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London : “The Field”, 1877. First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed, signed and dated (30th June 1877) by the author to Samuel Hoare (1841-1915), later Sir Samuel Hoare M.P., Harrow and Trinity (Cambridge), banker, parliamentarian and keen amateur cricketer with the Quidnuncs. One of the monuments of cricket literature – a highly influential account which in attempting to define, perhaps for the first time, the quintessential Englishness of cricket, contrived to make it not just a game, but a lasting repository of high-minded Victorian ideals and the ultimate sporting extension of a deeply-imbued sense of national identity. Box takes in turn the origins of ball-games; the Dark and Middle Ages; progress and development; rising popularity; the moral, social and physical attributes; chapters on each of the major counties; the public schools; the eastern counties; intercolonial matches (in North America and Australia); school and village cricket; curiosities; the grounds; the laws; the poems, songs and ballads; a glossary, and a postscript on Shakespeare and cricket.
Crown 4to (26cm). x,496pp. Plates, text illustrations, diagrams. Original decorative cloth gilt over bevelled boards; all edges gilt; some mainly minor wear to extremities; a few slight marks, but overall a much better than average copy of a difficult title. With the significant pictorial bookplate of A. E. Winder – Anthony Edward (Tony) Winder (1944-1991), legendary cricket collector, who acquired (inter alia) John Arlott’s library in 1979 and is himself the subject of a book by David Rayvern Allen, published in 2008.

SOLD

London : Grant Richards, 1924. First edition. “A rather freely compiled journal of happy experiences that have come my way” – forty or so exquisite essays and articles – the immortal Cardus on cricket grounds and their characters, on Frank Woolley, on J. T. Tyldesley, on A. W. Carr, on Spofforth, on fashions in the game, on J. W. Hearne, on Douglas, on Chapman, on Hendren, on George Gunn, on Herbert Strudwick, and on much else besides. “This is far and away the best book on cricket that has been published for years” (Western Mail, 21st August 1924).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (264)pp. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt; some minor rubbing to extremities; a few light edge spots; mild tanning of endpapers, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket a little worn, tanned and chipped, but essentially complete and a rare and welcome survival.

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London : James Bowden, 1899. First edition. An attractively illustrated and very full account of the career of the great man – to some extent ghost-written by Arthur Porritt (1872-1947) – from early recollections to decade-by-decade chapters on the 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s, with further individual chapters on early tours in Canada, the United States, and Australia, as well as thoughts on his contemporaries, hints to young cricketers, a statistical history of cricket, the laws of the game, etc. “With such a career behind him Dr. Grace’s pen could no more help pouring forth interesting matter than his bat at one time could help knocking up centuries ... constitutes in a way a history of modern cricket ... the stories are as innumerable as they are good” (Pall Mall Gazette).
Post 8vo (21cm). xx,524 + (32)pp inserted advertisements. Photogravure portrait frontispiece. Forty plates, portraits, etc., all but one printed on both sides and giving around 100 images in all. Original blue canvas, ruled and lettered in white, with a pictorial onlay; a little rubbed; endpapers slightly cracked; a little shaken; some spotting, mainly of endpapers and edges; some very occasional internal marks, but a good copy. With the booksellers’ stamp of Bailey & Woods of Cirencester and a presentation plate recording the gift of the book to Wellingborough Grammar School Library by C. A. Jones in the year of publication.

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London : Universal Publications, [1938]. First edition. A concise and sensible guide, with chapters on the game itself; bowling; fielding; batting; captaincy; umpiring; scoring; equipment; rules and regulations; jargon, etc.
Foolscap 8vo (17cm). (90),[vi]pp. Original wrappers; spine lightly wrinkled; some spotting, mainly to edges; mild tanning to outer leaves, but a very good copy in the striking art-deco dust-jacket – the jacket just lightly worn and used. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

SOLD

London : Blond & Briggs, (1982). First edition. Raven’s hilarious cricketing reminiscences – cricket at Charterhouse, Cambridge, Bangalore, Kenya, Aden and Corfu – feuds, scandals, intrigues, liaisons, loves, hates, tragedies, comedies, farces – “from the virtuous to the vicious, from the clever and beautiful to the dreamy and debased”.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [viii],(228),[iv]pp. Original blue boards, ruled and lettered in gilt; very good in the Lawrence Toynbee dust-jacket – the jacket just faintly sunned and with a few spots on flaps, but also very good.

£40

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