Sport, cricket, 1897, antique print, Australian John James Lyons, English Cricketers, photogravure

Photographic Portraits (double-sided) of Australian Cricketer, "J.J.Lyons" or Jack Lyons, & English "Players" many of whom toured to Australia in the English 1897-98 team.

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:

J.J. Lyons (Jack Lyons) "one of the most punishing of the many free hitting batsmen Australia has sent to England. The early part of 1885 saw his introduction to Intercolonial Cricket as well as his first appearance against the English Eleven. Three years later he was in England as one of the Sixth Australian Team...he scored well...in 1893...he made 149 in 105 minutes...a dangerous batsman, having great power, and hitting freely all round the wicket. on one occasion he made 158 in just over an hour...a useful medium-paced bowler...with a high integrity." This photographic portrait has Lyons looking at the viewer, he has a thick mustache, neatly clipped side-parted hair. He is posed with his right thumb slotted nonchalantly into his pants pocket while his left hand holds the handle of a bat. His shirt is casually open at the neck, with a dark patterned scarf rolled and used as a belt.

Players "Chatterton, Lockwood, Hearne, J. T., Flowers, Hearne (Umpire), Wainwright, Ward, A. Gunn (Captain), Martin, Brockwell, Briggs (wearing Batsman leg pads), Storer" All Players wear their County team caps, Wainwright and Brockwell are without caps, sitting astride bentwood chairs mirroring the other to balance the group portrait, while Hearne, the umpire, stands to the far right in the back row, wearing a dark suit jacket & waistcoat, matched with a straw boater hat.

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.