A truly rare chess book, by Donald B. Dyer

A Course of Instructions for Beginners in Chess; The Game of Kings, by Donald B. Dyer.

This little primer was probably published in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA in the 1940s or 1950s. I do not have a copy, all I have is an image taken from an auction sale where the book was sold alongside a chess set.

 

 

Despite extensive research I cannot find a single reference to this book anywhere; absolutely nothing. The book is not recorded in WorldCat, the online catalogue collating the holdings of nearly 18,000 libraries worldwide, so the book is not in the major chess collections in the Cleveland Public Library or in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague. It is not in any bibliography, and I have searched for this book in hundreds of book dealer's and auction catalogues without success.

Donald B. Dyer was a director of the United States Chess Federation and, at various times, supervisor of chess, department of municipal recreation, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and assistant superintendent of schools, in charge of recreations and adult education in Milwaukee.

Dyer's career was in  education and recreation and he authored two other (recorded) books:

Liability in Public Recreation, Appleton, Wisconsin 1949

In-Service Education for Community Center Leadership; Prepared for the National Recreation Association, New York 1955.

Donald B. Dyer is briefly mentioned in The British Chess Magazine for October 1940 on page 355 together with a portrait.

Dyer had organised a children's chess tournament and extravaganza, held under floodlights in the stadium at Marquette University. The report by George Koltanowski tells of much razamataz and describes the novel introduction of the 900 children marching around the stadium holding hands with their first round opponents while over 5,000 spectators cheered loudly.

 

BCM October 1940, page 355

  

Back to the book, I would be very interested to hear about any copies of this book, or if any further light can be shed on this little publication. Perhaps it was mentioned in the Midwest Chess News and Nebraska Bulletin which ran from 1947 to 1959.

This is truly a rare chess book which deserves to be recorded for posterity. 

 

 

 

 

  

An Inquiry into the Antient Greek Game Supposed to have been invented by Palamedes... by James Christie

One of the books sold for a high price at the recent Klittich-Pfankuch auction was the following:

An Inquiry into the Antient Greek Game supposed to have been invented by Palamedes, antecedent to the siege of Troy, by James Christie, London 1801.

 

Antient is an obsolete spelling of ancient, although still apparently used in Freemasonry. 

I do not have this book but digital editions are freely available on the internet.

Very briefly, the unnamed author, but known to be the celebrated auctioneer James Christie, proposes that the game of chess evolved from the Antient Greek Game of Pebbles, invented by Palamedes around the 12th century B.C., i.e. around 1,800 years before the game is now generally thought to have originated in India. 

 

Duncan Forbes referred to Christie's conjectures in The History of Chess, London 1860 but declared "all this is sheer imagination" and that Christie's book was "more fanciful than sound".

In a long letter published in The Chess Player, by Kling and Horwitz, volume IV, Christie's book and ideas are discussed at length on pages 36 to 40, but again with much scepticism, the letter is signed B.S.* The book is also referred to on pages 12 to 18 of Amusements in Chess by Charles Tomlinson, London 1845. 

Antonius van der Linde mentions this work only in the Schachmythologie chapter of Geschichte und Literatur des Schachspiels, Berlin 1874 (Erste Band page 12).

In fairness, the author of An Inquiry into the Antient Greek Game... did expect his opinions to be controversial, but hoped that his book would encourage further investigations into the history of chess.

So the subject matter is as obsolete as the title, and the chief attraction of this book for collectors is its claimed rarity, which brings me to the main purpose of this article; to examine the claim that only 40 copies were printed. Booksellers, auctioneers and reference books have frequently stated that only 40 copies were printed, often citing early bibliographical works by Lowndes, Walker, Watt and Schmid for this information.

It seems that the limitation of 40 copies was first stated in The Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature by William Lowndes, London 1834 which I have not seen. This claim was dropped for the 1858 edition of Lowndes as my copy does not mention the limited print run of Christie's book, but states that it is "held in much esteem by the learned", and gives the prices of four copies sold at auction.

 

George Walker mentions this matter in his Bibliographical Catalogue of Printed Books, and Writers, on Chess in the appendix to The Philidorian, London 1838, thus:

"This book is somewhat rare, having been printed exclusively for private circulation, and the edition not exceeding forty copies. (See Lowndes Catalogue of Scarce English Books)" This is repeated in the Bibliographical Catalogue appended to A New Treatise on Chess by George Walker, third edition, London 1841, but nothing about the rarity of Christie's book is mentioned in the fourth edition of this work published in 1846 as The Art of Chess-Play.

 

Literatur des Schachspiels by Anton Schmid, Wien 1847, follows Lowndes and Walker by stating that only 40 copies were printed. Schmid also suggests (on page 145) that Christie's book was reprinted in 1802. However, no copies with that date are known.

 

For a book that was published nearly 220 years ago it is highly likely that some copies have been lost over the years; and most of the surviving copies from such a small printing would, by now, have filtered down into the holdings of public and institutional libraries, or into the major private collections, leaving very few copies in general circulation. 

Schaakbibliotheken (A Book about Collectors and Collections) by Dr. Meindert Neimeijer, Wassenaar 1948, gives details of many private chess libraries from the 19th and 20th centuries, often listing some of the scarcer books held. Christie's book appears 16 times in 15 of these libraries (Walker had two copies):

 

George Allen, H. MacDonald, E.B. Cook, Edwin Dodds, R. Franz, George B. Fraser, J.H. Ellis, Sir Frederic Madden, Dr M. Niemeijer, Numa Preti, Rosenthal of Frankfurt, V. Salimbeni/C.B. Vansittart, George Walker, C.W. Whitman, and Charles Willing. Furthermore, it is known that other libraries mentioned in Schaakbibliotheken held copies; such as von der Lasa (no. 547 in his Sammlung von Schriften  über das Schachspiel), and you would expect J.W. Rimington Wilson to have had a copy; in fact he had three copies (probably the two from Walker and another copy). Here they are for sale on page 20 of Quaritch's catalogue for his sale of the Rimington Wilson collection, London 1929:

 

Other private collections not mentioned in Schaakbibliotheken also held copies, for example A.J. Souweine had a copy; item 152 in his 1938 catalogue.

WorldCat, the online union catalogue which itemizes the collections of nearly 18,000 libraries worldwide, locates 29 copies of An Inquiry into the Antient Greek Game... in university, institutional and public libraries. 11 of these are in USA, 9 in UK and 6 in the Netherlands. Even this list is not exhaustive, for example another copy is listed (twice) in Kieler Schachkatalog, the catalogue of the Wilhelm Massmann and Gerd Meyer collection in the Schleswig-Holsteinischen Landesbibliothek in Kiel.

The 11 copies in USA libraries together with further copies in private hands, such as David DeLucia, (see A Few Old Friends 1st edition page 62, 2nd edition page 92), and Jon Crumiller who has three copies! (see his website chessantique.com) indicates that more than a third of the original printing, and an even larger share of what survives of a book originally intended for private circulation in England, has ended up in America; this seems incredible.

Obviously some copies of this book have passed from collector to collector, and from dispersed collections into institutional libraries, but the known location of so many copies implies that very few examples should come on to the open market. Yet this book regularly appears in book dealers catalogues and at auction sales.  

Copies have been sold at the following auctions in recent years:

Phillips Auction October 1985 - The Chess Library of R.J. Ford, sold for £200

Phillips Auction January 1988 - The Chess Library of J.E. Pattle, £130

 

Christies Auction, May 1992 - The Chess Library of Robert Blass, £280.

International Chess Auctions (Alexander Baburin) June 2001, £1,100.

Bloomsbury Auction, July 2003, £460.

Antiquariat Klittich-Pfankuch has sold three copies in the last 9 years (two were the same copy) for €890, €1,400 and €1,100.  

Two different copies have even appeared on ebay, selling for £790 in June 2008 and £2,018 in January 2009.

Chess book dealers Fred Wilson, Roger Treglown and others have also seen copies passing through their hands. Fred Wilson was also doubtful about the 40 copies claim; here is the Christie entry in his Chess Literature Catalogue Number Fourteen:

 

There are no doubt other sales that I am not aware of, and it is also possible that the same book turns up in different sales.

All in all, the known location of so many copies together with the frequency with which further copies come on to the market, make it very improbable that only 40 copies of this book were printed.

 

* These letters by B.S. from The Chess Player in 1853 were reprinted and distributed by Ken Whyld as part of his annual Christmas Gift series in 1989. Ken Whyld's collected Christmas Series was published in book form by Olomouc in 2006 with the cover title Chess Christmas. 

Chess Auction - Antiquariat A. Klittich-Pfankuch 21st November 2020

 

The auction house Antiquariat A. Klittich-Pfankuch held its bi-annual chess auction last week with many rare and important books, manuscripts and other collectable items going under the hammer. Recent auctions in Braunschweig have included many rare items from the library of the late Lothar Schmid and again, some of the choicest items came from this source.

Approximately 750 lots of books included the following Schachraritäten:      

An Inquiry into the Antient Greek Game, supposed to have been invented by Palamedes..., by James Christie, London 1801 which sold for €1,200; the first printing of the first edition of Philidor's L'Analyze des Echecs, London 1749 - €1,600; and a later printing in the same year - €950.  

 

A rare work by Allesandro Salvio: Il Giuoco degli Scacchi, published in 1723, around 80 years after his death, made €1,100; The first comprehensive chess treatise published in Germany - Das Schach-oder König-Spiel by Gustavus Selenus, Leipzig 1616, bound with another non-chess work dated 1624, realised €2,700. A very rare book by von der Lasa: Entwurf eines Vollständigen Reglements für das Schachspiel, Berlin 1854 made €950, and Lolli's Osservazioni Teorica-Pratiche Sopra il Giuucco degli Scacchi, Bologna 173 sold for €700.

 

Several modern books fetched high prices including one of the 20 vellum bound copies of David DeLucia's Chess Library, 2nd edition 2007 which sold for €900 and a two volume work by Rolf Roth: Schach in meinem Leben, Wetzikon circa 2010, described as an "Interesting contribution to Swiss chess history" sold for €1,000.

Harrie Grondijs's extremely limited edition books continue to be in great demand with several selling for between €200 and €460, but the highest price paid was €1,600 for his five volume series Chess Craze Bad, Maastricht 2015 - 2020.  

 

Several books on draughts were on offer in this auction and an 1811 work by Johann Koch: Das Damenspiel, auf feste Reguin gebracht... realised the top price of €400. A 1650 work by Canalejas Garcia: Libro del Juego de las Damas.. sold for €301.

The tournament books included Cleveland 1871 by Brownson which sold for €400; Kiev 1903 by Chigorin - €420; and New York 1889 by Steinitz - €480.

 

The Zeitschriften included a complete three volume run of American Chess Magazine, 1897 - 1899 which made €500; the first volume of The British Chess Magazine, 1881 - €300 (good value); Le Palamède two volumes 1838 and 1839 - €380; and  a scarce year of Wiener Schachzeitung for 1915 - €400.

 

However, the items most in demand were the autographed books, manuscript items and other pieces of memorabilia. Books signed or inscribed by famous players are very desirable and the following examples went under the hammer:

Das Grossmeister-Turnier New York 1924, inscribed by Alekhine - €450

Die Moderne Schachpartie, with a dedication from Tarrasch - €500

Die Praxis Meines Systems, with  a 9 line inscription by Nimzowitsch - €600

 

Grundzüge der Schachstrategie (the German edition of Chess Fundamentals), signed by Capablanca at Bad Kissingen 1928 - €1,200

 

 

The Community of the Future, signed by Emanuel Lasker - €1,300

Kampf von Emanuel Lasker , with a dedication from the author - €1,800 

The rare book on The Third American Chess Congress, Cleveland 1874, signed by the winner George Mackenzie, sold for €2,300

 

But the most highly prized items are original letters and manuscripts by the leading masters of the past, and many were put up for sale here:

A manuscript notebook with 23 pages written by Tal sold for €800.

A handwritten 5 page tournament report and two letters by Alekhine fetched €800, €950 and €1,900.

A letter from Richard Reti pasted into Modern Ideas in Chess sold for €1,100.

Moving up a gear; 3 letters written by Adolf Anderssen in the 1850s sold for €2,900, €3,000 and €3,700, Morphy is mentioned in the last of these.

 

A bound volume of Löwenthal's chess columns from the Era for the years 1854 to 1866 with an 18 page list of contents written in Lowenthal's hand made €4,000.

 

Siegbert Tarrasch's handwritten manuscript for his book Der Schachwettkampf Marshall - Tarrasch 1905, also sold for €4,000.

The auction (and the auctioneer) reached a crescendo with the sale of a notebook written by Rudolf Spielmann in which he had annotated 80 of his games played between 1900 and 1905, the hammer finally falling at €6,600; and a single page letter written by Paul Morphy to Miron Hazeltine regarding an invitation to the St. Louis Chess Club, dated May 1859, which also sold for €6,600.

 

 

Chess related photographs and postcards are always popular and the Schachmemorabilia section incuded a large number of these with many lots selling for between €300 and €700. A remarkable collection of cuttings and adverts on the theme of chess in films, with many photos of chess scenes in the movies sold for €1,100, and the next lot, which was also from the Couwenbergh Collection, on the theme of chess and music, sold for €1,200. This included many record sleeves featuring a chess motif. 

Charles Aznavour seems to be playing Fischerrandom chess.

Other lots selling for high prices included a postcard featuring caricatures of participants in the Candidates Tournament at Bled-Zagreb-Belgrade, 1959, with their signatures - €900;  two manuscripts on problems by William Bone - €850 and €2,100;  a beautifully executed manuscript from the J W Rimington Wilson library with games and positions from the works of Captain Bertin, Stamma, The Calabrois and others - €1,300;  a typescript containing 50 self-mates by Miroslav Soukup with a handwritten dedication to A C White - €1,600; and a collection of 16 autographed photo postcards featuring the participants at Podebrad 1936 - €2,400.

 

 

The 1,100 plus lots were  auctioned off in around seven hours with prices from €10 upwards, so there were plenty of items for all pockets. The following less expensive but still desirable books all sold for €50 or less:

The printed 266 page auction catalogue is a collector's item in itself and a very useful reference work, while every lot was meticulously described and illustrated in the online catalogue. 

The auction was admirably organised and conducted by Karl Klittich and his team, and they are fortunate indeed to enjoy so many rare and historical chess artefacts passing through their hands.

Many thanks to Karl Klittich for permission to use extracts and illustrations from the catalogue.

The hammer prices quoted above exclude the buyer's premium and other costs.