Almost there with the BCM's

A complete run of The British Chess Magazine has long been a major aspiration in my chess book collecting and I am now very close to this target.

The foundation of my collection of the world's longest continuously running chess periodical was the acquisition of a 62 year run from 1920 to 1981 purchased from the book dealer Tony Peterson in 2003.  These had evidently come from Kevin O'Connell's library which was sold at Phillips Auctioneers in London in 2000.

Two years later, many of these were replaced with another run purchased from Tony Peterson, this time covering the years from 1910 to 1951. These included the difficult to find war years (particularly the First) and most are in uniform half-leather bindings.  

Another eleven volumes were added in 2006 when I acquired the years 1899 to 1909 from Michael Sheehan of Caissa Books. These are all uniformly bound in  BCM maroon cloth but, curiously, in different heights.

Bound volumes for the years from 1886 to 1898 came from various sources, and in various styles, over a number of years, with 1892 proving particularly elusive, only joining the others in 2012. I have since replaced 1892, 1893 and 1894 with a matching set, as shown below, and with 1893 having the Christmas Number.

By the end of 2012 I had a run from 1886 to 1998 with just the first five volumes and a few of the most recent ones missing. I now have the recent years up to 2009 and last year I bought a fairly foxed 1885. 

I have recently purchased 1883 and 1884 in a combined volume which needs rebinding so I may have these two years bound individually.

1884 frontis

So I am now 1881 and 1882 short of a full run, although I do have a reprint of 1881 published by Tony Gillam's company The Chess Player in the 1980's.

                                       © Michael Clapham 2018