PBA Galleries

3-22 pp. + covers. 7x4-5/8, printed saddle-sewn wrappers; housed in a custom thick drop-back leather clamshell box with raised bands, lettered in gilt, cloth and marbled paper interior, book rests on protective hollowed display section. Facsimile reproduction from the original 1743 first edition. Known as “The Dresden Copy.”

The first book ever published solely devoted on the game of golf. This is the renegade one-of-a-kind Dresden Copy, which was printed and bound sometime between 1890 and 1910. It is printed on wove paper and watermarked Dresden Pamphlet. All indications are that someone used an original 1743 first edition to set the type perfectly to create this exquisite reproduction. And based on extensive research, this is the only known copy of its kind. The Goff was originally printed in very limited quantities and although subsequent editions were produced in 1763 and 1793, and with only a few dozen copies still surviving today – of which most reside in libraries or institutions. This copy is apparently unique because it is an exact facsimile of the 1743 first edition – known among rare golf book dealers as The Dresden Copy. Murdoch writes “Standing alone in a century of silence, the first book entirely devoted to golf was published in 1743…The ultimate that any collector can attain is to have one of its threee editions in his library” Murdoch, p. 15. Mathison was a law clerk who later turned to golf, poetry and the Presbytarian ministry; he died in 1754. The book is actually a poem about a mythical golf match between heroes of ancient Greece and Rome. Includes the names of many prominent players of the day identified by initials only. “Important information in the text include a reference to John Dickson, an early clubmaker from Leith; the first written description of the manufacturing process of the feathery golf ball; and the first literary reference to the term ‘green,’ used to describe the area immediately surrounding the hole” – Donovan & Jerris, p. 493.