International Autograph Auctions Ltd.
Lot 12
GRACE W. G.: (1848-1915) English Cricketer. A very fine, important A.L.S., W. G. Grace, three pages, 8vo, Ashley Down, Bristol, 7th October 1898, to [A. J.] Webbe, on the attractive printed stationery of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club featuring a colour monogrammed emblem incorporating two cricket bats. Grace announces 'The club at the Palace is to be started. I am managing secretary. We propose to call it the London County Cricket Club' and continues to inform his correspondent that 'Stands and new Pavilion are to be built with every requisite we can imagine'. Grace further asks 'Will you come and help us by joining the Club and become one of the committee, to help set things going', adding 'If you will, it will be awfully nice to fix some good second class cricket matches, which you and myself can play in, with enjoyment, without being made fun of by the spectators and caricatured by the papers'. Grace also refers to the potential change in his domestic arrangements following his career decision, 'We are afraid we shall have great trouble in getting a comfortable house, at a reasonable rent close to the Palace. I was house hunting all yesterday afternoon, but could only find one suitable, and that was almost twice the rent we ought to give'. A letter of exceptional content relating to the twilight of Grace's remarkable career and the birth of the short-lived London County Cricket Club. Some very slight traces of former mounting to the verso of the final page, otherwise VG Alexander Josiah Webbe (1855-1941) English Cricketer who played for Oxford University and Middlesex, as well as one Test Match for England. Webbe played for the Gentlemen at Lord's and made 65 out of 203 in the opening stand, which he shared with Grace. Webbe would appear to have declined Grace's invitation in the present letter as he was to remain a member of the committee of the Marylebone Cricket Club until 1909 (a post he had taken up in 1886) and also served as secretary of Middlesex from 1900-22, following his retirement as a player. The short-lived London County Cricket Club was formed by the Crystal Palace Company when they invited Grace to assist in establishing a club in 1898, as confirmed by the present letter. As a result Grace severed his connections with Gloucestershire CCC in the 1899 season. London County Cricket Club played first class matches between 1900-04 and some of the leading players of the time, including C. B. Fry, Albert Trott and Ranjitsinhji, took to the field for the club, whilst continuing to play for their usual teams. The increase in the importance of the County Championship, Grace's own decline in form (an inevitability at the age of over 50) and the lack of a competitive element, as Grace hints to in the present letter, led to a decline in spectators and a subsequent fall in revenue. With the Club losing money it played its final first class matches in 1904.
