A rare and early lawn tennis racquet retailed by Mark & Moody of Stourbridge circa late 1870s, asymmetrical, with almost perfect thick lateral and ver

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 ? by 8 ? 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.