[Banbury Harriers Athletic Club, Victorian ephemera.] Ten items printed for the club by Cheney & Sons, including three fixture lists (including 'Football Match List'), four 'Gymnastic Competition' certificates, two notices, and a dinner invitation.

The ten items are in very good condition, lightly-aged. Six of the items (the three fixture lists and three of the certificates) carry slugs, with the printers' details not stated on the other four items. ONE to THREE: Three 16mo (10.5 x 7 cm) booklets, each of 8pp: 'Fixtures, 1890-91', 'Fixtures, 1891-92', 'Fixtures 1892-93'. Uniform in design, and attractively printed in green, blue and lilac card covers and papers, with the Club's crest embossed on each front cover in gold. Each pamphlet carries the following inside the front cover: 'Object. | This Club was formed in September, 1879, in order to afford to the young men of the town an opportunity of having physical exercise, and to provide for them a place of recreation to which they might resort after the hours of business.' Each booklet includes a list of the 'Executive' and 'Honorary Members' (with 'Lord Randolph S. Churchill' included in the latter for all three booklets), also 'Officers', 'Gymnasium', 'Running', 'Draw for Oxon Challenge Cup' and 'Football Match List', with 'Swimming' also featuring in the last two booklets. FOUR to SEVEN: Four certificates, each on one side of a 24 x 29 cm card. The four date from: 1883 (P. P. Williams); 1886 (Henry Humphriss); 1889 (no name); 1890 (no name). The four designs vary from one another, with the certificates printed on pink, brown, light-green and blue, in different inks, with gold featuring in three cases. EIGHT: Notice headed 'Banbury Harriers Athletic Club', by John Graves, Hon. Sec., dated from 20 Bath Terrace, Banbury [1880s]. Informing the recipient that he has been 'duly balloted a Member', and giving information regarding the club. NINE: Announcement by Graves of a 'Dinner and Presentation to W. H. P. Jenkins, Esq.' Dated from Neithrop, Banbury, 9 September 1893. 1p., 4to. Printed in brown on laid paper. Engraving of 'Club Badge' at head. TEN: Invitation from the club's 'Committee and Officers' to the eighteenth annual dinner, 'to be held at the White Horse Hotel, On Saturday, 21st November, 1896, at Seven o'clock prompt'. Printed in brown on 11 x 8 cm white paper, laid down on the recto of the first leaf of a 13 x 10 cm bifolium. With facsimile of Graves's signature. From the archive of Cheney & Sons, 'General, Commercial & Artistic Printers, Banbury'. The calling card of partner John Cheney describes him as a 'Printer in Gold, Silver, and Colours', with 'Specialities in the best class of work', and the company's high standards attracted clients from London's West End. For more about the firm see 'John Cheney and his descendants, printers in Banbury since 1767' (1936), and the Victoria County History volume for the County of Oxford, Banbury Hundred.