A very early and important trophy in the history of lawn tennis in Germany dated 1891, in the form of a hallmarked .800 continental silver-mounted cut

A very early and important trophy in the history of lawn tennis in Germany dated 1891, in the form of a hallmarked .800 continental silver-mounted cut-glass claret jug, inscribed TENNIS TURNIER HAMBURG, SEPTEMBER 1891 UHLENHORST, 1 PREIS, EINZEL SPIEL FUR HERREN OHNE VORAGE, height 27cm., very good condition; sold with a file of photocopied information (2) The first German National Tennis Championships were held in Hamburg in 1892. The organiser of the Championships, Carl August von der Meden, later to become accepted as the 'Father of German Tennis', decreed that only German and Austrians players would be allowed to enter. This was a response to earlier tennis tournaments recorded in Bad Homburg and Baden Baden in the late 1870s and through the 1880s when, more often than not, British entrants would come away with the spoils. Tennis in Hamburg was developed from two ice skating clubs, whcih resulted in a quite unusually hard playing surface of gravel with lines of iron. The history of tennis in Uhlenhorst and early Championship matches is expertly detailed by Heiner Gillmeister in his book ''Tennis: A Cultural History'', p.244-269 in the chapter ''Lawn Tennis under the Kaiser'' Gillmeister identifies 1891, the year of this trophy, as a ''Trial Run'' for the first German Championships held in 1892. In these 1891 matches an Englishman Walter Howard won the Men's Singles, Handicap Singles and the Men's Doubles with his brother J.G. Howard. This domination confirmed von der Meden's decision to restrict the entry the following year. These matches are fully detailed in a copy of ''pastime Magazine'' in September 1892. Heiner Gillmeister also wrote an article for ''The Tennis Collector'', Issue 18, August 1993 where he discusses the 1891 trial run. The article also discusses that in an auction in the South of England in 1992 a double's trophy and racquets from the 1891 competition were sold. They are now in the collection of the Hamburg Clipper Club. The whereabouts of the singles trophy (without handicap) had remained a mystery until now! This trophy is of significant historical interest at a national level in Germany.