[Boxing] (Badcock, John) The Fancy; or True Sportsman's Guide: Being Authentic Memoirs of the Lives, Actions, Prowess, and Battles of the Leading Pugilists, From the Days of Figg and Broughton, to The Championship of Ward. By an Operator

London: Published by J. M'Gowan and Son, 1826. Comprising 55 Nos. in two volumes. First edition. 8vo. xv, (i), 680, (iii)-vi, (1); xii, 743, (1) pp. Illustrated with hand-colored engraved vignette title-page in each volume and 52 engraved plates (including 46 portraits, and some colored plates). Full crimson levant, decorated in gilt, spines darkened, joints rubbed; all edges gilt; gilt dentelles; teal endpapers; by Riviere & Son; gilt morocco book-plate of Valentine Hollingsworth on front paste-down of each volume. Hartley 1514

A rare set of this famed boxing periodical, featuring accounts of the lives and fights of some of the 19th century's most famed pugilists. Features accounts of figures such as Americans and former slaves turned boxers Tom Molineaux (1784–1818) and Bill Richmond (1763-1829), Tom Cribb (1781-1848), one of the most popular and successful English boxers of the early 19th century, Daniel Mendoza (1764-1836) the first Jewish championship boxer, as well as the likes of Jim Belcher, Tom Spring, Dutch Sam, Jack Broughton, Henry Pearce, and more.

This lot is located in Philadelphia.