NOEL and CLARK. A History of Tennis. 1924

A History of Tennis
NOEL, E.B. and CLARK, J.O.M.
Published by Oxford University Press, 1924, 1924

2 volumes. 4to., (11 x 7 4/8 inches). Half-titles. Colour frontispiece and illustrated
throughout reproducing original artwork and from photographs. Original blue
buckram, gilt, fore and lower edges uncut (spines a bit sunned). Provenance: from
the Croydon Public Libraries, Central Reference Library, with their bookplate on
the front paste-down of each volume, and their ink library stamps on the
preliminaries and verso of each plate. First edition. Limited to 800 copies, but see
below.

Earlier sections of this comprehensive history of tennis are a reworking of Julian
Marshall's "Annals of Tennis" (1878), but it also provides a detailed account of
court tennis over the fifty years since Marshall's book was published, complete
with tournament records and valuable sketches of leading players. The second
volume includes a section on the literature of the game. The archive of the Oxford
University Press reveals that by 1932 some 380 sets of this cloth-bound edition
were pulped. The true limitation is therefore nearer to 420. From the Oxford
University Press Archives: "The Entry for Noel & Clark's book in OUP's "day
book record" states that 800 copies were printed at £ 6.60 net and 30 (plus 3 "over"
copies which were sold at cloth price despite being leather bound) on handmade
paper, offered at £4.40 before publication. The book was published on 8 May,
1924. The "terms" section read as follows: "Costs of Production borne by Mr.
J.O.M. Clark (Anchor Thread Mills, Paisley). For copies sold on subscription
account to him at £4.40 less 25% discount (15% to trade + 10% commission) viz
£3.30 per copy. For copies sold after publication, i.e. at £6.60 a/c at 7d to the 1
shilling viz £3.13 6 per copy. For copies sold to America at account at 1) £4.40 less
33 1/3% on subscription; 2) half the published price, viz £3.30 per copy after
publication. Rates to New York Branch a) for copies ordered before publication 8
½ d to 1 shilling of subscription price, viz. 59/6 per copy; b) after publication 6
1/2d to 1 shilling, viz. £3.8.3 per copy. 100 bound copies were pulped in 1929 and
173 copies remaindered to Heffer & Sons in 1933 @ 10 shillings per set. The book
went out of print in October 1933"