Skip to product information
1 of 7

The Playing Rules of Lawn Tennis, as adopted by the United States National Lawn Tennis Association. New York, 1886.

The Playing Rules of Lawn Tennis, as adopted by the United States National Lawn Tennis Association. New York, 1886.

Regular price $ 3,500.00 USD
Regular price Sale price $ 3,500.00 USD
Sale Sold out
Inquiry
The Playing Rules of Lawn Tennis, as adopted by the United States National Lawn Tennis Association.
New York: Peck & Snyder, 1886.

12mo., (5 3/4" x 3 3/4"). Illustrated throughout with diagrams, engravings of tennis rackets and balls, advertisements at end illustrating tennis poles, nets, shoes, courtmarkers, etc. Original blue printed paper wrappers (a few pale stains, corners chipped); preserved in a tan calf-backed clamshell box.

Provenance: with the ownership inscription of Harold Meeks dated 1888 on the front cover.

Early edition, preceded by "Playing Rules of the Popular Games of Archery and Lawn Tennis" also published by Peck & Snyder in 1878, and with its current title in 1884. In this edition the rules for Equestrian Polo and Field Croquet are included at the very end. James Dwight and his second cousin Fred Sears played "what Dwight believed to be the first game of lawn tennis in America at his uncle William Appleton's property at Nahant, Massachusetts, in 1874 or 1875 (Dwight claimed one or the other year at different times, leaving the actual year open to debate). In 1876, 1877, and 1878, Dwight organized handicap round robin tournaments at Nahant. Playing with a scratch handicap, he won the first two tournaments. The 1877 event marked the first appearance of future champion Dick Sears, Fred's half brother... During September 1880 he and Dick Sears entered a "Championship of the United States" at Staten Island, New York, but they withdrew from the singles event after Dwight futilely protested that the balls were under regulation size and weight. Dwight and Sears then lost their second-round doubles match.

The ball controversy and a disagreement about the height of the net for doubles matches between players at tournaments in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and other cities prompted Clarence Clark from Philadelphia, Eugenius Outerbridge from New York City, and Dwight to convene a meeting in May 1881 that led to the creation of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA), forerunner of the U.S. Tennis Association. Illness kept Dwight out of the first U.S. singles championship at the Newport Casino in August 1881. Dick Sears won the singles, and he and Dwight lost in the second round of the doubles to Clark and Fred Taylor (who later became the "father of scientific management")" (Frank V. Phelps for ADNB).
View full details