J.B. Hobbs' Signed Cricket Bat from 1936/37 Australian Tour

Jack Hobbs in Australia 1936/37, an Alan Kippax 'Super Driver' full-sized cricket bat, signed in the ownership position (upper right rear shoulder) by the great England batsman, J.B. Hobbs. Headed 'M.C.C. Australian Tour 1936/71 Hobbs used the bat to collect the signatures of the Australian and English teams. Following his retirement from cricket in 1934, Hobbs continued to work as a journalist, first with Jack Ingham then with Jimmy Bolton as his ghostwriters. He accompanied the MCC team to Australia in 1936?37 and published four books which sold well in the 1930s. The English autographs are mostly faded (as is Hobb's) but Robins, Duckworth, Fagg, Sims, Leyland and Voce are clearly legible. The Australian autographs have survived much better, with Bradman, McCabe, Oldfield, O'Reilly, Fingleton, Ward, brown, Badcock, Darling, Fleetwood-Smith, McCormick, Rigg & Sievers all in good condition. Australia won the series 3-2, having been down 0-2 after the first 2 matches. This was the only time a side winning the first two matches has lost a five-Test series. The matches were played before huge crowds - the record attendance of 350,534 in the third test, and 945,513 for the whole series.