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The “Enigma” racquet can be placed in the 1880s and has survived in unused condition. The frame shows a flat upper line, a head form that appeared frequently in this decade. Contemporary makers worked with controlled steam bending and kept the top section straight to avoid irregular tension in the wood. The head shape reflects the technical limits and workshop routines of the period. Portrait Position Late nineteenth century racquet construction relied on consistent shaping a

Walter Clopton Wingfield - The Tennis Founder For many years it was considered lost. It was a stroke of luck that led to its rediscovery a few years ago in France - the racquet of the founder of today`s game of tennis, Walter Clopton Wingfield . The exceptional find shows how racquets moved from Real to Lawn Tennis.  The Wingfield, 1876 ​A brief historical review. Until 1874, tennis was mainly practiced in courtyards or indoor spaces.  Imported from France , the Britisch call

Vellum-covered battledores were produced in Europe during the first half of the nineteenth century. Racquets consisted of a wooden frame covered with a stretched sheet of vellum. The material was prepared from calf or goat skin and fixed tightly around the rim with small nails or tacks. The surface created a dry and distinct sound when the shuttlecock made contact. The wood was often ash or beech. Handles were short, straight, and sometimes wrapped with thin leather for bette

The game of battledore and shuttlecock was played with small racquets made from wooden frames that were either strung with natural gut, covered with vellum, or covered with leather. The head of these racquets was typically round or oval, the handle short. Strung battledores allowed for more precise and consistent play than solid or vellum-covered versions. 3 strung Battledores By the sixteenth century, battledore and shuttlecock had become a familiar pastime in Europe, partic

Demi-Paume racquets feature a distinct lopsided head with a pronounced downward angle. The stringing follows the trebling technique, where the cross strings are looped 360 degrees around the main strings. The handle is wrapped with leather, and the solid wooden frame reflects the craftsmanship of eighteenth-century makers. Garsault’s Demi-Paume, 1767 The racquet follows the design described by François-Alexandre-Pierre de Garsault  in 1767 . In his treatise Art du paumier-raq

Antique battledore. The Indo-German Legacy Racquet belongs to a tradition of equipment used for early forms of court tennis, a game that enjoyed popularity among European aristocracy from the Renaissance onward. Such racquets were characterized by a rounded wooden head with a loosely strung gut mesh, typical of early court tennis equipment used in aristocratic circles during the 16th and 17th centuries. The Indo-German Legacy Racquet, 1648 Evidence of this distinctive racquet