Eighteenth Century Whist Literature

Hoyle's 1742 Short Treatise on the Game of Whist was the first book devoted exclusively to the game. I have discussed it extensively throughout this blog, including in this essay. The text was expanded and edited by Hoyle and others well into the 19th century. The second important book on whist was Payne's Maxims, discussed here, with a specimen in fine binding from the library of Henry Hucks Gibb pictured here. In that essay, I mention the third important book, Advice to the Young Whist Player by Thomas Matthews, 1804.

Here I look at three other 18th century books on whist that do not derive quite so directly from Hoyle. The first is Hints to Whist Players by Percival Haslam. It was privately printed in Canterbury. No copies of the first edition are known to survive; below is pictured one of two known copies of the second edition. Haslam died in 1800 and the best guess for the date of publication is about 1790. It is a true miniature book, much smaller than the miniature Scottish Hoyle I have discussed previously. As you can see below, a bookworm has feasted on the adhesive under the gilding. Perhaps I should get it restored.

Haslam cover
Levy [1404]

Haslam title

In 1791, the minor Scottish poet Alexander Thomson wrote Whist, a Poem in Twelve Cantos with a second edition appearing in 1792. This is quite a common book—I suspect that as a poem it was deemed literature rather than a gaming manual, and thus more attractive to academic libraries. The first copy below bears an ownership inscription of J. W. Rimington-Wilson (for another example of a book from his collection see here) and another from A. B. Ferguson, a collector whom I mention here.

Thomson 1791
Levy [1711]

Thomson 1791 provenance

 

Levy [1712]

My copy of the second edition, pictured at right, is in a fine binding from the library of Henry Hucks Gibbs and also comes from the Ferguson collection, but lacks any evidence of Ferguson's ownership.




I'll leave it to others to assess the merits of the poem, and offer but a single quatrain:

What game indeed, of all the num'rous list,
In point of beauty, can compare to Whist?
Or which, of all where gold was ever lost,
So rich a catalogue of charms can boast?
(Canto V lines 27-30)

Okay, a bit more—I cannot resist:

Let all the games that ask but little skill,
Loo, Commerce, Comet, Basset, and Quadrille,
Like twinkling stars that dimly gild the night,
Shrink from the blaze of Whist's refulgent light:
(Canto VI lines 1-4)

The final book derives from Hoyle and from Payne's Maxims and is called The Beauties of Hoyle and Paine; or, A Compendium of Easy Rules Necessary to be Known by Every Whist-Player; with Maxims, By General Scott. London, 1792. The lovely copy below is in its original paper wrappers, and is quite similar to the early 19th century copy of Bob Short on whist, pictured here. The contrast between the fine bespoke binding on the 1792 Thomson and the paper binding of Scott is striking. I appreciate them both, but the bibliographer in me prefers the unsophisticated binding.

Scott.1
Levy [1137]

Scott.1
Levy [1137]

ESTC does not record my edition, but lists a third edition of 1792, a fourth edition of 1796 printed in Barbados of all places, and a fifth edition of 1799, showing only a single copy of each book.

Jessel notes a sixth edition of 1810 and a tenth edition of 1814. My copy of the tenth illustrates another style of binding—drab binder's boards with a printed label. The title has changed to Easy Rules of Whist... and there is a lovely hand-colored frontispiece.
 

Scott.10
Levy [1707]

Scott.10
Levy [1707]

 

 I believe that the success of Hoyle intimidated other would-be writers about whist. Though Hoyle was issued some 75 times in the British Isles in the 18th century, only Payne, Haslam, Thomson, and Scott managed new titles. It was not until the 1860s that Henry Jones, writing as "Cavendish" (discussed here) emerged as a true successor to Hoyle.

From the pen and library of Henry Hucks Gibbs

I am not the first to collect and studying gaming literature. It is always a special thrill for me to get a copy of a book that belonged to one of the earlier great collections. This essay will focus on one such collector, Henry Hucks Gibbs, Lord Aldenham (1819-1907). Gibbs had a stunning library, of which gaming literature was only a small part. Catalogues of the library were published in 1888 and 1914. ; Sotheby's sold books from the library at auction in 1937 and books turn up in the trade every now and then. A few of them have made their way to me.

Before looking at some gaming books from the Aldenham Library, let us discuss Gibbs as a gaming author. He wrote The Game of Ombre in 1874, with later editions in 1878 and 1902, all privately published.

1874 The Game of Ombre
Levy [1454]

Ombre is a 17th century Spanish card game for three players, which evolved into the four-player game of Quadrille, the subject of a 1744 treatise by Hoyle. About Gibbs's book, bibliographer Jessel wrote:

A full and lucid description of this excellent game. It is a misfortune that the work has never been published, for there is even to-day a constant demand for information on the details of Ombre. (p110)

uncolored proof
(click to enlarge)

As it was privately published every copy I've seen but one has been inscribed by Gibbs to the recipient—and the one without inscription is the most interesting copy of all. It is Gibbs's own copy of the first edition from the Aldenham Library, with many features that distinguish it from other copies of the first edition.  It contains two versions of each of the plates, a colored copy with text and borders such as the one pictured above, and an uncolored proof, such as is pictured at right. Gibbs's copy also contains a proof of an introduction to the second edition and of a supplementary chapter that did not appear until the second edition—an account of Belinda's game of ombre as described in Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock.

Gibbs inscription
Levy [1178]

Gibbs letter
Levy [1347]

Two inscriptions from other copies are pictured to the left. In the top photograph, Gibbs presents a first edition to Margaret Eliza Adams, while below is a letter from Gibbs to Lady Alwyne pasted into a second edition. The letter discusses obtaining Spanish cards for playing Ombre as well as scoring counters.


 

Bindings from the
Aldenham Library
Levy [1491] [1701]
[1712] [1454]

Back to Gibbs as a collector—the Aldenham library must have been magnificent. Gibbs generally had the books rebound in gentlemen's Victorian bindings, some of which are pictured at right. From left to right, the books are:

• Richard Seymour. The Court Gamester. Third edition. 1722. Morrell binding.
• William Payne. Maxims for the Game of Whist. A new edition. 1778. Morrell binding.
• Alexander Thomson. Whist, A Poem in Twelve Cantos. Second edition. 1792. Unknown binding.
• Gibbs. The Game of Ombre. 1874. Zaehnsdorf binding. 

I purchased the two with Morell bindings years apart and from different sources. I was struck to see that they are decorated with the same floral tool in the spine panels.

The books themselves are worthy of discussion. I described Seymour as a predecessor to Hoyle and noted that his section on Ombre (along with that on Piquet) was the earliest set of rules for a card game sufficiently detailed to teach the game. Gibbs undoubtedly consulted this copy of Seymour as he wrote his own book on Ombre. It is also the copy collated by Julian Marshall in his bibliography of the Gamesters (p382). This is certainly one of my most treasured books because of its associations with Gibbs and Marshall.

I have another book with similar provenance, though I cannot picture it here as it is off at the binder's for conservation. The book is Thomas Mathews, Advise to the Young Whist Player, 1804, the third important book on whist after Hoyle and Payne. Only two copies of the first edition survive. Mine bears an inscription in Gibbs's hand "Aldenham. 1901. Given me by Julian Marshall." Indeed the provenance is even better, both earlier and later. Julian Marshall bought a copy of Mathews's first, almost certainly mine, at the 1900 Sotheby's auction of books from the estate of Cavendish, whom I have anointed the successor to Hoyle. I purchased the book from the collection of Dr. Albert Ferguson, who wrote a couple of bridge books and put together an important collection of gaming books about which I shall write later. When I look at the Mathews, I see a line from Cavendish to Marshall to Gibbs to Ferguson and then to me.

Payne's Maxims is the first significant book on whist published after Hoyle's treatise and was incorporated into the Charles Jones edition of Hoyle's Games Improved beginning in 1779. Thomson is a minor Scottish poet, and one can get a taste for his poem from a short excerpt:

Whist, then, delightful whist, my theme shall be,
And first I'll try to trace its pedigree,
And shew what sage and comprehesive mind
Gave to the world a pleasure so refin'd:

The copies of Payne and Thomson are also ex-library Albert Ferguson.

Bookplate of Gibbs
(click to enlarge)

Books from the Aldenham Library are easy to spot as they bear an armorial bookplate with the words "Aldenham House. Herts." I hope I've succeeded in sharing the excitement good provenance adds to collecting. What is most astonishing is that none of the sellers of these books noted the provenance in their catalogues. When the books arrived, the bookplate provided a delightful surprise!

References:

• Frederic Jessel. A Bibliography of Works in English on Playing Cards and Gaming. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1905. Available for download (6MB).  
• Julian Marshall, "Cotton and Seymour's 'Gamesters.'"  Parts 1 and 2, Notes and Queries, 6th ser., 9 (April 26, 1884):321-3, (May 17, 1884): 381-3. Available for download (70MB).