312 A floor-standing multiple racquet press for use at a tennis club by the Atlas Company circa 1920s, designed with a wind up mechanism to hold about a dozen racquets at a time when the warping of the head frame was a common occurrence, approx. 51 by 46 by 31cm., 20 by 18 by 12in, £300 - 500
313 A Victorian multi-racket press for the sport of racquets by H Gray & Sons of Cambridge,
polished mahogany with 3 dividers, all wing-nuts and screws present, maker’s stamp
£75 - 100
316 A sphairistike racquet circa 1875, Jefferies & Co. stamp to the tilted head frame, plus additionally stamped on the convex wedge SPHAIRISTIKE, and with the other side of the wedge stamped FRENCH & Co., LONDON, good condition except for some broken stringing
314 A mahogany lawn tennis racquet press by Jefferies circa 1880, designed for four narrow headed racquets, maker’s stamp £100 - 150
313 & 315
315 A Victorian multi-racket press for lawn tennis retailed by Fortnum & Mason of London, pear-shaped polished mahogany with 5 dividers, all wing-nuts and screws present, retailer’s mark £75 - 100
54
When Major Walter Clopton Wingfield defined the rules of the modern game of tennis in 1874, he called it “sphairistike” (pronounced, “sfair-rist-ik-ee”), Greek for “playing ball.” At the same time, he also referred to the game as “lawn tennis.” According to The Times of London (1927), the name “sphairistike” was dropped very quickly because it was so difficult to pronounce. Wingfield chose the old racquet making firm of Jefferies & Co. to make his boxed sphairistike sets. The word “tennis” is said to have been derived from the French word, “Tenez” (“look here”). In the French game, the server announced “Tenez!” and then served the ball. Certainly by the short time to the first Wimbledon Championships in 1877 lawn tennis had been adopted as the sport’s name. £5,000 - 7,000
317 A rare and early lawn tennis racquet retailed by Mark & Moody of Stourbridge circa late 1870s, asymmetrical, with almost perfect thick lateral and vertical stringing, the racquet with a feature whereby an extra lateral string has been added looping around the vertical strings at every junction, additionally there are eight rows of trebling strings (with just one vertical string broken), the throat is stamped by the retailers ‘Mark & Moody Stourbridge’ and just below this is the weight, a hefty 15 3/4 ounces, the racquet measuring 68 by 22 by 2.5cm., 26 3/4 by 8 3/4 by 1in.
By 1840 a retail business had been established at Stourbridge in the West Midlands by Thomas Mellard. Following his death in 1861, the business was bought by Kidderminster businessman Thomas Mark, who relocated to the High Street premises where it traded until relatively recent times. In 1878, George Moody, who had started his career as an apprentice, became a partner in the business and Mark and Moody was founded.
£1,500 - 2,000
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