Martin Chandler | 9:15am BST 01 October 2023
Having scratched the floor of the gorgeous private museum of Nauman Niaz in my earlier put up, an additional go to was lengthy overdue. However this time there might be little point out of cricket . The bibliography of our nice recreation is one thing I do know deal about, and though my data of different points of cricketana is extra rudimentary it’s nonetheless a topic I perceive.
Nauman’s museum incorporates round 7,000 cricket books, so he and I might discuss for hours on finish with out the necessity to stray exterior my consolation zone, however that received’t alter the truth that in whole his library extends to round 19,000 gadgets, so there’s a nice deal extra to study.
However first an perception or two into Nauman. His educational achievements alone are outstanding. He started his training at St Mary’s Academy in Rawalpindi earlier than transferring on to the well-known Aitchison Faculty in Lahore.Â
From there Nauman did his first diploma, again in Rawalpindi on the Rawalpindi Medical Faculty, earlier than he unfold his wings and undertook additional levels on the Royal Faculty of Physicians in London, Edinburgh, Eire and Glasgow, a PhD from the College of Western Australia and a Put up Doctorate from Oxford College. Combining as he has his stellar careers in medication and journalism/broadcasting I used to be not stunned to study that Nauman is a person who exists on three hours sleep an evening!
The calls for his professions place on him however Nauman has nonetheless had loads of time to have interaction together with his ardour for cricket and his overarching need to attach with the previous, significantly 18th and nineteenth century Britain.
Nauman additionally acknowledges a substantial debt to his lineage. His late father was Lieutenant Normal Hamid Niaz of the Pakistan Military, so there’s warrior blood in him. While Nauman’s father was not a collector as such, he nonetheless handed on to Nauman numerous gadgets that kind a part of his assortment at this time, not least amongst these being two signed cupboard playing cards of Abraham Lincoln that had been introduced to Hamid on a visit to the US.
So what are Nauman’s non-cricketing bibliographical passions? Many and diversified is the brief reply to that one, and each fiction and non-fiction are nicely represented in his assortment.
Charles Dickens is without doubt one of the most well-known names in English literature and printed 15 novels. Nauman’s assortment incorporates copies of all of them, 9 second second editions and 6 first and, amongst these, a duplicate of Oliver Twist signed by Dickens.
A more moderen space of fertile floor for collectors are what are referred to normally phrases as ‘trendy firsts’. Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels are as collectable as any. There are 13 of all of them collectively and Nauman has signed copies of all of them full, in fact, with their unique mud jackets.
Shifting on to non fiction Nauman is a superb aficionado of Winston Churchill, and his assortment homes a duplicate of every of Churchill’s 72 printed works, all first editions and round half of them signed. Not essentially essentially the most useful, however maybe essentially the most fascinating are his signed set of the seminal six quantity Historical past of the Second World Warfare.
One significantly fascinating merchandise within the Niaz assortment is a duplicate of Gandhi’s eight quantity assortment of his personal writings. Naturally it’s a first version (1953), and one on the volumes is signed. Particular sufficient however there was additionally a restricted version printed in South Africa that was sure in material taken from Gandhi’s dhoti, a standard merchandise of apparel for male Hindus, and Nauman’s copies come from that version.
As a ten 12 months outdated I recall vividly sitting with my father while he watched a information programme on the tv in regards to the dying of Bertrand Russell, and my father defined me to me that Russell was a person with a mighty mind, primarily a thinker and mathematician, who had simply died on the age of 97.
Later in life I grew as much as perceive extra about Russell, whose bibliography is immense. His most well-known work is A Historical past of Western Philosophy, first printed in 1945. Nauman has a signed first version of that one in its unique mud jacket, and the identical applies to lots of Russell’s different books. However his prized possessions in that a part of his museum are the three volumes of Principia Mathematica, printed between 1910 and 1913 and, in fact, creator signed.
However what’s the one factor that Nauman doesn’t have however want to personal above all others? The reply to that one is the signature of William Shakespeare. That the Bard’s autograph could be an costly one doesn’t shock, however till Nauman wistfully defined the scenario to me I hadn’t realised that solely six examples are identified. 5 of these are owned by British establishments, and the solitary instance in personal palms final modified palms in 2006, for the small matter of $4,600,000.Â
So the acquisition of a Shakespeare might show problematic, so for my part Nauman could be nicely suggested to stay to a few different ambitions, the comparatively straightforward certainly one of a full set of Wisden in unique situation, or the higher problem of including the opposite fourteen editions to his at present considerably lonely copy of Britcher’s Scores, however that brings us again to cricket, and a topic for one more day, however for now an additional number of photos from the gathering ……
Martin has had the pleasure of talking to Nauman Niaz once more, and for as soon as there wasn’t an excessive amount of cricket discuss
