FencingClassics offers our readers the opportunity to sell or trade their duplicate copies of rare and not-so-rare books on fencing, dueling, swords, and martial arts.
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Antiquarian
NEW LISTING: Agrippa, Camillo Trattato di scienza d’arme. Et un dialogo in detta materia, Venice, Roberto Meglietti, 1604. Soft cover. Book Condition: Very Good. Small quarto, [4] + 71pp; 52 copper engravings. $5,000 CONTACT
Angelo, [Domenico & Henry] The School of Fencing, London. 1787. Oblong 4°. 44 copperplates showing 47 positions [Numbers 2/3, 11/12 & 13/14 each form one plate.]. Full calf binding, small portion of title on spine missing. Book Condition: Very Good. Plates and text clean and crisp. $2350 CONTACT
Angelo, Mr. [Domenico] School of Fencing: With a General Explanation of the Principal Attitudes and Positions Peculiar to the Art, Land’s End Press, New York, 1971. Reprint. Red Cloth Hardcover. Oblong 6′hx 9″w. 146 pages. This is a facsimile printing of three 18th century fencing works: Domenico Angelo’s “The School of Fencing” with Henry Angelo’s “Hungarian and Highland Broad Sword”, and “The Angelo Cutlass Exercises”. Illustrated with many black and white engravings and etchings. Book Condition: Excellent. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Excellent- Gold lettering on the spine. Scuffing to the top and tail of the spine. Dust Jacket has a small tear and is lightly scuffed and creased along the back, top edge. $90 CONTACT
Auerswald, Fabian von Ringer kunst. Fünff und achtzig stücke zu ehren Kurfürstlichen gnaden zu Sachssen & c. Durch Fabian von Auerswald zugericht. (REPRINT if the 1539 Wittenberg edition by Lufft), Leipzig, Edition Leipzig, 1987; 46 pp, numerous woodcuts by Lucas Cranach the Younger; in an illustrated and embossed cardboard slipcase. Book Condition: Like New. Includes G. Witt u. G. Wonneberger: “Die Ringer kunst des Fabian von Auerswald – kultur- und sporthistorische Aspekte” and W. Schade “Der jüngere Cranach und die Ringer kunst des Fabian von Auerswald”. This is edition was produced in the last 2 years of the Communist regime in East Germany, which means no expense was spared in producing it. $45 CONTACT
Barbasetti, Luigi The Art of the Foil, New York: Barnes & Noble, 1998. Reprint. Hard Cover. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. Illustrated by b/w Plates & Drawings with a Glossary. Yellow boards w/black cloth and gold lettering at spine; cover, binding, pages as new; DJ w/mylar as new except for slight rubbing on front and back of jacket. Book Condition: Excellent. Dust Jacket Condition: Excellent. Lightly edge worn dust jacket. $35 CONTACT
Barbasetti, Luigi, Illustrated by Ciro Barbasetti The Art of the Sabre and the Epee, New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1936. First Edition. Hardcover. 8vo in cloth. spine red, black text. Barbasetti, Ciro (illustrator). 170 pages with glossary. Book Condition: Good Plus. Spine is faded from light exposure. Front Cover is faded and has changed color in a few places. Slight edge wear. Clean tight copy. $175 CONTACT
Barbasetti, Luigi, Illustrated by Ciro Barbasetti The Art Of The Foil; With a Short History of Fencing, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1932. First Edition. Hardback. 8vo in beige cloth. Frontispiece photograph of Luigi Barbasetti.Profusely illustrated with Halftones and Line Cuts by Ciro Barbasetti. Glossary. xii, 276 p. Book Condition: Near Fine. Pages clean and binding tight. some sunning to spine and board edges. Light wear to spine ends. Previous owner’s dedication and address on inside cover and first page. $200 CONTACT
Beaumont, Edouard de L’Epée et les Femmes, Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles,1881. Small folio. Frontispiece plus 4 photogravures in duplicate out of text by Meissonier. Green half-morocco binding with gold tooling on spine.) [The first of a planned five volumes covering the history of the sword in Europe. Much like Burton's Book of the Sword series and possibly for the same reason of lack of public interest, the project never progressed beyond this first volume. Perhaps not surprisingly, since L'Epée et les Femmes is a long dissertation on the pernicious effect women have had on the manly art of swordsmanship. Book Condition: Near Excellent. Some foxing. Baron Howard de Walden and Malcolm Fare bookplates. $950 CONTACT
Brea, Manuel Antonio Principos Universales y Reglas Generales de la Verdadera Destreza del Espadin. Book Description: 1805. 18 copperplates. Contemporary calf binding. $1900 CONTACT
NEW LISTING: Danet, Guillaume L'art des armes, ou la maniere la plus certaine de se servir utilement de l'epee, soit pour attaquer, soit pour se defendre, Paris: Herissant 1766, XXXVIII/247pp., 45 folded copperplates in text, very good; $1,400 CONTACT
Dörnhöffer, Friedrich Albrecht Dürers Fechtbuch, Vienna, 1910. Folio. 107 b/w photographic plates and two color plates showing wrestlers and fencers using two-handed swords and falhions/Messer. Contemporary cardboard binding with cloth spine. Book Condition: Near Excellent. $1,500 CONTACT
Fabris, Salvator De lo schermo overo scienza d'arme, Copenhagen, Henricus Waltkirch, 1606. Two parts in one, engraved title within wide architectural border, with full-page arms on verso, numerous half-page illustrations, but lacking 12 leaves (one of index) and 2 portraits. Book Condition: Title browned with small repair at margins, 2 other leaves with minor loss. Modern morocco. $8000 CONTACT
Hutton, Alfred Fixed Bayonets: A Complete System of Fence for the British Magazine Rifle, Explaining the Use of Point, Edges and Butt, Both in Offence and Defence; Comprising Also a Glossary of English, French, and Italian Terms Common to the Art of Fencing, with a Bibliographical List of Works Affecting the Bayonet, London: William Clowes and Sons Limited, 1890. First Edition. 8vo in original gilt lettered, illustrated brown cloth and black coated endpapers with photogravure frontispiece (portrait) signed in print and 23 wood engraved plates illustrating moves. ix,[3],183,[1]pp. Rare. Book Condition: Very Good. Covers slightly bowed and a bit soiled with light foxing to recto of frontispiece and some offsetting to title page from frontispiece, else a clean copy. $1,100 CONTACT
NEW LISTING: Hergsell, Gustav Talhoffers Fechtbuch (Gothaer Codex) aus dem Jahre 1443. Gerichtliche und andere Zweikämpfe darstellend, Prag: self-published, 1889, VII/42pp, 160 sepia lithographs, very good. $1,100 CONTACT
Jacob, Jules Le jeu de l’épée, Paris: Paul Ollendorff, 1887. Second edition. 12vo. Edited by Emile André. Unillustrated. Black half-morocco binding with gold titling on spine. Jacob is credited with creating modern epee fencing in the late 1860s. He was the first master to abandon the conventions of foil in response to the need, still strongly felt in France at that time, for practical preparation for a duel where the ability to hit without being hit was of paramount importance. In so doing, he started a war of words between traditionalist, who regarded foil as ‘real’ fencing, and the new followers of epee, practical fencing, that was to last more than 30 years before epee was finally accepted as a weapon in its own right, requiring a method of teaching quite distinct from that of foil. The first edition appeared in 1886. Book Condition: Excellent. Signature of previous owner on title page. Slight rubbing to spine and corners. $550 CONTACT
NEW LISTING: McArthur J. The Army and Navy Gentleman’s Companion; or a New and Complete Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Fencing, London: Lavers, 1780, XII/159pp., 19 copperplates, 16 of which folded, uncut, some foxing, good. $2,500 CONTACT
Marcelli, Francesco Antonio Regole della scherma insegnate de Lelio, e Titta Marcelli scritte da Francesco Antonio Marcelli figlio, enipote e maestro di scherma in Roma, Rome, Dom. Ant. Ercole, 1686. Two parts in one vol. 4to. Nineteenth-century blind-tooled vellum,spine ribbed, black morocco title labels lettered in gold, red edges. With engr. frontispiece, depicting 7 fencing masters of the Marcelli family, Swedish engr. coat-of-arms on title-page and 34 engr. illustrations in the text. A leaf with contemporary manuscript annotations is bound in. $6000 CONTACT
Olivier, J[ean] Fencing Familiarized, or a New Treatise on the Art of Sword Play, London: John Bell. 1771. (Folding frontispiece & 7 (of 8) folding copperplates engraved by Ovenden and copied from Angelo’s plates. The frontispiece shows the interior of a fencing classroom, with an ongoing exercise between two students, closely followed by the master himself sitting in a chair, by a group of other students at the left and by some spectators standing outside looking through the windows. Book Condition: Twentieth-century blind-tooled chamois binding. $775 CONTACT
Pollock, Walter H; Grove, F C; Prevost, Camille; Michell, E B & Armstrong, Walter, The Badminton Library: Fencing, Boxing & Wrestling, London: Longmans Green and Co., 1889. First Edition. Gilt decorated 3/4 blue morocco over gilt stamped orange cloth boards with coat of arms of the Duke of Beaufort in gold on front cover. Illustrated. 43 photographic plates: 18 showing the classic French school of foil, 16 engravings of boxing & 8 of wrestling. No. 226 of 250 copies printed on large paper (8vo). 338 pp. Book Condition: Faded spine $495 CONTACT
Pollock, Walter H; Grove, F C; Prevost, Camille; Michell, E B & Armstrong, Walter The Badminton Library: Fencing, Boxing & Wrestling. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1890. Second Edition. Original decorated brown cloth, gilt titling to spine. Many b/w illustrations, 43 plates. 190x130mm. Well illustrated from instantaneous photographs, pages 1 – 110 cover the practical instruction of the art of Fencing including a small section on Singlestick. Pages 117 – 148 cover Boxing and Sparring, illustrated with full page wood engravings, and 175 – 221 Wrestling, Cumberland and Westmoreland, styles and systems, with a complete bibliography of the art of Fencing by Egerton Castle. 304 pp. Book Condition: Excellent. A little rubbed at head and heel of spine. $150 CONTACT
Radaelli, Giuseppe Istruzione per la Scherma de Sciabola e di Spada, Milano: Dumolard, 1885. 8vo., 103pp., ten quadruple foldout plates–7 on sabre and 3 on foil. Plates are 8 inches high and open to 21 inches long. Index, original wraps bound in full vellum with ties. Gilt lettering on spine. Gilt medallion on front board. Title, author, place publisher and date handwritten in black and red ink on rear board. Rare (often cited as Frate, Simon del) Book Condition: Excellent. Ties cut at ends. $2500 CONTACT
Tavernier, Adolphe L’Art du Duel.: Préface par Aurélien Scholl, Paris: C. Marpon Et E. Flammarion, nd. Hard Cover in 3/4 red morocco, 4vo. Illustrated with engravings in black and bistre, 326 pages. Book Condition: Very Good. Edge wear to the board edges and the corners. Leather portion heavily Scuffed $750 CONTACT
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