(SPORTS BASEBALL) [Sproat Nancy] Ditties for Children

Sale 2253 - Lot 298

Price Realized: $ 480

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

A VERY EARLY PROTO-BASEBALL ILLUSTRATION (SPORTS--BASEBALL.) [Sproat, Nancy.] Ditties for Children. 36 pages. 12mo, original printed wrappers, quite worn with some loss of text on rear wrap; substantial edge wear throughout with several short closed tears, slight loss of text on final leaf. New York and Baltimore: Samuel Wood and Sons, [circa 1818-24]

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Additional Details

The poem "Little Charles" appears on pages 26 and 27: "Well, Charles is highly pleas'd to-day / I gave him leave to go and play / Upon the green at bat and ball / And when he heard his playmates call / Away he sprung across the plain / To join the little merry train." It is illustrated with a charming woodcut of Little Charles returning from the game, bat and ball in hand. For this edition, see the American Antiquarian Society and Princeton University catalogues; cf. Welch 1243 for two earlier editions. Block's Baseball Before We Knew It does not list this title, but gives the first American bat and ball illustration as being 1810 (page 185).