Analyse du jeu des échecs : avec une nouvelle notation abrégée, et quarante-deux planches où se trouve figurée la situation du jeu pour les renvois et les fins de partie. Nouvelle Édition. A laquelle on a joint la figure et la marche des différentes pièces de ce Jeu, ainsi que l’explication des termes qui lui sont particuliers.
Philadelphie (Philadelphia): Chez J. Johnston, Libraire - Éditeur. Imprimerie de Lafourcarde. (around 1821–1844). With inscription in ink on frontispiece. 21 coloured plates printed in red, green and black. One woodcut illustration of chess pieces. In latter marbled hard paper with green gilt title label on spine. Original woodcut illustrated wrappers bound into. (5), 4–150, (2), 1 frontispiece portrait of Philidor and 21 plates of illustrations; and one leaf and 8 pages of book advertisement. Original wrappers soiled, otherwise in good condition. / Foxing throughout. Otherwise in fine condition.
Later edition of Philidor’s (François-André Danican Philidor; 1726–1795) famous book on chess, that was published first in 1749. Philidor was regarded as the best chess player of his age.
Published undated. An edition with the same colophon exists, it is dated to 1821. This is a later edition, still Goodspeed considered it as one of the earliest American books on chess, however some bibliographies assume that it was printed in Belgium.
We found an identical edition at The Netherlands in the collection of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, they dated it to 1850, but most likely erroneously, as this copy has a dated handwritten dedication on January, 1844. There is one thing that all our sources agree, that this one is a scarce and rather interesting edition.
The book advertisements at the rear are related to the publishing houses Delarue in Paris and Blocquel-Castiaux in Lille, that firms the European origin of the book.
[Shoemaker 6468.; Chess Collection Alexander Rueb Stichting 462.]
[Ref.: Fiske, D. W.: American Chess Congress. Rudd & Carleton. New York, 1859. p. 488.; Anderssen, A., Dufresne, J.: Schachzeitung der Berliner Schachgesellschaft. Zwölfter Jahrgang. Veit & Comp. Berlin, 1857. pp. 201–202.]
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Price: €2,000.00