Fashionable Spectators at a Cricket Match

Big cricket matches were fixtures of the London season in the 1880s, when society came as much to be seen as to watch. The source painting for this print has not been identified.

A fielder in white flannels stoops to gather the ball at the boundary, right in front of the crowd. Ladies in bustles and feathered hats sit beside gentlemen in top hats along the front row, and one lady stands at the right under a lace parasol. Beyond the green, a brick pavilion with a balcony and flagpole looks over a packed stand, and a game goes on in the distance.

A colour reproduction print, with no signature or publisher’s line visible. In a gilt frame with a green outer edge and an ornate gilt slip.