The Boxing Referee

London: The Queenhithe Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd.. 1910.

First edition. 8vo. 217x135mm. pp [1-15], 16-92. With a beautiful illuminated manuscript leaf bound in after the front free endpaper, protected by a tissue guard. In a fine gothic script, it notes "To the Right Honourable The Earl of Lonsdale as a slight appreciation of the great services he has rendered to The Art of Boxing by the extension of his patronage and the keen interest he has always shown therein; This book is respectfully Presented by" and then signed "J. Frank Bradley", National Sporting Club, London, August 1910. The font pastedown has the armorial bookplate of The Earl of Lonsdale. Bound in full brown calf, gilt borders to covers and upper cover lettered in gilt. Spine with five raised bands. Gilt turn-ins and marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Some scuffing and marking to upper cover. Internally, there is some foxing but overall a very good copy of a rare book of which Worldcat locates only two copies (BL and Cologne Library).
Frank Bradley was the editor of a sporting magazine that began as "The Mirror of Life" which, reflecting his primary interest in boxing, became "The Mirror of Life and Boxing". It is fitting that Bradley should have given this lavishly decorated copy of his book on the rules of boxing to Lord Lonsdale for few men have done more for the status of boxing. In 1909, he introduced, on behalf of the National Sporting Club, the Lonsdale Belt which is the oldest championship award in British boxing. Lonsdale (1857-1944) was a wild and eccentric figure born 100 years too late. He was really the archetype of the hard living, hard hunting, hard fighting eighteenth century aristocrat. Aside from his interest in boxing, he was master of two of the country's smartest and oldest packs of foxhounds, President of Bertram Mills Circus and Arsenal Football Club and Chief Steward of the Jockey Club. He invited the Kaiser to shoot at his estate in Cumberland which led to his being granted a knighthood of the first class of the Order of the Prussian Crown. He also managed to wreck the family estate which resulted in the largest country house sale of the twentieth century.
This splendid little book is sold with "The Yellow Earl, The life of Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale 1857-1944" by Douglas Sutherland.