Object number
TN.2008.1813
Title
The Second Part of Youthful Diversions. Youth Playing Cricket
Date
1739-05-07 - 1739-05-07
Creator
Material
Size
Description
Border illustrating the children’s games of- cricket, sea-sawing, spinning of tops, youth sliding on the ice, swinging on the rope and leapfrog. Illustrated border with seven illustrations of children playing cricket and five other games, all annotated.
Display caption
DRAFT ENTRIES BY JILL SHEFRIN FOR THE SIX WRITING BLANKS/SCHOOL PIECES HELD BY THE MCC MUSEUM (TEXT © JILL SHEFRIN 2022):
THE SECOND PART OF YOUTHFUL DIVERSIONS. Publishd according to Act of Parliament 7th. May 1739 & Sold by J. Cole Engraver in Great Kirby Street, Hatton Garden. [MCC TN.2008.1813
Sheet (48 × 37 cm.) printed from a copperplate. Series no.: 73
Six captioned images attributable to Hubert-François Gravelot illustrate youthful pastimes. At head of sheet: “Youth Playing at Cricket;” at left:” Leapfrog;” “Swinging on the Rope;” at right: “Sea-sawing;” “Spinning of Tops;” at foot: “Youth Sliding on the Ice.”
Several of Cole’s images from this were reproduced, without captions and colored, on an imitation Chinese porcelain covered bowl that was part of a tea set manufactured in East London ca. 1744. Charleston and Mallet identify these as re-engraved from the Jeux by Hubert-François Gravelot: “One, ‘Le Jeu de la Toupie,’ is identical in all respects with Cole’s 1739 sheet.” On pieces of the tea set they found “Youth Playing at Cricket;” “Youth Sliding on Ice;” “Swinging on the Rope;” and, from the companion piece Youthful Diversions [Sxxx], “Throwing at Cocks.”
Gravelot, a draughtsman, painter, and engraver, was resident in Britain between 1732 and 1745. According to The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists, he “played an important role in introducing the French Rococo style to England,” and the ODNB describes him as “probably the greatest single influence on the development of book illustration in eighteenth-century England.”
The scenes of “Youth Playing at Cricket” “Youth Sliding on the Ice” and … also appeared in George Bickham’s The British Monarchy (1744? 1748????). It appears to be the earliest confirmed depiction of cricket in the collection of the Marylebone Cricket Club.
Throwing at cocks, also known as cock-threshing or cock-running was a sport in which a cock or hen had one leg tied to a stake or other object and players threw heavy sticks at it, the winner being the one who succeeded in killing it. “Schoolchildren were typically allowed to play the game at Shrovetide, with the schoolmaster's assistance, although cock-fighting was more common in this context.”
Sources: R. J. Charleston and J. V. G. Mallet, “Problematical Groups of Eighteenth-century Porcelains,” English Ceramic Circle Transactions 8:1 (1971), pp…. ; Christies Auction 5269, “Cricket, Tennis, Golf & Traditional Sport” (July 3, 2007) , lot 49 (images cut from school piece and mounted together)
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