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An Outstanding Collection of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanacks & Cricket Books Auction
Knights Auctioneers last auction of Cricket, Football & Sporting Memorabilia was held on Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th September 2024. The sale included over lots and we have included some highlights below.
To view the results from the auction click here
![Lot 609
'Cricket. An Heroic Poem Illustrated with the critical observations of Scriblerus Maximus'. James Love [Dance]. Published by W. Bickerton 1744. First edition. 25pp. Woodcut title vignette. Bound in blue morocco leather with beautifully gilt](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6170539f9de5005591e466e3/801c670f-0de7-44a5-ae3e-b5e242df29b0/86_0609.jpg)
Lot 609 'Cricket. An Heroic Poem Illustrated with the critical observations of Scriblerus Maximus'. James Love [Dance]. Published by W. Bickerton 1744. First edition. 25pp. Woodcut title vignette. Bound in blue morocco leather with beautifully gilt title lettering in the inner compartment of a double panel, gilt to all edges, the very first edition of the first separately published poem on cricket. One of the rarest cricket books. Hammer £13000
Lot 205 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1864. 1st edition. Bound in red boards, lacking original paper wrappers, with title and date in gilt to spine, red speckled page edges. Very rare first year of issue. Good/very good condition. Hammer £5500
Lot 358 Kent County Cricket Club Annual 1877-1878. Hardback 'blue book'. Original decorative boards. Gilt titles and to all page edges with silver gilt. Kent emblem 'Invicta' to centre. Printed by C.E. Davey, 'Kent Herald' Office 1878. Very rare first issue of the 'blue book’. From an excellent full run of the Blue Book to 1920 being sold in this auction. Hammer £1800
Lot 2 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1868. Original paper wrappers, replacement spine paper. Rare fifth edition. Hammer £3000
Lot 388 Somerset County Cricket Club 1890. Very rare first edition of the Year Book. Alex Hammett, Taunton 1891. Original decorative boards. From an excellent full run of the Year Book to 1921 being sold in this auction. Hammer £600
Lot 42 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1912. 49th edition. Original hardback. Hammer £650
Lot 576 West Indies. 'The Barbados Cricketers' Annual for 1895-96. Second year of publication'. Edited and compiled by J. Wynfred Gibbons. A rare Annual. From an excellent full run of the Annual to 1914 being sold in this auction. Hammer £160
Lot 207 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1866. 3rd edition. Bound in red boards, lacking original paper wrappers, with title and date in gilt to spine, red speckled page edges. Hammer £1500
Lot 419 Yorkshire C.C.C. annual 1893. 1st year of issue. 100pp. Edited by J.B. Wostinholm. J. Robertshaw, Sheffield, printer. Original maroon boards with tooled decoration, titles in gilt to front board with white rose emblem to centre, gilt to page edges. The rare and elusive first edition. From an excellent full run of the annual to 1921 being sold in this auction. Hammer £1700
Lot 4 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1871. 8th edition. Original paper wrappers, replacement spine block. Hammer £1600
Lot 462 'Scottish Cricketers' Annual and Guide containing an authentic record....'. No. I. Season 1870-71. First issue. Edited by Percival King, Edinburgh. Bound in grey boards with original front wrapper, titles in silver to spine. From an excellent full run of the Annual & Guide to 1888 being sold in this auction. Hammer £95
Lot 308 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1916. 53rd edition. Original hardback. A rare wartime hardback edition and probably the rarest of the 20th century editions. Hammer £3000
![Lot 516
'Arthur Haygarth's [and M.C.C.] Cricket Scores And Biographies Of Celebrated Cricketers. Volumes I to XIII covering the seasons 1746-1876, published London 1876-1880, and Vol. XV 'Biographies and Biographical Index' published 1925. Lacking V](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6170539f9de5005591e466e3/22946af6-2893-41cc-86bb-e1cf07e69f5e/86_0516-a.jpg)
Lot 516 'Arthur Haygarth's [and M.C.C.] Cricket Scores And Biographies Of Celebrated Cricketers. Volumes I to XIII covering the seasons 1746-1876, published London 1876-1880, and Vol. XV 'Biographies and Biographical Index' published 1925. Lacking Vol. XIV. Vol. VII is a presentation copy with dedication in ink 'Presented to Samuel Hoare by Arthur Haygarth in recollection of former days- July 9 1877'. Qty 14. Hammer unsold
Lot 217 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1878. 15th edition. Bound in dark brown boards, with original paper wrappers, with title and date in gilt to spine. Hammer £850
Lot 529 'Feats, Facts, and Figures of 1899'. F.S. Ashley-Cooper. Published for private circulation by Merritt & Hatcher, London 1899. First year of issue, of which only twenty copies were produced. 51pp. Original pale blue paper wrappers. Presentation copy with inscription in ink in Ashley-Cooper's own hand to 'C.W. Alcock Esq., 20 November. 1899. Copy no. 2'. Very rare. Hammer £850
Lot 45 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1916. 53rd edition. Original paper wrappers. Rare war-time edition. Hammer £400
Lot 533 'The Cricketer's Companion; containing the scores of the principal matches of cricket, played at Lord's and other grounds in the Season 1843'. William Denison. Published by W. Clement, Junior of the Strand 1844. 12mo. Original green cloth with gilt titles 'Denison's Cricketers' Companion 1843'. 54pp. First edition. A good copy of a rare book. Hammer £1600
Lot 110 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1924. 61st edition. Original hardback. Hammer £220
Lot 535 Lambert's Cricketer's Guide or Instructions and Rules, for playing the Noble Game of Cricket...'. William Lambert. Sussex Press, Lewes. First Edition 1816. Printed and published by J. Baxter. 'Illustrated by an Elegant Copper-Plate Engraving'. 55pp. Bound in brown boards, original stiffened paper wrappers retained. Includes the folded frontispiece engraving of the 'Cricketing’ scene. Hammer £1800
Lot 328 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1995 to 2024. 132nd to 161st edition. Excellent complete run of the de luxe full leather bound limited edition hardback. Gilt lettering and gilt to all page block edges, in slip cases. Each book is numbered limited edition number 92, the 1995 of only 100 copies and the following years of 150 copies produced, each signed by the editor of Wisden in that year. Hammer £3700
Lot 559 Southern Tasmanian Cricket Association. Rare Third Annual Circular for Season 1869-70'. Double sided single page large format circular. Presumably printed at the 'Mercury' Steam Press Office, Hobart. From an excellent run of the Circular to 1904 being sold in this auction. Hammer £160
Lot 554 'The Tour of the Australian Eleven through England, America and the Colonies with Conway's Australian Cricketers' Annual for 1877-78'. Melbourne. Fergusson & Moore 1879. Bound without original wrappers in half calf and marbled boards with raised bands and gilt titles to spine. 400pp. A scarce cricket tour book Hammer £480
Lot 528 'The Allahakbarrie Book of Broadway Cricket for 1899'. Sir James Matthew Barrie, privately printed, 1st edition 1899. Twelve photographic illustrations, original semi transparent wrappers with gilt titles to front. A fine copy of this highly coveted and most elusive title, copies only being circulated among team members and close friends. Hammer £2300
Lot 593 'The Revival of Sport in Barbados: A Complete Chronicle of the Intercolonial Cricket Tournament, 1920, Barbados vs. Trinidad and Barbados Turf Club Races 16th-17th February 1920'. Barbados Advocate 1920. 60pp plus advertising pages. Original pictorial wrappers, bound in red boards with title to spine. A rare book. Hammer £240
Lot 600 New Zealand. 'A Record of the Past Cricket Season 1889-90'. Compiled by F.E. Brittain. Bock and Co., Wellington 1890. Only year of issue. 54pp. Original paper wrappers. Rare. Hammer £180
Lot 612 'Angliae Notitia or the Present State of England'. Edward Chamberlayne. 'The Nineteenth edition, with great Additions and Improvements'. Printed by T. Hodgkin for R. Chiswell etc., London 1700. Rebound in black calf with raised bands and gilt title to spine, red page edges. A very early mention of cricket on p.48. Hammer unsold
Lot 545 'Gauntlet's Cricketers Record, containing the full scores of all The Great Matches played during the Season 1860; the Averages of the Players together with a List of the Batsman who have obtained 100 runs or more and Rules of the Game of Cricket'. Published by Gauntlet, Sevenoaks, Kent, printed by Vardy Printer of Bishopgate, London 1860. 58pp, should be 60pp. Bound in half leather green boards, with original front wrapper laid down to end paper at the rear of the book, lacking rear wrapper. An extremely rare cricket annual. Hammer unsold