Object number
M.2022.7
Title
A Game of Cricket, 1790
Date
1790 - 1790
Creator
Production notes
circle of Paul Sandby attribution in Christie's valution 2013
Material
Size
Image only Ht x W: 58.5 x 93.5 cm
Description
Rural cricket scene. Gentlemen wearing whites and hats on a slightly uneven ground surrounded by trees. Two scorers seated in foreground with their backs to the viewer. There is a bucket on their right and red coats and bats next to the chairs. Church steeple in background and house on left hand side.
Handwritten note on reverse of canvas states 'Cricket at Hambledon 1777'
Display caption
A Game of Cricket, c. 1790
English School
MCC Collection
Oil on canvas
This scene has all the traditional traits of a late eighteenth century cricket scene: players wearing everyday clothing and umpires wearing long coats leaning on bats; a field lined with oak trees; and two scorers seated in the central foreground by an oak barrel.
By the 1790s, many elements of cricket were becoming standardised and recognisable to the modern eye. The widely circulated Laws of Cricket regulated play. The wickets were higher and had three stumps rather than the original two. Balls were still delivered underarm but no longer rolled along the ground; bowlers now delivered them into the air so that they bounced before reaching the batsman. The bats are more modern in form here with a straighter edge and distinctive flat face.
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