Chess for Beginners. In a Series of Progressive Lessons, Showing the Most Approved Methods of Beginning and Ending the Game; With Various Situations and Checkmates, illustrated by numerous diagrams printed in colours

William Lewis (1787-1870) from the library of James Wilson Rimington Wilson

Published by Chapman and Hall, London, 1835

About this Item

viii+155 pages with colored diagrams. Duodecimo (6 1/4" x 5") bound in original publisher's green cloth with gilt lettering decoration to spine and front cover. Signed by Rimington Wilson. (Whyld: 1846:7) First edition. Lewis (1787-1850) a distinguished chess player and the author of numerous books on the subject. Each of the handsome plates depicts a chess board within an elaborate frame, all printed in green on white, with the opposing pieces printed in red and dark blue. This book may be "the first use of color printing in a nineteenth century book, in Britain, for a practical rather than an aesthetic purpose" (Ruari McLean, VBDCP, p. 35; VPBBCL, p. 6.) James Wilson Rimington-Wilson was a gentleman chess-player who was Lord of the Manor of Bolsterstone, and lived at a splendid mansion called Broomhead Hall, near Sheffield. He had been born as James Wilson Rimington, but had changed his surname legally to Rimington Wilson , which contained no hyphen, so causing much confusion among compilers of directories and others, who often listed him alphabetically under W for Wilson . Apart from playing chess, he amassed an impressive collection of chess books. His lot in life was largely moulded by his decent from and marriage into, two landed-gentry families, the Rimingtons of Carlton, and the Wilsons of Broomhead. The renowned chess library of J. W. Rimington Wilson was sold by Sotheby and Co., London, in February 1928, more than fifty years after his death, having been maintained and enlarged by his son R. H. Rimington Wilson during this period. The London book-dealer Bernard Quaritch acquired a large proportion of the lots on offer and subsequently issued what is probably the most important catalogue of chess works ever offered by a bookseller. The 96-page Catalogue has 1,657 entries with numerous manuscripts and other unique items, along with many of the rarest chess books. The great majority of these items were on sale at prices that, today, seem just buttons; almost 1,200 items were priced at under £1, including many that are now completely unobtainable. Condition: Signed by Rimington Wilson on the front pastedown. Edge wear with bumped corners, lacks frontispiece else very good.

Seller Inventory # C2982

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Chess for Beginners. In a Series of Progressive Lessons, Showing the Most Approved Methods of Beginning and Ending the Game; With Various Situations and Checkmates, illustrated by numerous diagrams printed in colours
• Publisher: Chapman and Hall, London
• Publication Date: 1835
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 1 pound
• Seller catalogs:
  • Chess