Victor Thomas Trumper. New South Wales & Australia 1894-1914. Original photograph album compiled by Frank Laver, manager of the 1909 tour to England, which he produced as gifts to members of the Australian touring party, this being Trumper’s personal copy numbered ‘13’. To the first page is a handwritten inscription in ink, ‘To Victor Trumper. A Souvenir of a very successful and pleasant [time] together as members of the “Thirteenth” Australian Cricket Team, Season 1909. With very best wishes fr Auction of Cricket, Wisden Cricketers' Almanacks, Football and Sporting Memorabilia - 3 Day Auction | Sporting Memorabilia

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Victor Thomas Trumper. New South Wales & Australia 1894-1914. Original photograph album compiled by Frank Laver, manager..

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Knight's Sporting Auctions

Knight's Sporting Auctions

Auction of Cricket, Wisden Cricketers' Almanacks, Football and Sporting Memorabilia - 3 Day Auction (#7) 18/11/2022 10:30 AM GMT Closed
Starts Ending 18/11/2022 10:30 AM GMT

Lot #361Victor Thomas Trumper. New South Wales & Australia 1894-1914. Original photograph album compiled by Frank Laver, manager of the 1909 tour to England, which he produced as gifts to members of the Australian touring party, this being Trumper’s personal copy numbered ‘13’. To the first page is a handwritten inscription in ink, ‘To Victor Trumper. A Souvenir of a very successful and pleasant [time] together as members of the “Thirteenth” Australian Cricket Team, Season 1909. With very best wishes fr

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Lot closed - Winning bid:N/A

Estimate: £12,000 - £15,000

Description

Victor Thomas Trumper. New South Wales & Australia 1894-1914. Original photograph album compiled by Frank Laver, manager of the 1909 tour to England, which he produced as gifts to members of the Australian touring party, this being Trumper’s personal copy numbered ‘13’. To the first page is a handwritten inscription in ink, ‘To Victor Trumper. A Souvenir of a very successful and pleasant [time] together as members of the “Thirteenth” Australian Cricket Team, Season 1909. With very best wishes from Frank Laver, London October 1909’. The album is bound in original red cloth, rebacked and recornered in red morocco and new endpapers, and housed in a modern clamshell case with, to the front, an oval miniature colour oil portrait of Trumper in batting pose after a photograph by George Beldam. Gilt borders to covers, with raised bands and gilt to spine. All contained in a green cloth slip case.The album was sold as lot 109 in the Christies sale of 23rd November 1990 to the collector, John Hawkins, who had the case made for the album. He also produced a booklet, ‘Victor Trumper’s Photograph Album of the Australian Cricket Team’s Tour of the British Isles in 1909’ published by Christopher Saunders in 2005, in which he provides a commentary on the background to the album and a listing of the enclosed images, assisted in part by a two page listing handwritten in pencil in Trumper’s own hand on his sporting business letterhead, which is enclosed loose in a matching portfolio in the box. The album, now in its new case, was sold again by Christies as lot 283 in their sale of 30th October 2012. The album comprises a total of ninety nine original mono photographs. The Christies catalogue for the 1990 sale describes the album thus but, strangely, the 2012 catalogue describes it as ‘containing 86 photographs’. We can confirm that the album contains ninety nine images.The first seventy photographs, each measuring 4.5”x6.5” and laid down two to a page, form the original contents of the album as compiled by Laver, depicting scenes from the 1909 tour. Subjects include members of the touring party swimming in Sydney, departing Melbourne on the ‘Orantes’, and visiting sites en route in Ceylon, Suez Canal, Naples and Pompeii, and the team on board the White Star Liner, ‘Adriatic’, at Southampton.Cricket content include scenes of large crowds in the stands and promenading in the Test matches at Edgbaston, which England won by ten wickets, Lord’s, where the Australians levelled the series with a nine wicket win, Leeds, Australia winning by 126 runs, Trumper scoring 27no batting at number seven in the first innings, and the drawn match at The Oval in which Trumper scored 73 and 20 with Warren Bardsley becoming the first player to score a century in both innings of a Test match. Australia won the series 2-1 with two matches drawn. Other cricket matches featured include the tour match v Gloucestershire at Cheltenham College where, captained by Trumper, they narrowly avoided defeat, and a high scoring draw at Canterbury against Kent.Other images include attending the Henley Regatta, visiting stately homes, Eton College and attractions such as the ‘flying cars’ at Blackpool, and a photograph of Annette Kellerman, standing full length on a diving board. Kellerman swam for Australia at the 1908 Olympics in London. This section of the album closes with seventeen excellent photographs of the majority of the members of the touring party, each depicted individually in cricket attire at the wicket. Players depicted are Noble, Trumper (twice), Macartney, Whitty, Carter, Carkeek, Hopkins, McAlister, Armstrong, O’Connor, Macartney, Gregory, Bardsley, Ransford, Cotter and Hartigan.The remainder of the album appears to have been personalised by Trumper, there being a further twenty nine photographs, all slightly smaller, each measuring approx. 4.5”x3.75”, from other tours including ten depicting Trumper and W.G. Grace batting in the nets and Trumble bowling, probably from the 1902 tour to England. These do not appear to have been listed by Hawkins and these so called ‘missing’ images may explain the discrepancy between the two Christies catalogue listings. There next follow eight photographs from the 1903/04 series in Australia, and a further eleven, also probably from the 1902 tour. The 1903/04 images were taken during practice at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and feature R.A. Duff, C.B. Jennings, R.E. Foster, G.H. Hirst, H. Strudwick, B.J.T. Bosanquet, L.C. Braund and Trumper. Those from 1902 include action from the tour match v M.C.C. and Ground at Lord’s with Grace fielding, also George Hirst bowling, and another of Grace, described by John Hawkins as ‘the only known action photograph of W.G. Grace bowling his teasing round arm deliveries’. Others appear to be taken at Lord’s and Crystal Palace. Some fading to the images makes player identification difficult. The final image in the album is the Australian touring party photographed with unidentified hosts at a social event.
The album with slight wear to original board extremities, some foxing to pages, and some internal page gutters reinforced with grey tape, otherwise in very good condition

Victor Trumper, who toured with the Australian team on the 1899, 1902, 1905 and 1909 tours of England, was regarded by many of his contemporaries as the greatest of all Australian batsman. His highest first class score was 300no v Sussex in 1899, and he scored almost 17,000 runs at an average of 44.57. The 1909 tour was to be his last to the Mother Country. By 1914 his health had deteriorated and in 1915 he died of Bright’s disease aged only 37 years.
Albums such as this that Laver produced share common photographs but were personalised with images relevant to the specific recipient. This copy has been further personalised by Trumper to create a unique personal souvenir of tours on which Trumper played. Each album was numbered sequentially by the player’s alphabetical listing on the tour party. Interestingly this means that Trumper’s copy should have been number ‘14’. John Hawkins suggests ‘someone was not presented with one... the player in question was McAlister who had been foisted on to the team by the Board of Control, and was therefore unpopular with both the manager, Laver, and the captain, Noble’
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