interesting ebay item: oldes book?

[Solartje]

Just wanted to share this book.

i was bidding on it, but never thought the price would go so high, and got outbid. I dont remember seeing a book that old about pool. The book is from 1743, and it is a book that explains the rules of certain games. there is a chapter about billard (called the game of wars in that period). the book is written in "old" french and comes from paris where they used to make the marquetry cues some years after this book was made.

damn i thought i could get it for 50$ but i was wrong. it seems the part about billiard only has 5 or 6 pages, but still a very rare find and im sure the buyer will love it. I still think 150$ is VERY cheap.

anyone has seen a book about billiard this old?

anyway wanted to share this piece of history. Ebay has some stupid items but some are really nice.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120216213298

 

[Bob Jewett]

Just wanted to share this book. ...

An earlier edition of it from 1659 sold on eBay for $440 a year ago.

There is a book in English called "The Compleat Gamester" by Charles Cotton from 1674 that was reprinted about 1972 and is available for $50 or so. It has a chapter on billiards.

The book "Practical Treatise on the Game of Billiards" by E. White from 1807 is just now available in reprint. You can find it on eBay. I think it was the first or second book in English that only covered billiards. It describes a form of the game (English billiards) that is still played today. It also has extensive tables of betting odds according to who is getting how much spot and what the current score is. Evidently it was common in those days to bet on a game already in progress.

 

[Solartje]

aha thanks for the info Bob