| Table tennis by another name. Newmarket shop label. Scarce version. Slazenger registered this name as a Trade Mark in 1900, and also copyrighted rules for “Whiff-Waff or Table Badminton”.
Rules for another version of Table Badminton were copyrighted by Ayres 26/02/1901.
The rules of under the lid bear little resemblance to those adopted at about that time for Ping Pong or to those for Table Tennis, so this may be an early production c1900. The maker refers to the “feather-weight” ball, and implies a previous version had been in production with a rubber ball ten years previously, so that would mean Table Tennis with a rubber ball was in production by Slazenger c1890, which might make it earlier than Jaques Gossima, which had a rules publication date of July 1891.
Corroboration of this is the Patent of 1883 by Ralph Slazenger for improved nets for lawn tennis “and for a modified game to be played upon say a billiard or dining table”. |