Transitioning my enquiry across terms, I began to position the role of bats as symbols of cricket’s material culture within a broader range of commemorative and archival objects that have been used to preserve and document (the predominantly British) history of the sport. The various forms of representation tend to begin as utilitarian — things like scorecards, invitations, announcements and menus — before taking on a commemorative role in their “post-utitlity” states.
But more importantly, I wanted to dig deeper into my own affinity to the bats and understand how that is rooted in this broader sense of commemoration within the sport. Below are some examples scanned from books published over 30 years ago, documenting Britain’s cricketing legacy.
These etchings are quite interesting because they depict a match that never took place. Instead they are forgeries of a separate reference image. The key plate in particular is a curious for of representation, adding an additional layer of inscription that is intended to clarify the image, but may not actually add much to it.
Menus seem to be a recurring form of preservation; teams often hosted banquets and dinners and lunch/tea breaks are a fixed interval in matches. Look at that toast list! Slightly bizarre how all these elements (politics, nationalism, food) are brought together by the sport.
Later, objects take a more prominent role in the commemoration, still idiosyncratic. Cufflinks, china, fans with scorecards printed onto them..
Paper/print is still important, but it’s the objects that I find most interesting.