Within an ace

Posted by Joe September 30, 2009 at 21:22In reply to Within an ace posted by Silvia Serafini on September 30, 2009 at 05:55:

I would like to know the origin of the expression: to come within an ace of.

hair s-breadth, as within an ace of', ace-point, first or starting point on
backgammon table The concise Oxford dictionary of current Englishý - Page 9
by Henry Watson Fowler, Francis George Fowler, Sir James Augustus Henry Murray - Juvenile Nonfiction - 1919 - 1064 pages
1700's for sure