Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Football, Golf & Sporting Memorabilia
Held on Friday, Saturday & Sunday
21st, 22nd & 23rd March 2025
Lot 1006
Estimate: £1500/2500
Hammer: £1000
‘Cricket. An Heroic Poem Illustrated with the Critical Observations of Scriblerus Maximus... by James Love, Comedian’. James Dance. Printed for the Author, London 1770. Fourth edition. iv, 30pp. Dedicated ‘To the Members of the Cricket Club, at Richmond, in Surrey’. The first separately published poem on cricket. James Dance (1722-1774) assumed the name of Love as a compliment to his wife. The mock heroic couplets describe the match between Kent and England played on the Artillery Ground on the 2nd June 1744. This edition has an additional five page Epilogue titled ‘Bucks Have at Ye All’. Bound in quarter calf/ brown morocco, gilt title ‘Love’s Cricket. An Heroic Poem 1770’ to front. Padwick 6445. Expert repairs to the title and rear pages, some wear to spine, otherwise in good/ very good condition. One of the rarest cricket books.