Real tennis presentation racquet, French (Brouaye). Ash and lime stringed with sheepsgut (presumed, these having been the materials generally used). Mounted silver (French, no hallmarks); leather and silk velvet. Inscribed in gold on loop Brouaye. Design: the head is long and narrow; the horizontal strings are looped around the vertical ones (the old method which was superseded circa 1856 by straightforward weaving). The block is faced with gold-embossed blue leather; the handle is bound with majenta velvet finished at the upper end with silver strands, plaited (dated by Messrs. Shaplands as c.1840) and at the lower end by a scroll-edged silver cap (dated by them as c.1880).