Two prospectuses published in 1888 and 1890 by the Decimal Boating and Lawn Tennis Society, sold together with two related sheets of pasted press cutt

Two prospectuses published in 1888 and 1890 by the Decimal Boating and Lawn Tennis Society, sold together with two related sheets of pasted press cuttings dated June and August 1890; the lot also including a photocopy of relevant extracts from Tennis, a Cultural History by Heiner Gillmeister (5) The society founded by ten Englishmen in Paris in 1877, with justifiable claims to be the first Lawn Tennis club in France. Tennis Committee member G Hetley won the first international tennis tournament at the World's Fair in June 1889. The club, represented by J Le Cocq (captain 1890), H Le Cocq (treasurer 1890) and Gaskett-James, was the only Lawn Tennis club at the 1894 Congress at the Sorbonne. Despite the absence of the All England Club, LTA and US NLTA, it was decided that the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896 should contain, under athletic games, the new-fangled game from England known as Lawn Tennis. Ironically, the Decimal Boating and Lawn Tennis Society was dissolved in 1895 so did not participate in that first modern Olympics.