The Noblest Game : A Book of Fine Cricket Prints.

Cloth, large 8vo, 36 cm, 29 pp, 64 full-page plates and facing text. From the blurb: "Two great cricket writers here present what they believe to be the finest cricket pictures in existence - a vintage collection that has been maturing in their minds during a friendship of over a quarter of a century. The Noblest Game opens with Sir Neville recalling for the reader the cricket of the past, from the days of Hambledon to Bradman, with the elegance and wit of the natural raconteur. It is the fascinating story of the development of cricket, of outstanding players that the game has known, with all manner of anecdotes about them.The book goes on to show over sixty old prints and paintings, superbly reproduced and mostly in full colour. Every one of these pictures tells a story - or rather a part of a story. They include the work of J. C. Anderson, Felix, Rowlandson, Hayman, Sir Leslie Ward ('Spy'), Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape'), and Sir Max Beerbohm. John Arlott, an authority on and a collector of old cricket prints, completes each story with a graphic commentary - historical, social, and aesthetic. There can be very few writers who could put the art of illustrating cricket so clearly in its historical perspective, showing the background of the Regency 'picturesque', the stylised portraiture of the mid-nineteenth century, and the highly personal caricaturing of nationally idolised cricketers of the era in which a front page headline "Disaster for England" could only refer to one thing. To all lovers of cricket The Noblest Game recreates scenes from a leisurely past - with long summer days, good games, and good company. It is one of the most engrossing and one of the most sumptuous cricket books ever published." Gift inscription on front free endpaper. Good in badly torn dustwrapper.…