Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Football & Sporting Memorabilia
Held on Friday, Saturday & Sunday
10th, 11th & 12th April 2026
Lot 1018
Estimate: £200/300
Hammer: £480
Charles Absolon 1817-1908. Rare and early original sepia cabinet card photograph of Absolon seated three quarter length wearing cricket attire and cap, ball in hand. The photograph is signed in ink to the top edge ‘Yours Truly, C. Absolon’, and dated in ink to the lower border, ‘30 May 1895’. A further annotation in ink to verso reads ‘Charlie Absolon gave me this 30 May 1895. He was 79 years old then. I saw him at Leyton when he was 94 [sic]. I played against him many times, once got 31 out of 40 & then he bowled me out. He bowled underhand lobs’. Photograph by W.S. Proe, Cricket & Athletic Outfitter, Rye Lane, Peckham. 4.25”x6.5”. The cabinet card is contained in a later brown envelope with further career details and statistics annotated to the front, ‘Between the ages of 50 and 80 he took 8,500 wickets and made 26,000 runs and the last year he played he took a hundred wickets. In one match he took the wickets of W.G. Grace, W.R. Gilbert and H Charlwood in 19 balls... Between 1871 and 1893 he did the hat-trick 59 times!’. Heavy crease to right portion of the image with old tape repair to verso. Small loss to all corners, some staining, otherwise in generally good condition.
Charles Absolon was a leading cricketer in the 19th century. Although he never played the game at first-class level, he probably played more games of cricket than any other man who lived. According to his Wisden obituary ‘he was in such request that he has often been known to take part in two matches in the same day’. Even at the end of his career, between the ages of 50 and 80, he took 8500 wickets and scored 26,000 runs in good class cricket in the London area. His obituary appeared in both the 1908 and 1909 editions of Wisden.