Beschreibung:

AUTOGRAPH ALBUM A large album, [1890's], 4to. (8¾ x 7in; 224 x 181mm), 29ll., thick card, rectos decorated with original designs in watercolour and bodycolour, one leaf with 14 autographs of Australia 1896 including the manager, another 14 leaves devoted to home cricketers and arranged by county, about 100 signatures in total, the majority directly signed, others mounted, with letterpress dates of birth and death cut out and added below each signature at a later date, also with 3 tipped-in letters from E.A. English, J.G. Greig and C.B. Fry to H.S. Altham and E.D.R. Eagar, dated 1954-59. Later binding of mid-20th-century half pigskin, spine gilt lettered: "CRICKETERS' AUTOGRAPHS VOL. I", top edge gilt. [and:] T. BROADBENT TROWSDALE The Cricketer's Autograph Birthday Book London and Felling-on-Tyne: 1906. 4° (8¾ x 6¼in; 221 x 157mm), 12 plates, with original autographs entered according to birth date, over 800 cricketers in total and another 40 signatures of authors, pressmen, etc., some signed on the page, others cut out and mounted, ms notes by Eagar, including cross references to the above album, and 20-page typed index at rear arranged by country and county, with final leaf in ms. Mid-20th-century half pigskin uniform with the previous volume, spine gilt lettered: "CRICKETERS' AUTOGRAPHS VOL. II", top edge gilt. Padwick 7257. THESE TWO VOLUMES FORM A REMARKABLE AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION EMBRACING GENERATIONS OF CRICKET STARS. Most of the cricketers in vol. I were born in the 1860's and 70's, becoming prominent names in the late 19th/early 20th century. Those in vol. II, meticulously-compiled by Desmond Eagar, were born between the 1880's and 1930's; 80 Australians and 70 Hampshire players are included. (2)