First edition. 8vo. Original green paper-backed drab boards, printed paper spine label, edges untrimmed. Folding lithographic court plan, often found lacking. Ownership inscription to front free endpaper, later pencil attribution to dedication page. Extremities and tips slightly worn, couple of marks to boards, second gathering slightly loose, spine rebacked, hinges expertly repaired, light foxing to contents. A very nice copy in original boards.

The first English-language book on tennis, known today as real tennis, containing the first set of rules of play in English.
The Treatise was published anonymously but was later attributed to Robert Lukin, "one of the finest players of the time" (Windham, p. 119). Lukin was the secretary of the tennis club at James Street Court in Haymarket, which he set up with two other prominent amateur players of the time. Originally built c.1635, at the time of this publication it was the only tennis court in London still open.
The treatise was written at a time "when the game was dying or had all but disappeared that authors printed rules and recommendations for better practise. This may have been due to the necessity precisely of rescuing a dying art – the books were possibly written in the hope that the publication might revive interest in the game – or perhaps of recording its definitive achievements – as if these treatise were lengthy obituaries of the sport" (Harrow, British Sporting Literature and Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century, p. 87). It contains recommendations for technique, tactics, observations on rackets, a brief history of the sport, and betting odds for the game. Lukin presents his argument for the superiority of tennis over cricket, its contemporary rival, stating that tennis "exhibits an animated picture of the strength, skill, and activity of man, and is, at the same time, far removed from anything puerile or degrading to his nature" (p. 7).
Rare in commerce, with only five complete copies traced at auction, apart from the present one, the most recent of which was over thirty years ago.

The Diary of the Right Hon. William Windham, 1784–1810 (1866).

Stock ID: 38846