Gambling History Templar’s Illustrated Poker Manual and Late Victorian Card Play in 1895

Poker

First Edition

Templar The Poker Manual, 1895, documents late Victorian poker instruction and gambling etiquette, offering evidence of how poker was codified for English readers through rules, strategy, bluffing, jackpots, and illustrated examples of play. The book belongs to nineteenth-century gaming culture, where card manuals translated leisure practices into teachable systems of conduct, probability, social reading, and competitive performance.

Templar. The Poker Manual: A Practical Course of Instruction in the Game with Illustrative Hands and Chapters on Bluffing and Jack-Pots; Together with International Code of Laws. London: Frederick Warne & Co. / Mudie & Sons, 1895. First edition. Scarcity noted in Powell 447, Holden 112, and Jessel 1576. 1 volume. Illustrated throughout with finely printed red and black diagrams of poker hands. Green cloth boards ruled and lettered in gilt on front board and spine, all edges gilt, patterned endpapers, front board decorated with three colored poker chips. 12mo, 4.75 x 7 inches.

The manual combines practical instruction with reflections on the psychology of play, stating that “the spirit of the game, and of the laws, must be kept in view,” and describing bluffing as “the finesse of Poker” and the element giving the game “its intense human interest.” Its chapters on etiquette, jackpots, varied play, bluffing, illustrative hands, and international laws make it a compact record of poker’s movement from informal gambling practice into printed recreational instruction. Binding wear; otherwise very good. Attractive first edition of an early illustrated English-language poker manual connecting gaming law, social behavior, and strategic deception.

Item #16408

Price: $485.00