Presented is a collection of seven books from the 19th Century on the topic of “boxing.” The softcover book “Fistiana 1860” was published in London, England in 1859, presents the “Results of Prize Battles from 1700 to 1859, alphabetically arranged,” along with boxing rules and “hints on sparring and boxing.” The 164-page, 4 x 6 inch softcover book has a brown paper cover with the legend “Fistiana 1860” stamped in gold on the front.

     The lot also includes a copy of “Fistiana 1854” in the same format, and “Fistiana 1872” in green 4 x 7 ½ inch hardcover with the title stamped in gold on the front cover. “The Science of Self Defence Sparring Wrestling and Training by Edmund E. Price” is a 5 x 7 inch hardcover book with a yellow, orange, blue and white printed cover illustration of two boxers, from Dick & Fitzgerald Publishers in New York in 1867. It has a red cloth spine and a yellow back cover with titles of other available books printed in black. A 4 x 7 inch paper book, “The Police Gazette Standard Authority Book of Rules Published by Richard K. Fox Franklin Square New York” dated 1890 has illustrations of a mustachioed man, a chicken, a dog, bowling pins, boxing gloves, a boxer, a rower and a football player. On the first interior page is the legend “The Police Gazette Revised Standard Book of Rules Which Govern Sport in all its branches.”

     Also included is a 4 ¼ x 7 inch purple and red hardcover book with the title “Tom Crib’s Memorial” in gold on the spine is a third edition from 1819 published in London, and contains a testimony “to Congress” by a boxer of the day. The seventh book in this collections is “Ned Donnelly’s Art of Boxing” published in 1886 by Excelsior Publishing in New York. The 5 x 7 inch paperback has black illustration of a boxer on the yellow front cover, with the word “Boxing” in red type. There are 40 black & white illustrations of various stances and punches in the book.

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