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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

The Horsman Maker model represents an early stage of American lawn-tennis production. The company was founded by Edward Imeson Horsman around 1865 and originally manufactured toys before expanding into sporting goods. During this first phase, racquets were not assigned individual product names. Frames left the workshop with the simple imprint Horsman Maker , a practice that matched contemporary branding habits and reflected the attempt to establish a national presence in a ma

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

Parlour tennis bats were flat paddles with a thin wooden core and a taut vellum surface stretched over the face. Handles were short, straight, and smoothly finished to fit comfortably in one hand. The striking surface was round or slightly oval, providing a clear and even contact with the ball. The vellum covering gave a dry and distinct sound when hit and was valued for its firm rebound. Pair of Palour Tennis Bats, 1875 Parlour tennis, also called table tennis or whiff-whaff

The game we now know as tennis took nearly a thousand years to evolve into its modern form. While some evidence suggests that early forms of ball games were played in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, most historians trace its direct origins to French monasteries around the year 1000 AD. Here, monks played jeu de paume, the “game of the palm,” striking a wooden ball with the bare hand or with a simple leather glove across a rope stretched through the cloister courtyard. The ga

For more than four centuries, from the 1500s to the early 1900s, tennis racquets were made from solid pieces of wood . It was a tradition that seemed unbreakable — until industrial innovation, much like in the automotive world, paved the way for something new. Earlier attempts had been made to build racquets using layered wood, similar to the bentwood furniture techniques pioneered by Thonet. However, these early efforts failed because the glues available at the time could no

Charles Goodyear Vulcanized Solid Rubber Ball In the 19th century, two groundbreaking inventions laid the foundation for modern lawn tennis: Charles Goodyear's vulcanization of rubber and Edwin Budding's creation of the mechanical lawn mower. In 1839 , Charles Goodyear discovered that heating natural rubber with sulfur transformed it into a durable, elastic material, a process he patented in 1844 as vulcanization . This innovation revolutionized the production of rubber good

Wilson Sporting Goods has origins as unexpected as they are unique. Before it became a powerhouse in the world of tennis, baseball, and golf, Wilson was part of the Sulzberger & Sons Company , a Chicago-based meat producer. In 1914 , the company established the Ashland Manufacturing Company , repurposing animal by-products for a surprising new purpose: sporting goods. In 1915, it was renamed Wilson & Co. , but the sporting goods division became Thomas E. Wilson & Co. in 1916