Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Football, Golf & Sporting Memorabilia
To be held on Friday, Saturday & Sunday
29th, 30th November & 1st December 2024
Lot 337
Estimate: £70/100
A Benjamin Warsop bat of 1884. ‘Rev. W.H. Churchill’s Warsop Conqueror’. Impressed to the face on each shoulder, ‘B. Warsop, Marylebone’. Below the splice, the impressed mark in circular motif of ‘B. Warsop Conqueror Patent Spring Handle Trade Mark’ and below that ‘Registered’. Alongside the splice, handwritten in ink the inscription ‘Churchill Cambridge 1884’, and similarly to the back, faintly inscribed ‘Churchill’. The face of the bat is a little convex, the back slightly humped, the blade thicker at the toe than at the shoulder. The handle is formed from six shaped canes joined to two central horizontal canes with three strips of rubber. The bat measures 34.5” and weighs 2lbs 7oz with bound handle and binding to face. Sold with the late vendor’s research notes giving further information on the bat. Good/ very good condition.
Originally from Nottingham, Benjamin Warsop opened his bat making business in St. John’s Wood, London in 1870. He and his four sons made the ‘Conqueror’ one of the best selling bats of the 1880s. This ‘Patent’ bat was the top of the range.
Rev. William Churchill was a noted athlete in the 1870s, played cricket at Marlborough and making one first-class appearance, for an England XI with W.G. Grace, in 1877.
Rev. William Churchill was a noted athlete in the 1870s, played cricket at Marlborough and making one first-class appearance, for an England XI with W.G. Grace, in 1877.