While sorting through a box of old papers, the last thing Ballarat antiques dealer Peter Wills expected to find was a page featuring a sketch from artist Percy Lindsay and the autographs of Australian test cricketers of the early 1900s.
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But last week that’s what he found lodged in the pages of a diary from the 1950s.
The sketch, titled Cigar Fantasy, is signed by Percy Lindsay, brother of noted Australian artist Norman Lindsay of Creswick’s renowned artistic Lindsay family.
And the reverse of the paper contains 14 signatures, at least six of which Mr Wills believes belong to Australian test cricketers who played sometime between 1909 and 1915.
“It’s a very interesting piece of paper, which I wasn’t expecting to find as I went through some old paperwork and books I bought four years ago,” Mr Wills said.
“The page is almost certainly out of an autograph book – the Australian Test Team it would seem from after 1909 but no later than 1915,” he said.
The signatures include those of legendary batsman Victor Trumper, and Clem Hill and Warwick Armstrong who captained the Australian test team.
“A similar 1909 autograph of the test side sold with an estimate of 400 to 500 pounds in 2002,” Mr Wills said.
But with the Lindsay sketch on the back it’s unknown the value of the paper; in any case, Mr Wills isn’t selling it.
“Because Percy Lindsay didn’t die until 1952, if I was to sell it it’s quite complex because the 70-year period isn’t up, so technically part of the money should go to Mr Lindsay’s family … but because there are 14 other signatures on the back it’s more complicated.”
Mr Wills bought a number of boxes of papers and books from an estate in Narrandera, and the paper was in a 1951 diary among the paperwork.
“It was inside a 1951 diary with a whole lot of other receipts. The interesting thing is a lot of those cricketers died around 1951, and so did Percy Lindsay, so that might be why the paper ended up in the diary.”
