Boxiana; In Sketches Ancient and Modern Pugilism, From The Days of the Renowned Broughton And Slack to the Championship of Cribb.

8vo, rebound later cloth spine and boards, gilt title label on spines, illustrated, 4 volumes. Some edgewear, foxing (some places rather heavy) and darkening, some pages cropped close to text, bookplate of Sir Charles E. Kent on three volumes, signatures on endpaper, volume one may include faded copies of serial edition. Nice set of a series with a rather complex history. According to Hartley this was probably originally issued in parts between 1812 and 1829. However, it was also published in book form Egan published three volumes with Sherwood, Neely and Jones, between 1818-1821, but a fourth volume appears to have been written for the same publisher (truncated) by Jon Bee (John Badcock). Egan published a fourth and fifth volume on his own. This is the complete Sherwood, Neely, and Jones set. One of the signatures on the endpaper appears to be that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, while it looks like his signature, and it was attributed to him at an auction, hard to know for sure. He was an avid boxing fan, and actually fought as an amateur, and was even asked to referee the Jack Johnson Jim Jefferies heavyweight title bout in 1909. There are many illustrations, some double page featuring fighters that would have been lost to time without this work, and perhaps one other (The Fancy). One double page illustration features one of his bouts between Daniel Mendoza and Richard Humphries. That illustration is a classic in boxing history. Many great illustrations, and discussion of important fights. Hartley: History & Bibliography of Boxing Books 144-145 pp. EXRA POSTAGE ON THIS SET! (Inventory #: 106868)