Sport, cricket, 1897, antique print, Grace, Brown, English Cricketers, photogravure

Photographic Portraits (double-sided) of English Cricketers, Edward Mills Grace & J.T. Brown.

Antique photogravures from photographs by E. Hawkins & Co.

Printed by News of the World, London 1897.

Images 18 x 25.5cm (7 1/6 x 10 1/6 inch)

Condition = Excellent

Each image has a short cricketing & character synopsis beneath & respectively a copied signature:

E.M. Grace (Edward Mills Grace) "The senior of the three Graces..he was born in 1841, is the oldest cricketer playing... A remarkable hitter...remarkable debut in 1862...he not only took every wicket of Kent in their second innings, but going in first to score 192 not out...Known as "The Coroner", from the fact that  he is the Coroner of West Gloucestershire. Signed Yours Faithfully, Edward Mills Grace" This photographic portrait Grace is standing  t the entrance  to  a magnificent Hall,  cricket bat handle in his right hand, cradling the bat, face out, with his left. He is looking past the viewer's left, dressed in his cricket whites, shirt done up to the neck, his batting pads on, with  a full mustache and sideburns.

 J.T. Brown " Six years of County crickethas plced Brown in a place in the forefront of batsmen...recently with Mr. Stoddart's team in Australia....The Australian Tour ...increased his reputation (winning) the last of the test matcheds for England...he a reliable batsman on any wicket. A sure field...particularly at point".Brown is photographed looking to the right of the viewer, shirt collar opened, cricket ball in left hand, right had resting on he plinth beside his right hip. He has a neat smwll moustach an dhair neatly parted of the left.

The new technology of photogravuring revolutionized the printing industry. For the first time a photographic image could be printed onto paper. News of the World, chose the sport of cricket to showcase this new printing technique first used by the Americans to illustrate a sport close to their hearts, photographs of the American yacht designs by Nathaniel L.Stebbins, 1889.