Coffee Table Book of: Table Tennis (Hardcover)

Coffee Table Book of: Table Tennis is a large format book of table tennis, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: bats, balls and nets, tables in quiet halls and under trees in parks, the kit being made and cared for, the old ways of the game, and a few players seen far off in plain dark clothing.

The kit is laid out plain: a bat with smooth red rubber and one with smooth black, a bat of long thin pimples, black rubber with its pimples facing out seen close, white balls on slate and on the sand at the edge of the sea, a net rolled round its two clamp posts, low court shoes, a bat case, a ball machine, a basket of balls for practice, a towel, an open box of new balls and a single ball resting on the white centre line.

The making follows thin veneers cut to the outline of a blade, a row of blades waiting for their handles, a new rubber glued on and trimmed, glue spread thin on a sponge, half shells waiting to be joined into balls and a white edge line painted on a new table top. The past runs from a dining table with a row of books for a net and an old boxed set, to bats of parchment stretched over a hoop, hard bats of thin pimpled rubber, celluloid balls yellowed with age, old net posts with brass screw clamps and an old green table in a club room and in a hay meadow.

Short notes run through the book, on the rules and how the game is played, the bats, balls and tables and how they are made, and the history of the sport: a bat must carry rubber of two colours, black on one face and a bright colour on the other, outdoor tables are built of weatherproof board, metal or concrete, so the rain cannot warp them, a case keeps a bat out of dust and sun, which dry the rubber and rob it of grip, and long pimples bend as they meet the ball, sending back spin that is hard to read.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.

Publisher - Cedar Pine Editions

Language - English

Case Bound - PPC

Contributors

By author

Dimitri Smith

Published Date - 2026-10-22

ISBN - 9671456005089

Dimensions - 27.9 x 21.6 x 1.3 cm

Page Count - 98