Sunday 7 February 2016

Endpapers with a chess theme (updated 9th February)

A few enterprising chess book publishers have thoughtfully adorned their works with attractive chess related endpapers. Some examples follow:

Chess Pieces An Anthology in Prose and Verse by Norman Knight, published by Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd., London 1949.


Title page

Endpapers


The Chess Apprentice by R. Bott & S. Morrison, published by Collins, London 
1960. 

Front cover
Endpapers



A Short History of Chess by Henry A. Davidson, published by David McKay
Company, Inc., New York 1968.  

The first edition was published simultaneously by Greenberg, New York and Ambassador Books, Toronto 1949. The illustrations below are from the David McKay edition.

Dust jacket



The endpapers depict The March of Chess from its origin in Northern India circa 600 A.D. and the approximate dates that the game reached various countries across Europe, Asia and Africa. The Americas are not shown and some of the claimed dates are questionable.
 
Endpapers

A Book of Chess by C.H.O'D.Alexander, published by Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., London 1973

Dust Jacket

The endpapers "Metamorphose" are by M.C.Escher.

Endpapers

Chessmen by A.E.J. Mackett-Beeson, published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London 1968.

Front cover



The endpapers show an engraving from Jean Meissonier's painting Les Jouers d'échecs (1835).

Endpapers

A print of Messonier's painting



Some publishers have even gone to the trouble of embellishing their works with different endpapers at front and rear. For example:

Grandmasters of Chess by Harold C. Schonberg, published by Davis-Poynter Limited, London 1974. 

Dust jacket


The front endpapers show an engraving by Alexandre Laemlein of the famous painting by Jean-Henri Marlet of The Great Chess-Match Between England and France; Howard Staunton v Pierre St. Amant, November-December 1843, (the book states William Staunton on page [6]).

Front endpapers

The rear endpapers show the group photograph from the International Master's Chess Tournament at St. Petersburg, 1914. 

Rear Endpapers


Chess A History by Harry Golombek, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York 1976. 

Also published by Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London 1976 as A History of Chess

Dust Jacket

The endpapers are taken from A Game at Chess by T.W. Couldery and portray the course of a game over eight sketches. This was originally published in The Illustrated London News on 25th May 1889.


Front endpapers
Rear endpapers

I would be very interested to hear of any other chess books with chess related endpapers.

                                        © Michael Clapham 2016

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