(iv), 20pp. A remarkable calligraphic ode to the first iteration of the Olympic Games to take place after the Second World War. After the title page almost entirely in gilt, the manuscript begins, appropriately, with the Olympic rings against a background of doves. A subsequent epigraph conveys the spirit of the Games in the postwar era: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning, but taking part. The essential in Life is not conquering but fighting well." Then Sweet records the winning competitors in their respective sports, with names and specific events in black, national affiliations in red, and details in gray. The sporting categories are themselves written in blue and with a gilt initial, and the "A" in Athletics receives special treatment, with a background of cross-hatched blue and linear details extending the length of the page. Notable athletes of 1948 were Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen, the seventeen-year-old American decathlete Bob Mathias, and Finnish gymnast Veikko Huhtanen. The conclusion supplies the winners of the final gold medal count, as well as a nod to the past, present, and future of the Games with a clever combination of the flags of Greece, England, and Finland (Helsinki would host the 1952 Olympics). Bound in full brown morocco with cover design an angular riff on the five Olympic rings, rendered both in gilt and in blind. Spine in six compartments with gilt titling. Mild rubs to corners, else near fine in original dropback box.