Game Book

England: Tiffany & Co, 1970. Hardcover. Fine. Partially printed game book. Oblong quarto. Half green morocco gilt and green cloth embossed "Tiffany & Co. / Made in England" on the rear board. All edges gilt. Unused. Fine. A partially printed book used to record the daily take of killed birds. Not marked as such but prepared for the Estate of John Werner Kluge, a German-born media tycoon who emigrated to the United States and was at one time the richest man in America. Kluge sold his media company in 1986 to 21st Century Fox. He later donated his large Albermarle County, Virginia estate to the University of Virginia, the largest gift ever received by the University. A separate property owned by Kluge's divorced third wife Patricia was eventually sold at foreclosure to become Trump Winery. This book represents an interesting, if problematic episode in Kluge's stewardship of his estate. Kluge imported an English gamekeeper, who reportedly was arrested and convicted for killing hawks and other birds of prey, contravening local laws, in order to preserve the estate's stock of grouse, partridge, pheasant, and woodcock, so they could be hunted by Kluge's friends. The conviction of the gamekeeper apparently put the kibosh on Kluge's hunting plans. Presumably this unused book is forlorn testimony to the collapse of those dreams. Provenance on request.