The Art of Cricket
The English are very fond of a game they call cricket. For this purpose, they go into a large open field and knock a small ball about with a piece of wood. I will not attempt to describe this game to you, it is too complicated…
Cesar de Saussure, A Foreign View of England in the Reigns of George I and George II, 1728
Cricket, a great leveller, was played by all levels of society, from rural workers to aristocrats. It quickly became a popular recreation in London and the South-East counties in the first half of the 18th century. Starting from its rural origins, cricket became entrenched as a pastime for the elite and emerging middle and leisure classes as the century progressed. Cricket societies and clubs burgeoned, and in 1744, the first laws of cricket were drawn up. These laws were revised some decades later, in 1774, with the introduction of now-familiar rules such as ‘lbw’ and the addition of a third stump. These codes were established by the gentlemen of the Star and Garter Club, whose members later formed the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) at Lord’s in 1787. To this day, the MCC remains the custodian of the laws of cricket and is responsible for revising the game’s rules.
In the 18th century, cricket was somewhat unruly, both on and off the field. The selling of beverages at games and enthusiastic gambling—Georgian society's most popular leisure pursuit—on match outcomes and individual players’ exploits often fuelled this unruliness. Some may argue that little has changed since then. Reports of gambling-related violence at cricket games were not uncommon. The Daily Post of 25 August 1731 records that the Duke of Richmond’s Eleven was ‘greatly insulted by the mob, some of the men having their shirts torn off their backs’ following a match with Mr Chambers’ Eleven.
In elegant contrast, the George III Battersea enamel cricket medallion offers a refined depiction of the game’s artefacts. Although the 1780 inscription on the reverse dates the piece, the objects shown also help to date it. We see the three stumps, the typical shoulderless bat with its twine-wrapped handle—soon to be superseded by the first shouldered bat, introduced only a couple of years earlier—and the unmistakable cricket ball. The modern cricket ball, introduced in the second half of the 18th century, was manufactured by Duke & Son in Kent. It featured a cork interior and a leather shell with rows of stitching. Cricket kit occasionally appeared as props in portraiture, and one such contemporary painting demonstrates that the distinctive red colour of the ball is indeed accurate.
A 1793 group portrait by English painter Thomas Beach (1738–1806) shows William, Mary Ann, and John de la Pole as Children in a landscape setting with their family home, Shute House in Devon.
Sandwiched between her brothers, a somewhat disinterested Mary Ann holds a straw hat in one hand and a cherry-red stitched cricket ball in the other (Collection of Antony, Private Collection, Cornwall, NT 358008).
The Battersea medallion, inscribed Wednesdays Cricket Society, Revived and Established 1780, Edward Medley, Treasurer, is indeed a wonderful historical document and a rarity. On April 20, 2002, the British Antique Trade Gazette reported the sale of a comparable medallion inscribed, Unanimous Gift of the Thursday Cricket Society to their Late President, Mr Saml. Welsh 1788. This item attracted interest from the Marylebone Cricket Club and renowned collector Sir Paul Getty, eventually selling at Duke’s Dorchester salerooms to an anonymous buyer for £28,000.