A first edition of one of the world’s rarest books on cricket from the library of eminent cricket commentator and collector John Arlott is eyeing a world record when it goes on sale at the Firsts Rare Book Fair in London next month, priced at GBP 225,000. “Cricket. A Collection of All the Grand Matches of Cricket played in England within Twenty Years, viz. from 1771 to 1791” by William Epps was printed in 1799 and only a handful of copies are known to have ever existed. The writer was working at the very dawn of the collection of cricket statistics and the book is therefore valued as a precious account of the history of the sport.
“Epps’ volume has long been recognized as virtually unobtainable. Only a handful of copies are known, apparently, just four have previously come up at auction,” said Pom Harrington of rare bookseller Peter Harrington, which is offering the book for sale at the book fair event at London’s Saatchi Gallery between May 18 and 21.