[DANDO, Thomas S.].

Riverton Gun Club History, 1877-1906.

Item #77040

[DANDO, Thomas S.]. Riverton Gun Club History, 1877-1906. With numerous photogravure illustrations and portraits. 54, 52 pp. Oblong 4to. [Riverton, N.J: Dando Print. and Pub. Co, 1906]. Original three quarter red morocco and marbled boards, a.e.g. Box repaired, retaining typographic elements. No. 56 of 100 copies printed. Not in Phillips, Riling or Heller. OCLC locates only New York Public Library, National Sporting Library, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and New Jersey State Library. A superbly produced history of this private sporting club, located in Riverton, New Jersey, on the banks of the Delaware north of Philadelphia. Over the nearly thirty years of its existence, the Riverton Gun Club had nearly 350 members and hosted competitive pigeon shoots with clubs and sportsmen throughout the northeast. Matches with members of many prominent sporting clubs are represented in the narrative history, Westminster Kennel Club, Blooming Grove, Tuxedo Gun Club, Carteret Gun Club, Larchmont, etc. Following changes in New Jersey law enacted in 1904, live pigeon shooting was deemed illegal; members were arrested to force a test case, but the state Supreme Court upheld the legislation on appeal. The club was disbanded following a final meeting in 1906. Thomas Dando, who compiled the history, was a member and crack shot who won many of the shoots in the 1890s. The finely executed photogravures include numerous portraits of members and document the club grounds, club meets, and events; one page includes portraits of white-bearded John Krider (the only known images of him), celebrated gunsmith and author of Krider's Sporting Anecdotes (1853) and Forty Years Notes of a Field Ornithologist (1879), as well his gun shop at the northeast corner of 2nd and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia. RARE.

Price: $7,500.00