The American Boy's Book (with all 4 color plates, including BASEBALL): Sports and Games: A Repository of In-and-Out Door Amusements for Boys and Youth

This is a rare copy of "The American Boy's Book" or, Sports and Games: A Repository of In-and-Out-Door Amusements for Boys and Youth. All four color plates are present, including the scarce BASE-BALL plate, which is considered to be the first color depiction of the game of baseball. 1864 1st edition; Dick & Fitzgerald; New York. Profusely illustrated with over 600 engravings. The contents are grouped as follows: The Play-Ground; or Out-Door Games (toys, balls, etc.); Athletic and Graceful Recreations (skating, swimming, angling, sailing, gymnastics, horsemanship, etc.); Amusements with Pets (talking birds, domestic fowl, rabbits, dogs, fresh water aquarium, etc.); Play-Room Games for Rainy Days (round games and forfeits, board and slate games, table and toy games); Evening Amusements (parlor magic, sleight of hand, tricks with cards, scientific recreations, optical amusements, puzzles, arithmetical amusements, etc.); Mechanical and Miscellaneous Amusements (carpentry, boat-building, painting, gardening, postage-stamps, etc.).

The book features an 11 page illustrated chapter on "BASE-BALL" (preceded by the color plate) with sections titled "The Ground," "Bases and Pitcher's Point," "Bat and Ball," "The Game," "Field Positions," "On Fielding," "The Umpire and Scorer," and "Rules and Regulations." This is a very early account of the sport, appearing only 18 years after the first officially recorded game in the U.S. in 1846 between the New Jersey "New York Nine" and the Knickerbockers. At the time of the book's publication, baseball's rules were referred to as "The Knickerbocker Rules," codified by Alexander Cartwright of New York City's Knickerbocker Club.

Condition:
Clean covers and spine; fraying to the top and bottom edges of the spine; cloth tears at the corners. There is a crack at the hinge between pages 288 and 289 - the crack has resulted in a small cluster of pages that have pulled from the top thread of the binding. The pages are in great condition - clean with only a small stain that appears at the outer margin of pages 373-386, and a few random ink smudges found; no writing found. All 4 color plates are present (baseball, skating, gymnastics, fencing) - the baseball plate (and the tissue paper over it) as well as pages 83/84 & 85/86 are all attached along the length of the inner edge, but have detached from the spine. Overall a very clean copy with 2 notable condition issues, being the detached baseball plate, and the crack at the hinge. The plates are in great condition with vibrant colors.