The Historically-Important and Sportingly-Fascinating Edwardian 10ct Rose-Gold Combination Dip-Pen and Propelling Pencil, by Sampson Mordan & Co
“Well gentlemen, here is the ancient Sanders”
Presented to the Rev. Canon Samuel Johnson Woodhouse Sanders LLD, MA, FGS, FRHistS on Sunday 18 April, 1909, by a former Anglo-Australian Tour First XI Cricketer and President of Leicester Rugby Football Club on the occasion of his retirement after its 16th Annual Thanksgiving Service.
S Mordan & Co (9 & 11 Warwick Street, London), Arrow-Marked, and V.S. stamped for ‘Very Soft’ Lead (Sampson Mordan Catalogue [1898], no. 213b)
90mm x 6.5mm [Retracted], 115mm [Extended], 13g Gross, with screw cap terminal exposing spare leads reservoir
Neatly Engraved S. J. W. S. in block-seriffed font, and at reverso in cursive script Annual Football Services / Leicester 1893-1909 / From the “Tigers” in three lines on unornamented barrel
The sliders firm and functional, the makers' marks sharp, good extremely fine and much as produced thus, a truly excellent example of this celebrated Patentee's workmanship, with an outstanding pedigree and Rugby and Cricketing interest far removed from its mere 'working-order' charm.
Leicester Football Club was formed on 3 August 1880 by the merger of three smaller local teams. On 10 September 1892, they played their first game at Welford Road, still home to the club today. Between 1898 and 1905, the Tigers dominated the Midlands Counties Cup, winning the contest for eight consecutive seasons. Between 1906 and 1908, the Club withdrew “to give other teams a chance”. As if to illustrate the point, upon their return in 1909, they won the cup again! To present, the Tigers remain the most successful English club in Rugby Football.
The Midland Free Press (Saturday 24 April 1909 refers) commented: “After the service, Mr J. Collier presented to Canon Sanders on behalf of the “Tigers” a gold pencil-case, together with a fountain pen, both suitably inscribed, as a mark of the club’s appreciation of his interest in the annual service for some years past. Canon Sanders acknowledged the compliment, and expressed his willingness to do anything in his power to assist in future”.
Samuel Johnson Woodhouse Sanders was born on Sunday 25 January 1846, the only son of Primitive Methodist Samuel Sanders and his wife Phoebe Woodhouse of Hadnall, Shropshire, late of Lichfield, Staffordshire. Graduating from St John’s College, Cambridge in 1864, he became Vice Master of Bedford County School in 1869. In February 1872, at the still tender age of 26, he graduated to Headmaster of Northampton Grammar School. In further recognition for his spiritual work, he was appointed Honorary Canon of Peterborough from 1890. In 1893, he took up the Vicarage of the Cathedral Church of St Martin, Leicester (home since March 2015 to the tomb of King Richard III), from which time until his retirement he hosted the Annual Thanksgiving Service for Members and Supporters of the “Tigers".
In 1899, he served as President for the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, amongst other commitments with the Leicestershire Museum Committee, Shakespeare Society and Natural History Society; and further fellowships to the Geological and Royal Historical Societies. Acknowledging his retirement in 1909, the Canon was presented also with a gold watch, a silver salver, two rose balls and an illuminated address by the congregation of St Martin’s. After years of failing eye-sight and poor health, he died late in the evening of Thursday 9 December, 1915 at the Vicarage at Rothley.
“Canon Sanders was a man of marked distinction. He spent the whole of his working life in this and the adjoining county of Northampton, and attained a popularity, enriched by high personal esteem, such as few men enjoy. He will be remembered in Leicester as an eloquent preacher - a man of high intellectual attainments, with a power and felicity of expression few could excel.” ~ Leicester Chronicle (Saturday 18 December, 1915)
Another obituary added: “His genial presence was always welcomed at such gatherings as his other duties permitted him to attend. As an after-dinner speaker, Canon Sanders was always in request. When in Leicester, and indeed since his departure to Rothley, he was frequently invited to public functions, and it was generally admitted that no public dinner was complete without his name appearing on the toast list. A very witty speaker and a good raconteur, he could always be depended on for an interesting address. A good joke he was fond of telling against himself concerned his age, an exaggerated idea of which was provided by his long flowing grey beard. It was while he held a mastership at Northampton Grammar School that proceeding along a corridor to a class-room, he heard a student give warning to other students, who were obviously sky-larking, 'Look out, here’s old Sanders'. After another scuffle the master found the class orderly by the time he entered the room, and addressing the students he exclaimed 'Well gentlemen, here is the ancient Sanders'. Telling the story, the deceased gentlemen would add: 'And that gentlemen, was nearly 40 years ago', and he would laugh as heartily as his hearers."
"Another of his jests which was repeated with much gusto by his friends was fired off at a dinner attended by local business men. The cigars were good and smoke was thick: and the Canon - who was a great smoker himself, by the way - announced that the evening had convinced him that “manufacturers should be compelled to consume their own smoke!”
"The vestry meeting at St. Martin’s Church was so much in the nature of a hustle that people arriving a few minutes late were apt to find the business transacted and the meeting over. One year the deceased gentleman smilingly announced: “Gentlemen, we have beaten the record by three minutes!” Although the premier church in town, the living of St. Martin’s was only £100 gross - one of the smallest in the country. It was, however, augmented by the congregation each year."
"Although in 1909 he sought relaxation by going to the living at Rothley, which, as he told the writer was “bought for his son who turned actor instead of parson”, his affections always remained with St. Martin’s, and he evinced the keenest delight in the collection of old Leicestershire regimental colours which at present adorn the Church. He was the author of Facts and Figures, a volume which was published in 1870, and the same year saw the publication of his work Brief Notes on Structural Botany."
Contemporary newspaper accounts record that Joseph Collier, as President of the Leicester Rugby Football Club, bestowed this Sampson Mordan combination dip-pen and propelling pencil after the 1909 Service. They further record his extensive local sporting achievements. Born on Friday 18 April 1851 to worsted spinners William and Ann of Fuller Street, he would go on to be a founding member of the Tigers. Moreover, and as customary in the Victorian age of combined sporting prowess, Collier also excelled on cricket pitch; playing for the Leicestershire first XI against the inaugural Australian tour of England in 1878.
Hosted at Aylestone Park between Monday 15 and Wednesday 17 July, this short and unofficially recognised “test” occurred four years prior to the first Ashes and featured many early greats of the game from Fred “Demon” Spofforth, Charles Bannerman, William Lloyd “Billy” Murdock and Jack Blackham, the “Prince of Wicket Keepers”, amongst an Australian side that also fielded Horan, Gregory, Garratt, Bailey, Conway, Boyle, and “Kangaroo” Allan.
Collier would be the only host to carry his bat against this usually formidable bowling attack, scoring an unbeaten 20 'all against Spofforth' in the Leicesters’ first innings score of 193; much to the delight of a local crowd, that had swelled to more than 10,000 strong by the close of day one. As the Daily Post reported, the opening partnership of 113 gave “the Australians such a check as they never received before… [and] the bowling of the visitors was very uncertain, and not very straight. Allan, having a damaged hand, could hardly guide his hand. Spofforth was punished dreadfully. The ‘demon’ was all taken out of him.”
Further shocks followed, as Leicestershire subsequently knocked over the Australian reply for 130, giving an opening innings lead of 63! Collier would post a further six runs during his second journey between the stumps before being captured LBW off the bowling of Harry Boyle. In true English fashion, the morning of day three began with a spectacular batting collapse, with the hosts all out in the first half-hour of play for an additional 145, nevertheless leaving a still significant 209 for Australia to chase. In a demonstration of skill closer to “Bazball” than their first innings haul, the Australian opening pair went into luncheon having replied 77 without loss.
Removing Murdock’s middle stump after tea, seemed only to sharpen fellow opener Charlie Bannerman’s concentration, as he would go on to play “the best individual innings ever played by any of the Australians in England”. Chancing a fateful third on 201-1, Bannerman would be run out on a score of 133, in an exhibition of individual talent worthy of the multitude of as yet unbeaten records he maintains to this day. Australia would go on to win the contest with a scarcely predictable eight wickets to spare. Collier himself would bowl four overs, producing one maiden at the cost of only six runs, albeit two coming from no-balls.
As the Daily Post concluded: “This brought to a close the finest three days’ cricket witnessed in Leicester in recent years, the interest in the match continuing up to the finish of the same. The receipts at the gate have been far beyond expectation, over £1,000 being taken on the first two days.”
When the sides met again in 1888, the result was equally unexpected. As the Daily Post again reported: “When the match was arranged few seriously believed that this ‘minor’ county would make even a strong stand. Assuredly the most sanguine knight of the willow never dreamed, even in the wildest flight of imagination, that the amateurs and professionals of the shire would lower the colours of the colonials. No fewer than six Australian teams have now visited England, [and] it is recorded that only nine matches with counties have resulted in the favour of the English team, but in no instance, as we are reminded, had [Australia] ever succumbed to the attack of a ‘minor county'. For the first visit of the colonists, indeed we have to of back no less than a decade. In that instance Blackham and Boyle made their first journey to Aylestone, and they were opposed, by among others, Wheeler and Collier.”
Leicestershire carried the contest for the first time by 20 runs in challenging conditions on a ‘sticky’ wicket. Collier not only carried his bat into the second innings again, this time with an unbeaten eleven, but also took a fine catch to dismiss “Terror” Turner - the legendary Australian bowler whose red-hot 1888 season saw him dismiss 314 batsmen!
The Daily Post summarised: “Leicestershire scored its signal triumph - not solely because of this or that piece of good fortune or accident, but mainly because it deserved to win. It is in cricket as it is said to be in war; victory leans to the side which makes the fewest mistakes. [However] one swallow, we may be very pertinently reminded, does not a summer make. It is too much to hope therefore, that a single brilliant victory, even although it is over the far-famed Australians, will raise a ‘minor county’ into a cricketing shire of the first rank. There is indeed, but one subject of regret. It is that this sensational display of cricket should have proved a financial loss.”
When Collier died on 15 October 1935, his obituary praised his charitable efforts in the City as much as his exploits to Leicestershire Cricket in the contests “against the Antipodeans” over half-a-century before. He was the last surviving member of the original Leicester team, and was interviewed about his memories for the Leicester Evening Mail in May 1934.
Provenance
Presented by Joseph Collier to Canon Sanders on Sunday 18 April 1909
From the Estate of Reverend Canon Sanders (1846-1915)
To his Executrix Mrs Anne Elizabeth Sanders