Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Football, Golf & Sporting Memorabilia
Held on Friday, Saturday & Sunday
21st, 22nd & 23rd March 2025
Lot 717
Estimate: £2000/3000
Hammer: £2000
Lord Harris, George Robert Canning, Kent & England 1870-1911. Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1891 to 1931. 28th-68th editions, lacking the 1895 and 1898 editions. Thirty nine editions of the Almanack, formerly owned and from the library of Lord Harris. All editions are bound in green full leather, lacking wrappers, with gilt to all page edges, marbled end papers. The first five editions are signed in ink by Harris to the front end paper and twelve editions bear his bookplate, ‘Kent County Cricket Club’ handstamp to first end paper and odd other pages. Some ‘light’ fading to the spines of all editions to a greater or lesser extent and some general wear to boards and spines. The editions for 1891 to 1899 are bound without advertising pages, the editions from 1900 to 1931 are bound complete with the advertising pages. In the 1893 edition the bookplate is bound to the front of the book and the 1909 has broken internal hinges otherwise in good condition throughout. An excellent and rare opportunity to acquire books once held and collected by one of the pillars of Kent, England and world cricket
George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris, 1851 to 1932, generally known as Lord Harris, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Bombay, best known for developing cricket administration via Marylebone Cricket Club. An English amateur cricketer, from 1870 to 1889, Lord Harris played for Kent and England, captaining both teams. He was President of the Kent County Football Association between 1881 and 1908, as well as serving as a government minister from 1885 to 1900. Harris made his first-class debut for Kent in 1870 after he left Eton. Owing to his position in society, he was immediately elected to the club committee and was associated with Kent cricket for the rest of his life. He became county captain in 1871, although his appointment was not made official until after he left Oxford. Harris held the Kent captaincy until 1889. He led the English cricket team in Australia and New Zealand in 1878-79, The team had previously played a match against an All-Australia XI at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and this was later designated Test status as the third-ever Test match. Harris was therefore the second England Test captain after James Lillywhite. Harris captained England against Australia on three further occasions. In 1880 at The Oval, in what was later recognised as the inaugural Test match in England, England won by 5 wickets. The full span of Harris’ first-class cricket career was from 1870 to 1911, at 42 seasons one of the longest on record, though he made only seven appearances after 1889 when he relinquished the Kent captaincy so his essential playing career was from 1870 to 1889. He scored 9,990 runs in first-class cricket with a highest score of 176 among eleven centuries and held 190 catches. He took 75 wickets with a best analysis of five for 57. He died in 1932 at the age of 81 years