, 1970.
Limited first edition of this collection of Aiden Lassell Ripley’s sporting etchings. Oblong octavo, original publisher’s cloth, illustrated with forty etchings including tissue-guarded frontispiece. One of 500 numbered copies with a print of ‘Woodcock’ pulled from Ripley’s plate by Anderson & Lamb, this is number 79. Commentary by Dana S. Lamb. Introduction by Guido Perera. Fine in the original slipcase which is in very good condition.
Price: $200.00 Item Number: 112315
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First Edition of Lewis Thomas' Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
THOMAS, Lewis.
Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher.
New York: The Viking Press, 1974.
First edition of this classic work. Octavo, original half cloth. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
Price: $200.00 Item Number: 118732
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"The charms of angling are anticipation and solitude": First edition of Frank Gray Griswold's Observations on a Salmon River; Inscribed by him
GRISWOLD, Frank Gray.
Observations on a Salmon River: Recollections of Frank Gray Griswold.
New York: Thomas Gibbons, 1922.
First edition of Griswold’s recollections of salmon fishing on the Grand Cascapedia River in the Recollections of Frank Gray Griswold series. Octavo, original cloth, gilt titles to the spine and front panel. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, ” Compliments of F. Gray Griswold 1923.” Frontispiece map of the Grand Cascapedia River, illustrated with photographs. In near fine condition. A very clean example.
Price: $175.00 Item Number: 88018