PBA Galleries

3-36 pp. Illustrated with b&w plates from paintings. (Oblong 8vo) 15.3x20 cm (6x8") red cloth with original leather cover laid down.

Presented to Blackheath Golf Club by the author. Provenance: Royal Blackheath Golf Club. It is an extremely scarce book, being reprinted in 2010 in a limited edition of 200 and a hard back of 50 copies only. With a Alastair J. Johnson cat. No. 19320A

The book, though not entirely a golf club history, but a history of a golf club clubhouse, being published in 1894 predates the earliest known club history of any club, coincidentally being Royal Blackheath! This book is very significant as Blackheath is the oldest club in the world 1608, and Eltham Lodge serves rather fittingly as their club house, noted in the Eltham Lodge/Blackheath history. Indeed, no less an authority than Bernard Darwin, grandson of Charles Darwin, golf correspondent of The Times for 46 years, past Captain of the Royal & Ancient and the most revered of all golf writers, began his introduction to a guide to the Club published in the 1940s (see lot 60) with the following words: “The Royal Blackheath Golf Club, as all the world knows, is the oldest golf club in the world.”