The Cricket Bat and How to Use It. A Treatise on The Game of Cricket. With Practical and Scientific Instructions on Batting, Bowling and Fielding. The Laws of Cricket. Match-Playing, Single-Wicket, etc. - Nicholas Wanostrocht Felix An Old Cricketer 1863 - Houlston and Wright, London - First Edition, Second Issue A pretty example of this early and important work by the great ‘Felix’, rare in the original gilt cloth boards.

In the words of the famous elegy, best loved of Bernard Darwin:-

And with five such mighty cricketers 'twas but natural to win
As Felix, Wenman, Hillyer, Fuller Pilch and Alfred Mynn.

Nicholas ‘Felix’ Wanostrocht (1804-76) was a noted English amateur (’Gentleman’) cricketer, a classical scholar, musician, linguist, inventor, writer and artist. When his father died in 1824 he had inherited the running of his school, aged only nineteen, and he was afraid that the parents of pupils might think that cricket was too frivolous a pastime for a schoolmaster, so he played under the name of ‘Felix’. A specialist left-handed batsman, though he did occasionally bowl underarm slow left-arm orthodox, Felix was a mainstay of the great Kent team of the mid-19th century alongside such players as Alfred Mynn, Fuller Pilch, William Hillyer and Ned Wenman.
  “Felix” played for Kent from 1830 until 1852. He also appeared for MCC and was a popular member of the All-England Eleven. In his overall first-class career, Felix played in 149 matches and had 264 innings including 13 not out. He scored 4,556 runs at 18.15 with a highest score of 113. He made 2 centuries, 15 fifties and took 112 catches. It should be remembered when studying his batting average that he played at a time when prevailing conditions greatly favoured bowlers. Felix was rated very highly by his contemporaries.

As well as writing two famous instruction book, the other being ‘
Felix on the Bat’, he also invented the Catapulta (a bowling machine) as well as India-rubber batting gloves.

Reference: Padwick,
Bibliography of Cricket 398 (First edition 1861, second issue 1863, second edition 1865). Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies. Barclay's World of Cricket 10. Abbey, Life 396.

pp. [4] 96. Publisher green blind embossed green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front panel with gilt vignette of two cricketers, brown coated endpapers.
  Condition: Near fine, light rubbing to edges and corners, a little foxing to the title page   Ref: 108617   Price: HK$ 4,000