Australian Cricket Annual. A Complete Record of Australian Cricket in 1896-7. Second Year, 1897
Melbourne, George Robertson & Co., [1897].
Duodecimo, [viii], 247, [3] pages with 6 illustrations (one a line illustration, the others portraits from photographs).
Publisher's full morocco, ruled and lightly decorated in blind front and rear, the spine lettered in gilt with raised bands ruled in blind, all edges of the boards gilt-decorated, with gilt inner dentelles; all edges marbled, with marbled endpapers (with 'Geo. Robertson's Binding' stamped in gilt at the foot of the front pastedown); leather a little scuffed, lightly sunned on the spine, and a little rubbed at the extremities, with minimal conservation to a small abraded section of the leading edge of the front cover; trifling signs of use and age; overall, an excellent copy.
Provenance: Andrew Ernest Stoddart, with the verso of the binder's blank facing the title page inscribed in ink by the editor to 'A.E. Stoddart | with compliments | J.C. Davis 1897'. Andrew Ernest Stoddart (1863-1915), 'one of the greatest of batsmen' (his obituary in Wisden) was in Australia when he was given this book. It was his fourth and final visit, this time as captain of the England team that unsuccessfully defended the Ashes he had emphatically retained as captain on his previous tour in 1894-95. The tourists arrived in the country late in October and were here for five months. The first Test commenced in Sydney on 13 December 1897; the second commenced in Melbourne on 1 January 1898. The 'Sydney Morning Herald' announced in its issue of Tuesday 2 November 1897 that this second annual had just been published; we presume this copy was presented to Stoddart over that short interval. The standard issue of this annual is bound in wrappers; this deluxe morocco binding would appear to be reserved for presentation copies, and seen in this context, Stoddart's copy would have to be hard to beat. However, the tour was both a disappointment and an unhappy one for Stoddart, on several levels. England won the first Test, then lost the remaining four, and the Ashes. Stoddart 'only played in the third and fourth Test matches, following the news before the first Test that his mother had died' (Wikipedia). His last first-class match with Middlesex was in 1900, when he amassed 221, his highest score in first-class cricket. 'He has the unique distinction in captaining England in three distinct sports; cricket, rugby union and Australian rules football.... But like many wholehearted sportsmen, including fellow England captain, Arthur Shrewsbury, with whom he had opened the batting in Australia in 1893, he found life difficult after leaving the arena. In 1915, in failing health and burdened by debt he committed suicide' by shooting himself in the head. Padwick 3357 (the second of only three annuals published in the series).
Item #127776
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