AS ADOPTED BY THE UNITED STATES NAT. LAWN TENNIS ASSOCIATION
Official Lawn Tennis Rules AS ADOPTED BY THE UNITED STATES NAT. LAWN TENNIS ASSOCIATION
Wright & Ditson, 1886.
Small 12mo. Original pictorial salmon pink paper wrappers, with line drawings and lettering in black. 32 pages, plus adverts. Racket designs printed to verso of wrappers. Ownership name to upper wrapper, ink annotations to a couple of pages. Light central crease where folded; a remarkably well-preserved copy.
Scarce and early rule-book issued by the US National Lawn Tennis Association and a rare survival of this inherently fragile publication. Almost unknown in commerce, there are no copies listed in the LC Library, and only an 1889 copy listed in the British Library. Lawn tennis had been introduced to America during the 1870s, but there was no standardization of either playing or equipment rules. In 1881 representatives from 34 tennis clubs came together and drew up a constitution for the first sporting governing body in the US, the US National Lawn Tennis Association, a name that would be shortened in 1975 to the United States Tennis Association. This little booklet is an early exemplar of the codifying of the sport.
Phelps & Sabine, p.203
Stock ID: 38845
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