Condition

6

10: New
9: Mint
8: Excellent
7: Good
6: Fair
5: Average
4: Below Average
3: Poor

| Rarity

9

10: Impossibly rare
9: Extremely rare
8: Hard to find
7: Fairly rare
6: Uncommon
5: Common
<4: Big Seller

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About This Racket

This is a rare Davis Cup model, likely made in limited production run. The Davis Cup was held in USA between 1921 and 1927 and Paris between 1928 and 1932 and London between 1933 and 1937 so very likely this was made for one or more of these years. In this period GB won Davis Cup in 1933 and was runner up in 1931.Despite its age this is a lovely racket with excellent graphics for the day, in white with blue ribbon highlights. It has been used, but not abused.

Specifications (👋 not yet accurate….check back soon)

Gallery

FH Ayres

Frederick Henry Ayres was established in 1810 and manufactured many sporting goods such as golf and skis and games as early as the 1880’s. The ‘Maltese Cross’ mark of F.H.Ayres was in use from about 1910, they were eventually bought out by Slazenger. The business and factory of F.H. Ayres (Frederick Henry) was situated at Aldegate, London. From the early 1860’s the firm built a reputation for its high quality sports goods, boards games and is renowned for their well-crafted rocking horses that they produced until about 1940. Ayres also produced a wide array of toys, parlour and garden games popular of the period including croquet, billiards and chess. Around the 1880’s they became great rivals with another large games manufacturer, John Jaques. This meant there were frequent lawsuits being filed in both directions for infringements of patents and copyrights. Towards the end of the 19th century they were probably the leading manufacturer of sports and games equipment in Britain and employed a staff of 600 people at their manufacturing headquarters in Aldersgate Street, London. By 1900 they suffered a steady decline followed in the early twentieth century (Frederick Henry Ayres apparently died in 1906) and rocking horse business became their leading business. By 1920 the business was struggling and the recession which followed did not help. The factory at Aldersgate St. was repurposed during WW2 for manufacture of military kit, uniform, parachutes and wooden airplane parts. At some point there was a direct hit from German bombers, and production there may have ceased, as it did with Jaques Hatton Garden premises, and the trading name was taken on by Slazenger. The ‘Maltese Cross’ mark of F.H. Ayres was in use from about 1910, they were eventually bought out by Slazenger in the 40’s. The racket has some good colourful trade design labels and still has it’s original leather grip and butt cap.