The very rare pine boxed set of 'Cassiobury Games of Badminton and Garden Tennis' circa 1875, with a fine interior label by Dean & Son, London, showin

The very rare pine boxed set of 'Cassiobury Games of Badminton and Garden Tennis' circa 1875, with a fine interior label by Dean & Son, London, showing twelve players in action behind Cassiobury House, Watford, Hertfordshire, then the grand residence of the Earl of Essex, the house demolished in 1927 although lawn tennis is still played to this day within the curtilage, the pictorial label shows an 'hourglass' shaped court strongly suggesting a date in the 1870s, the contents of the box - of which some are later additions - include a pair of anonymous dark-wood badminton racquets with an 1870s shuttlecock, jointed poles, guy ropes and netting, plus two later dating tennis racquets, three hand-sewn balls and a wooden mallet; the lot also including a book ''Watford, A Pictorial Record'', 1951, that includes images of the house