CROQUET GALLERY:  English Cabinet

The cabinet is English, and dates from around 1600.  It was spotted in Glynde Place, a stately home in Sussex, near Brighton in South East England.  The cherubs depicted in the frieze (detail) appear to be playing some sort of mallet game.  It certainly isn't croquet (which took another 250 years to gestate).  Pall-mall was popular around that time, but the equipment and playing environment (and dress code) would have been different.  An unsolved mystery for croquet historians.