Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Football & Sporting Memorabilia

Arthur Alfred Mailey. New South Wales & Australia 1912-1931. Original four page handwritten letter in ink from Mailey to the Australian journalist and editor of ‘The Referee’ newspaper in Sydney, J.C. Davis. Written on Hotel Cecil, London, letterhead and dated 19th May 1921, on his first tour to England Mailey is writing during the match against Essex at Leyton and opens by stating ‘Although we are not allowed to write for newspapers... I don’t think I am breaking any contract in writing to you on matters purely personal’. He describes his pleasure of visiting London, ‘a wonderful city [that] has exceeded my expectations’ and wishes for more time to explore. He talks of ‘several papers [who] wanted me to draw exclusive sketches for them but I am now fixed up with the “Graphic” and “Bystander”’. Mailey is grateful for Davis’ ‘kindness of other days’ and remembers walking past the offices of ‘The Referee six times before I could sum up enough courage to approach that terrible blood-thirsty editor’. He closes with a brief reference to the tour, ‘the boys are all OK now and are confident of winning the Tests. Macdonald is going to do well and Andrews will be one of the best cricketers before the tour is over’. The letter is signed ‘Arthur Mailey’. Horizontal folds with some splitting to folds, minor foxing, otherwise in good condition. A fascinating insight into Mailey’s early careers as an artist and cricketer.