(VERDYCK, Alfred)
Rapport Officiel des Jeux de la VIIème Olympiade Anvers 1920
s.l. (Antwerp), s.n., s.d. (ca. 1920)
4to, typescript in red half cloth binding, gilt title and decorations to spine, marbled boards, marbled endpapers, title-page, (vii) + 176, 3 folding points tables, folded plan and plate with medals at the end; very good condition, small wormhole to front cover slightly affecting first 4 pages without any loss, ring binder holes to pages
Typescript of the unpublished official report of the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp. Only two other copies in typescript are known: one in the IOC archives in Lausanne and one appeared at an auction in London in 2013. All 3 copies are different from each other. Our copy has a very similar binding to the London copy. The pagination and typescript (use of capitals,..) resemble closely the copy in the IOC archives. The text seems to have been corrected and annotated at different stages which may point to the fact that this copy was used as a working copy and example for other copies. The corrections are typed in red and black ink as well as written in black pen. Some pages are numbered by hand. The paper, typescript and impression of some pages differs from others. No library stamp. As the Antwerp Organizing Committee went bankrupt after the Games were finished, no official report of the Games was published. In 1958 and 1964, two more versions were made of about 100 copies each to meet the demand of museums and collectors. An extremely rare and interesting piece associated with these ‘forgotten’ Games.
