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Details
SAMUEL BRITCHER
A Complete List of All the Grand Matches of Cricket that have been played in the year 1795
London: printed in the year 1795. 8vo. (8 x 4¼in; 204 x 110mm), 36p. (title a little frayed and thumb soiled, last leaf torn at upper margin), disbound. Provenance: pencilled accounts on title verso -- Edwin Hammond (1836-1913, grandson of John Hammond, ownership inscription on front blank giving his address at Rose Cottage, Storrington, Sussex).
Of five recorded copies of the sixth edition, one is at MCC (acquired from Epworth as a "swop"), and one at the John Rylands Library. The other three copies, which of course include the Hammond copy, are in private hands. This is an important edition since the final three pages give the laws of cricket (Rait Kerr, p. 118, erroneously states that the laws were not included in Britcher until 1796). While the above provenance applies to all four editions being offered for sale, the flyleaf with Edwin Hammond's signature is sold with this edition, having been bound adjacent to it.
It seems appropriate that this sale of great cricket books should end with a mid-18th-century Britcher. As Allen justly observes (Britcher's Scores, p. 136), his "importance lies in the fact that he was the first provider of regular fundamental information on cricket. His series of annuals gave a precedent for the likes of Denison, Haygarth, Lillywhite and Wisden. If one accepts that the Scores are not an unassailable factual source, they do in a totally authentic way give a rare flavour of the times". Padwick 869.
A Complete List of All the Grand Matches of Cricket that have been played in the year 1795
London: printed in the year 1795. 8vo. (8 x 4¼in; 204 x 110mm), 36p. (title a little frayed and thumb soiled, last leaf torn at upper margin), disbound. Provenance: pencilled accounts on title verso -- Edwin Hammond (1836-1913, grandson of John Hammond, ownership inscription on front blank giving his address at Rose Cottage, Storrington, Sussex).
Of five recorded copies of the sixth edition, one is at MCC (acquired from Epworth as a "swop"), and one at the John Rylands Library. The other three copies, which of course include the Hammond copy, are in private hands. This is an important edition since the final three pages give the laws of cricket (Rait Kerr, p. 118, erroneously states that the laws were not included in Britcher until 1796). While the above provenance applies to all four editions being offered for sale, the flyleaf with Edwin Hammond's signature is sold with this edition, having been bound adjacent to it.
It seems appropriate that this sale of great cricket books should end with a mid-18th-century Britcher. As Allen justly observes (Britcher's Scores, p. 136), his "importance lies in the fact that he was the first provider of regular fundamental information on cricket. His series of annuals gave a precedent for the likes of Denison, Haygarth, Lillywhite and Wisden. If one accepts that the Scores are not an unassailable factual source, they do in a totally authentic way give a rare flavour of the times". Padwick 869.
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