Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanacks,
Football & Sporting Memorabilia
Held on Friday, Saturday & Sunday
22nd, 23rd & 24th March 2024
Lot 79
Estimate: £300/500
Hammer: £600
Lillywhite’s tour to Australia 1876/77. First Test-playing tour of Australia by an English side. ‘Australian Match [tour]. Lillywhite & Hobgen’. Interesting pre-agreement draft of a document assumed to have been drawn up by solicitors in advance of the tour, dated 25th July 1876, comprising a single page manuscript legal folio page of the ‘forfeiture clause’ for the articles of agreement between Arthur Hogben and James Lillywhite, outlining the terms of Hogben’s financing of the proposed tour by the England team to Australia. The document states ‘Lillywhite to arrange for engagement and passage out of team. A. Hogben to find £2000 before the start if he does not accompany the team. If he does- £3000- or sum not exceeding 2000 if he not on arrival at Melbourne. A.H. if he goes to assist J.L. with management and control. The profits of the match [tour] after payment of expenses as set forth in the agreement with the players- the one fourth assured to be divided among them and the 7%[?] to the agent in Melbourne to be divided in equal shares bet[ween] J.L. & A.H. J.L. also to divide his 12th[?] share in the 4th[quarter?] of the profits with A.H.’. Accompanying this is a further single page document on blue paper, which states ‘James Lillywhite as I write[?] proposes to make himself liable to the 12[?] players. I have from the agent with this extra & have found the players as tight as I can. Should it be too stiff for them, it must be made a bit easier. Yet however it executes as it should if possible[?]’. Signed by ‘Messrs B. Wale, A.C. Smith July 25 [18]76’, possibly the solicitors. To the verso (crossed out), ‘The [ ]th of [ ] AD 1876. James [?] Lillywhite & Southerton, Jt[?] agents’. Light folds to both pages, the blue document with age toning to edges and later tape repair to split, otherwise in good condition. Qty 2.
Arthur Hogben of Chichester, Sussex, was an amateur cricketer wealthy estate agent, and the son of a farmer. Similar ‘Articles of Agreement’ documents were sold by Christies as lot 117 in their sale of 17th November 2010. Those were dated 29th July 1876, four days after these examples were drafted.
The tour went ahead with a team of professionals selected by Lillywhite, comprising Armitage, Emmett, Greenwood, Hill and Ulyett of Yorkshire, Charlwood, Lillywhite and Southerton of Sussex, Jupp and Pooley from Surrey, Selby and Shaw of Nottinghamshire. Despite setbacks on the New Zealand leg, including Ted Pooley being arrested over a betting brawl, the tour was a financial success with the players, who were originally offered £150 each and first-class passage throughout the tour, being paid double their original guaranteed fees.
On their return to Melbourne after a rough crossing from New Zealand, a match was played against a combined Australian XI, retrospectively designated the first Test match to be played, Australia winning by 45 runs.
The tour went ahead with a team of professionals selected by Lillywhite, comprising Armitage, Emmett, Greenwood, Hill and Ulyett of Yorkshire, Charlwood, Lillywhite and Southerton of Sussex, Jupp and Pooley from Surrey, Selby and Shaw of Nottinghamshire. Despite setbacks on the New Zealand leg, including Ted Pooley being arrested over a betting brawl, the tour was a financial success with the players, who were originally offered £150 each and first-class passage throughout the tour, being paid double their original guaranteed fees.
On their return to Melbourne after a rough crossing from New Zealand, a match was played against a combined Australian XI, retrospectively designated the first Test match to be played, Australia winning by 45 runs.