A superb album of Edwardian caricatures of footballers, cricketers and rugby players, each signed with the initials MB, dated '09 and featuring a sign

A superb album of Edwardian caricatures of footballers, cricketers and rugby players, each signed with the initials MB, dated '09 and featuring a signature goblin figure, 80 examples in pen & ink, each titled and sometimes with accompanying verse, e.g. Arthur Bridgett of Sunderland (p.28) 'He's speedy and sporty, He's dainty yet weighty, With courage for forty, And Conscience for eighty, And when England capped him, Hurrah! we all clapped him.', believed to have been drawn for publication as newspaper illustrations, subjects comprising (football): Steve Bloomer (3), H Middlemiss, J G Coleman, Mr H J Newbould, Mr E Mangnall, Hugh Bolton, Mr W C Cuff, Thomas Chorlton, J D Taylor, Jack Sharp, C H Berry, George Stacey, Bert Freeman, Arthur Goddard, William Meredith ( 2), Capt. Charles Morris, E. Peake, Robert Balmer, Sam Hardy (2), Colin Veitch (2), James Quinn, E H Lintott, James Harrop (2), Ben Warren, William Hogg, Arthur Bridgett, Harold Hardman, A Iremonger, R F Turner, F Stokes, Jack Parkinson (3), Mr Vivian Woodward, J M Stewart, J McDonald, Robert Clifford, J McConnell, John S Dunlop, L R Roose, B C Freeman, R Balmer, Sandy Turnbull, John Baverstock, James Raeside, W Lacy, Arthur Goddard, John J Borthwick, Bob Crompton, A Wilson, Peter McBride, William Wedlock, Leigh Richmond Roose, David Stokes, Chris Buckley & Arthur Grenville Morris; cricket M A Noble, Schofield Haigh, Jack Sharp, S Barnes, K G MacLeod, Tom Wass, James Iremonger, W W Armstrong, C Blythe, E W Dillon, J S Heap, C B Fry, Montague Alfred Noble, Mr A C MacLaren, S P Kinneir & A O Jones; & rugby, G Ruddick & G F Tyson The artwork is similar to that of Amos Ramsbottom (1889-1967) whose sporting caricatures dating from the same period have appeared at auction in the past. Ramsbottom also included a goblin-like figure in his work.