FANCY CYCLING: TRICK RIDING FOR AMATEURS.

UK,slim,small 8vo HB,facsimile,1st thus. [Originally and first published London,Sands & Company,1901.Facsimile of the original book held in the Science Museum Library.Complete number line 13 14 15 16 17 10 - 1 descending.] NMINT.No owner inscrptn,and no dw/dj - as issued. Bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,publisher's red brick decorated cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt and b/w ink printed pictorial design to upper board with black-outlined white lettering to same and to spine/ backstrip also,a red+gold striped headband and immaculate plain charcoal grey endpapers.A wrap-around but vertical bellyband pasted to rear board and internally to rear pastedown.No shelf-wear,bumps, nicks,tears or spilts - pristine.Top+fore-edges unblemished,bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean, solid and sound and pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - unread - apart from my own collation.UK,slim,small 8vo HB,facsimile,1st thus,6-115pp [paginated] includes a preface,contents list/table,an introductory chapter+VII (7) other chapters,these all with profuse illus with facsimile contemporary b/w photographs interspersed throughout the text and the book; plus [unpaginated] half-title with b/w contemporary facsimile bicycle retailer advert to reverse,a title page and to reverse of last paginated page another contemporary,facsimile bicycle (SINGER) retailer's b/w advert.
By 1901,the year that this book first free-wheeled spectacularly in sight,cycling was well established both as leisure pastime and method of getting about.Yet as a forum for the display of acrobatic prowess its potential had been largely unmined - a lack that this book swiftly and with some style swooped in to supply. It shows straight-faced paragons of Edwardian society in a variety of impressive and unlikely vehicular arrangements.Fearlessly,they demonstrate the possibility of picking up a handkerchief without dismounting,of riding backwards while seated on the handlebars,and of 'standing on saddle,hands off!' They even make clear that,for two able cyclists with the inclination and a length of wooden pole,it was quite possible to bear aloft a clown while mounted.
The Science Museum Library is one of the world's great research centres,consisting of over 500,000 original works on the history and social aspects of science, technology and medicine.The collection includes works by scientists from Leonardo Da Vinci,Newton and Einstein,as well as quirky 'how to' manuals and original patents.
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