Laws of Cricket Illustrated - Charles Chas Crombie (illustrator) 1907 - Kegan Paul, London - First Edition A superb large folio (38.5 x 27.5 cm) of Crombie’s well known ‘Laws of Cricket’ containing twelve magnificent colour plates of humorous interpretations of the MCC laws. The last plate demonstrating the recently amended rule 13, with the Umpire calling ‘Over’ after six balls (prior to 1900 an ‘Over’ consisted of five balls).

Crombie was commissioned to produce these for ‘Perrier’ ‘The Champagne of Table Waters’, and the work includes Perrier’s additional full page colour advertisement at the rear, and smaller colour Perrier advertisements to the verso of each of Crombie’s illustrations, the latter only present in the first edition.
  One of three works commissioned by Perrier, the other two being on the rules of driving ‘Motoritis’ (1906) and ‘The Rules of Golf’ (1905).

Charles ‘Chas’ Exeter Devereux Crombie (1880-1967), son of Scottish architect James Crombie. Charles worked as an artist and sculptor, and by 1911 he was living with his wife in Hogarth House, Lambeth (part of which, in 1915, was sold to Leonard and Virginia Woolf, who named their publishing and printing business ‘Hogarth Press’). Crombie became a popular and successful illustrator and sporting cartoonist, most well known for this three books of cartoons produced for the French company of Perrier on Driving ‘Motoritis’, ‘The Rules of Golf’, and ‘Laws of Cricket’.

First Edition points: Colour vignette of Perrier advertisement to the verso of each of the twelve illustrations. This is the only distinguishing feature of the first edition, they were removed for later printings, but the full page colour advertisement continued to be included at the rear.

Reference: Padwick,
Bibliography of Cricket, 7012.

Oblong folio. Sheets as follows: Title page, twelve coloured plates each with Perrier advertisement to verso, full page colour advertisement plate for Perrier. Pages are not numbered and there are no free endpapers. In publishers yellow paper boards, front panel illustrated and lettered in black, with white highlighting to players whites, rear panel blank, spine in terracotta cloth, block stapled, brown paper pastedowns.
  Condition: Fine but for the toning to title sheet encountered in all copies due to acidity of facing front pastedown, in near fine illustrated boards showing light soiling and minor marking to red cloth spine from original staples as usual.   Ref: 111294   Price: HK$ 15,000