Fabulous antique Vizagapatam desk set in horn and ivory with scales signed S.Mordan. Of exceptional quality and with a superb provenance this is an outstanding set and includes a casket of an unusually large size. The set comprises a fine and large casket, a set of fine letter scales, an extremely large pen tray, a letter opener and a small stamp casket. Everything is in excellent order and of top quality. This piece dates from the end of the 19th century circa 1870-80. The provenance is extra ordinary. The set appears to have belonged originally to Mary Marshall (née Ramsay), former wife of J. Campbell Walker. She was from a family withconsiderable interests in the Raj. This is undoubtably where the desk set originated from and it came with her when she married Campbell Walker. He was an heir to the Johnny Walker Whisky fortune. Campbell Walker died young and she married the much older Sir Francis Eden Lacey and lived with him and her sons on his Sutton-Veny Estate in Wilshire. The casket is full of unused and unopened calling cards of Lacey and purtain the the estate. Subsequently, presumably on the death of Lacey and his mother the box passes to Rob Walker the Formula 1 private team owner and goes to him at Nunney Court, Nunney near Frome where it stayed until the house was sold after his death. Correspondence of this address is in the casket. Fuller details are in the text after the dimensions of the set. Scales by S. Mordan and Co London. Letter opener 12.5 inches long by 1.5 inches, scales, 8 inches wide by 5.5 inches deep by 6.5 inches high, caskert is 10.5 wide by 6 inches deep by 8.5 inches high, pen tray is 14 inches wide by 2.75 inches deep by 2 inches high , small banded box is 4.25 inches wide by 2.75 deep by 1.75 inches high Sir Francis Eden Lacey (19 October 1859 at Wareham, Dorset – 26 May 1946, Sutton-Veny House, Sutton Veny, Wiltshire) was the first man to be knighted for services to cricket (and the first person to be knighted for services to any sport), on retiring as Secretary of MCC, a post which he held from 1898 to 1926. As Secretary, he initiated many important reforms. He was subsequently a Trustee of the club from 1926 until his death. Francis Eden Lacey was educated at Sherborne School and Caius College, Cambridge. He played both football and cricket for Cambridge University, obtaining a Blue for football in 1881 and for cricket in 1882. He was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1889, and practiced as a barrister. Most of his cricket, in a first-class career lasting from 1880 to 1897, was played for Hampshire. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm slow round-arm bowler. He was Hampshire's captain from 1888 to 1889, and President in 1927-8. Hampshire were not admitted to the County Championship until 1895, prior to which they played comparatively few first-class matches. He therefore played only 50 first-class games during his long career, scoring 2589 runs at an average of 32.77, with four hundreds and a highest score of 211 (at the Antelope Ground, Southampton) against Kent in 1884. He took 52 wickets at 21.59, with best innings figures of 7/149. He scored 323* for Hampshire against Norfolk in 1887 in a non first-class fixture, which remains the highest score ever made in a Minor Counties match . Lacey married twice. Firstly on 9 April 1890, he married Helen Carnegie, daughter of the 9th Earl of Northesk. She died on 18 May 1908. He married secondly Mary Marshall (née Ramsay), former wife of J. Campbell Walker.] His portrait was painted by George Spencer Watson in 1928. He died on 26 May 1946. Modern Grand Prix fans may regard Silverstone as Britain’s current Formula One epicentre, but enthusiasts of a certain age know that in the Sixties and Seventies the motorsport capital was elsewhere – in the village of Nunney, near Frome, in Somerset. For Nunney Court, the Grade II listed manor house and estate that dominates the village, was the home of Rob Walker, F1’s most successful private team owner. Robert Ramsay Campbell Walker was born on August 14 1917. His father Campbell Walker was an heir to the Johnnie Walker whisky fortune, and his mother, Mary Marshal Ramsay, came from a family with business interests in tea and rubber trading. Cam Walker died in 1921, aged just 32, and Rob's mother subsequently married the much older Sir Francis Eden Lacey, long-time secretary of MCC; thus Rob and his older brother John grew up on the Sutton Veny estate near Warminster, Wiltshire, which his mother and stepfather had bought at the time of their marriage. Rob was educated initially by a governess, then sent to Sherborne. He was, by his own admission, "academically hopeless; I could never even master joined-up writing. I have printed everything out longhand all my life." While big sports-car manufacturers like Ferrari and Lotus were, even half a century ago, running their own teams, Walker took a simpler route. As a descendant of whisky mogul Johnnie Walker, he used some of the family fortune to buy cars from established teams, change their liveries to his beloved Scottish blue and white, and tune them at his workshops in Dorking. He then asked drivers he liked and respected to take the wheel. He attracted top racers, even world champions, and his team won grands prix at Monaco, Monza and elsewhere; tragically two men died in Walker’s cars, in an era where many of the world’s finest drivers perished in pursuit of speed. Between races, as Nunney Court’s visitors’ book testifies, Walker would entertain his drivers in Somerset. Stirling Moss came several times, as did Graham Hill, his wife, Bette, and their children – including the pre-school age Damon, who went on to repeat his father’s success and win the F1 drivers’ title. Even Hollywood dancer Ginger Rogers was a frequent visitor, a reminder that motor racing was as glamorous then as it is now. “There were only eight grands prix a year in those days and drivers had no duties with sponsors so there was plenty of time to visit, stay several days and completely unwind. They would go to the pub or a village fête. Local people loved it. And whenever the phone went it was a driver or an engineer,” says Dauvergne Morgan, Walker’s daughter. Walker’s study is still much as it was when he died, aged 84, in 2002, with pictures and paintings of his cars, cups won by his team, detailed lap charts meticulously completed by his wife, Elizabeth, and – most striking of all – photographs of race aces of the past. They include Mike Hawthorn, Jack Brabham, John Surtees and more recent champions like Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, whose pictures are signed with respectful notes of thanks to Walker. “Even those who never drove his cars loved seeing him at races, long after he had retired from running a team. It was magical,” recalls Dauvergne. The Walkers moved to Nunney Court in 1949, modernising the house at the time – it had been empty during the Second World War. But then they left it untouched for 60 years. Contents [hide] Mrs R. Walker Nunney Court Near Frome, Somerset. Miss Georgina McLoud.