Fencing Familiarized or a new treatise on the art of swordplay Olivier 1771

Attractive calf binding with gold tooling on the spine. Presented With a half-title, and two title pages: one in English and one in French. Illustrated with a folding frontispiece and with 8 plates, seven of which foldout.

A Bilingual fencing treatise by the famous French fencing master Jean Olivier. Plates and the page of publisher's advertisements are dated 1771. The plates are beautifully done, showing the different forms and techniques in master-level fencing. Extraordinarily difficult to find in the first edition. Olivier, who kept a flourishing school in St. Dunstans Court, Fleet Street, was perhaps after Angelo, the most popular master of the small sword in London.