A ball for 'real' or 'royal' tennis, fashioned from leather with a stuffing of compacted dog's hair. The leather has been cut into quarters and the segments are stitched together along the seams. This ball was discovered in the rafters of Westminster Hall in the 1920s. There is no evidence that real tennis was played at Westminster after c.1520 and so this ball almost certainly dates to the late 15th or very early 16th century.
