Comments on the fourth edition of “Cribbage,” by Rawdon Crawley, published by Goodall . . .

In two other posts, namely this one and this one, I have focused on certain editions of Rawdon Crawley’s Cribbage, as published by Goodall.

I think I have only seen two early editions offered for sale — namely, the ones discussed in those earlier posts, which are now in my collection.  Later editions — I have at least two — might not exactly be common, though to my way of thinking, the earlier editions (all other things being equal) are significantly more desirable.

Mike Goodall kindly sent me a scan of the covers of a fourth edition of Cribbage.  A significant difference between the front cover below and the front cover of a fifth edition (discussed here) is that the one below does not say “Ltd.,” while the fifth does.  Boiled down, the Birmingham places the fourth edition in 1893 or later, while the “Ltd.” places it in 1897 or before (see Mike’s year 2000 book on the Goodalls).

So, the booklet can be dated as 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, or 1897.

—Tom Sawyer

October 21, 2012