Our last auction was held on 26th, 27th & 28th July 2024
Knights Auctioneers last auction of Cricket, Football & Sporting Memorabilia was held on Friday 26th, Saturday 27th & Sunday 28th July 2024. The sale included over 1450 lots and we have included some highlights below.
To view the results from the auction click here
Lot 539 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1864. 1st edition. Handsomely bound in full black leather, lacking original paper wrappers, with raised bands and title and date in gilt to spine. Very rare first year of issue. Hammer £5000
Lot 536 'A.E. Stoddart's Tour of Australia 1897/98'. 'The Tour Diaries of J.T. Hearne, Middlesex & England 1888-1923'. Two handwritten diaries covering the majority of the tour but concluding for no apparent reason on Wednesday 12th January. The diaries are entertaining and insightful and cover the tour both on and off the field throwing additional light on a tour which was very much less successful for Stoddart and his team than the victorious visit in 1894/95. The diaries reveal Hearne to be a determined cricketer, an honest man with a great sense of humour and an observant eye who was not averse to the occasional modest 'indulgence' off the field. An excellent insight into the life of a professional cricketer on tour, substandard accommodation and food, sharing double beds, trouble with mosquitoes for the professionals compared to the lodgings and food of the amateurs. A unique pair of diaries. Hammer £4600
Lot 120 M.C.C. tour of Australia 1932/33. 'Bodyline tour'. 'The English Test Cricketers, 1932'. Large full page 'Supplement to The Western Mail, Perth, Western Australia 20th October 1932', published on the tourists' arrival in Perth on the eve of the opening match of the tour. The supplement page, with title to top, shows the M.C.C. tourists in individual cameo portraits with name printed beneath. Each player featured, with the exception of Tate who joined the party later, has signed in ink across or below his image. A rare item from the Bodyline tour. Hammer £1000
Lot 832 'The Guide to Cricketers containing full directions for playing the noble and manly game of Cricket...' 1851. Compiled and edited by Frederick Lillywhite. Published by W. & T. Piper, Paternoster Row, London 1851. 4th Edition. Original paper wrappers. Rare. Hammer £650
Lot 900 W.H. Mason. Publisher. Descriptive key to W.H. Mason's National Print of a Cricket Match (between the counties of Sussex and Kent, at Brighton) introducing characteristic portraits of the players engaged in the match as well as many Noblemen and Gentlemen... by W. Drummond and C.J. Basébe, engraved by G.H. Phillips. Brighton: W.H. Mason & London: Gambart, 1849. Printed by T. Brettell, Haymarket, London. Includes the key plate to front of the book. Extremely rare descriptive key, issued only to purchasers of the artist's proof. Hammer £300
Lot 1388 Sporting puzzle jug c 1820/30's. Large early ceramic puzzle jug with sporting scenes of boxing, hunting, cock fighting, horse racing, bull baiting to its sides, human rams head face to the underside of the spout. The main two cartouche panels feature the boxing scene which has the title 'Fives Court' and the hunting scene which has the title 'Hunt near Windsor', floral decorated handle and inside rim of jug. The jug stands 6.5" tall . A rare, early and unusual jug. Hammer £280
Lot 301 Albert Baker. Surrey 1900-1907. Large and very impressively striking early studio portrait of Baker half length wearing Surrey cap and blazer, both items showing the club emblem of the Prince of Wales feathers. The photograph, in cameo mount, by Lovell Smith of Richmond. Framed and glazed in ornate gilt frame with inner gilt mount measuring 29"x35.5". A wonderfully stunning image of a relatively unknown Surrey player which may have been taken to celebrate gaining his county cap and blazer. Hammer £260
Lot 232 Australian tour of England 1893. Earl of Sheffield's XI v Australians 1893. Excellent original folding menu card for the dinner given by Lord Sheffield on the 9th May 1893 during the match played at Sheffield Park, Uckfield 8th-10th May 1893. A highly decorative and colourful menu with front cover, with titles and dates, featuring a kangaroo and raised Australian emblem and Lord Sheffield's cricket emblem with decorative borders, the rear cover with raised Australian emblem to centre in shield with cricket stumps and to sides and lower border, cricket bats and balls. A rare, decorative and exquisite item of ephemera from this early Australian tour. Hammer £850
Lot 1191 George Parr's 'All England Eleven in Australia and New Zealand' 1863-64. The third England cricket tour overseas. 'Grand All England Match versus Twenty Two of Otago, 2nd to 4th February 1864'. Very rare folding scorecard, printed by Mills, Dick & Co of Dunedin, from the seventh match of the tour. The scorecard was printed prior to the commencement of the match and has the titles and advertising to the front cover, to inside are the two teams listed, the England team listed in batting order, stating his place in the field, as well as distinguishing the players coloured cap’. A remarkable artefact from the dawn of international cricket. Hammer £3000
Lot 441 W.G. Grace. An unusual and rarely seen life size bronze hand of Grace holding a cricket ball. The stump of the arm impressed with Grace's signature. The hand and arm measure approximately 11' long. The hand and ball, which was apparently produced to commemorate W.G. Grace's 41st Birthday, July 18th 1889, is beautifully and very skilfully cast showing the finger and thumb nails, the wrinkles around the finger joints and palm, the knuckles and veins in the back of the hand with a lovely patina to the bronze. The current vendor bought the hand over fifty years ago in 1970 for £36. An intriguing and exciting discovery which appears 'fresh' to the market after all these many years. Hammer unsold
Lot 1456 London Laughs: 'Football begins'. Excellent, large and original pen and ink drawing artwork, by artist Joseph Lee, depicting the entrance turnstiles to Vicarage Road, home of Watford Football Club. The artwork shows spectators, all wearing caps and hats, filing into the ground for the first game of the 1936-37 season. A man in the foreground says to another 'I hope my voice is going to be all right. I haven't really tried it out since last April'. The artwork, signed by Lee, was published in the London Evening News and is dated 29th August 1936. A wonderfully evocative scene beautifully illustrated by the artist. Hammer £160
Lot 499 'Dinner to Len Hutton and his Test Team. Savoy Hotel. October 30th 1953'. Unique original pen and ink caricature/cartoon artwork used as the menu cover for the celebratory dinner given by Claude R. Harper at the Savoy Hotel on the 30th October 1953, highlighted with some colour, by artist Tom Webster. Excellent and iconic image. Minor age toning and wear to edges otherwise in good condition. Previously sold by Knights as part of the Len Hutton collection. Hammer unsold
Lot 404 'The Evolution of the Cricket Bat'. A mid eighteenth century circa 1740-1750 cricket bat of light wood, possibly willow, with right-handed curve and distinctive hook-shape to base, no shoulders, made by William Pett of Sevenoaks with two impressed marks 'W. Pett 4' on top of handle and 'Will. Pett Sevenoaks Kent' on the base of the bat. A very rare and early cricket bat previously sold by Christie's Auctioneers as lot 133 in their sale of 1998. Sold with the late vendor's research notes giving further information on the bat. Hammer unsold
Lots 369 and 374 Kenneth Shuttleworth. Lancashire, Leicestershire & England 1964-1980. M.C.C. touring test cap and sweater worn by Shuttleworth on the tour of the Australia in 1970/71. The navy blue cap with central emblem of St. George & the Dragon to front and the sweater trimmed in M.C.C. colours. (From the Shuttleworth Collection being sold in this auction.) Hammer Cap £480, Sweater £90
Lot 901 'Cricket'. W.G. Grace. J.W. Arrowsmith, Bristol and Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. London 1891. Original green cloth, with gilt titles to front board and spine. With inscription to front end paper 'With the Publisher's kind regards 11/6/91 (11th June 1891) and nicely signed in ink by W.G. Grace. The book was presented to Mr Ronald L. Elliott, a cricket writer for the Bristol Evening Post, in 1950 as a thank you from Edgar M. Grace, E.M. Grace's son for writing a biography of W.G. Grace's brother, G.F. Grace, which was published in the newspaper. The book included a rare original menu for the dinner held in 1891 to celebrate the completion and publication of the book 'Cricket' which he wrote with the assistance of W. Methven Brownlee. A rarely seen publisher's presentation edition of 'Cricket' signed by Grace, a very rare dinner menu of the book's launch, only previously seen and sold once by the auctioneer and excellent provenance. Hammer unsold
Lot 398 William Albert Stanley Oldfield, New South Wales & Australia 1919-1938. Australian test blazer worn by Oldfield on the Australian 1930 tour of England. The green blazer, by Harding's Mercury of Sydney, with gold trimming to blazer edging, pocket and sleeves, embroidered gold and silver wire and coloured thread emblem of Australia to breast pocket with the wording 'Advance Australia' and '1930' beneath. Name handwritten to label 'W.A. Oldfield'. The Blazer was given to David Frith by Oldfield many years ago when Frith lived in Australia. Hammer £1700
Lot 700 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1917. 54th edition. Original hardback. Very good condition. A rare wartime hardback edition with gilt titles to front board and spine bright. Hammer £2000
Lot 507 Bernard James Tindal Bosanquet. Oxford University, Middlesex & England 1898-1919. Signed Vanity Fair colour chromolithograph of Bosanquet . ‘An Artful Bowler’. September 15th 1904 by SPY. Very nicely signed by Bosanquet in black ink to lower right hand corner. A rarer cricketer's signature. Hammer £460
Lot 73 Australian tour of England 1905. Small black autograph book containing the ink signatures of the 1905 Australian tourists and many prominent test and county players from the period. Hammer £1500
Lot 119 Francis 'Frank' Marchant. Eton, Cambridge University & Kent C.C.C. 1883-1905. Very large album containing various photographs, scorecards, telegram, menus and ephemera covering the cricketing career of former Kent captain, Frank Marchant with comprehensive coverage. The album begins with his school cricket at Eton and concludes with a press cutting of Marchant's death dated 15th April 1946. In addition ink signatures are signed to the album pages by Kent players, W.H. Patterson, Kenneth McAlpine, Eustace Charles Mordaunt, Gerald Mordaunt and J.R. Mason. A comprehensive album covering a pre first world war Kent player and captain. Hammer £5000
Lot 420 Geoffrey Boycott. Yorkshire & England 1962-1986. A Slazenger cricket bat, pads and batting gloves all made to his specification and used by Boycott in his illustrious cricket career playing for Yorkshire and England. The equipment is sold with a letter of provenance from Boycott detailing each item and were presented in 1988 by Boycott. Hammer £1400
Lot 438 England's Champions'. Early and complete leather belt with excellent brass belt buckle inscribed 'England's Champions' c1860. With portrait of the grouped cricketers, the England 1859 touring team to North America surmounted by two sprays of laurel, in raised relief to buckle. Maker's mark for 'Edward Ade of London' to verso. An early rare belt and buckle with all the correct markings to the back of the belt. Hammer £1400
Lot 236 Bill Woodfull, Captain of Australia 1930. 'Carlton Cricket Club Smoke Social tendered to Mr W.M. Woodfull Captain 17th Australian XI on Monday 17th November 1930'. Decorative toasts card produced for the evening to welcome home the victorious captain, Australia having won the Ashes in England in the summer of 1930. Beautifully signed in ink to the rear 'Autographs' page by fourteen members of the Australian touring team 1930, Rare. Hammer £460
Lot 504 'The Cricketers of Vanity Fair'. Excellent complete collection of sixty six original colour chromolithographs of cricketers, as listed by John Arlott in 'The Cricketer', August 1953 and J.W. Goldman's additional list published in 'The Cricketer' in September 1953. There are eight additional chromolithographs of first class players who appeared in Vanity Fair or similar, discovered since 1953 plus the two principal artists being Carlo Pellegrini 'Ape' and Leslie Ward ‘Spy’ and two collectors books. The chromolithographs are all loose and presented in two large black files. Very rare to see such a complete comprehensive collection of cricketing Vanity Fair lithographs and associated ephemera. Hammer unsold
Lot 37 'Sussex County Cricket Club Bazaar, Clarence Rooms, Hotel Metropole, Brighton, December 4th, 5th & 6th, 1894. A descriptive catalogue of the Unique Collection of Cricket Trophies, Curios, Historic Bats, Balls, Early Cricket Pictures, Engravings, and Prints. Arranged by W.L.Murdoch, Esq., & Mr. Alfred J. Gaston. Exhibited in aid of the funds of the Sussex County Cricket Club. 1894’. Hammer £340