The Garsault Racquet

Brand:              Francois Alexandre Pierre de Garsault (1691 - 1776.

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Model:              Demi-Paume (ref. Siegfried Kuebler)

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Year:                 1767

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Background facts:

Francois Alexandre Pierre de Garsault, an early authority on the game, gives a detailed description in 1767 of how a racquet was made. Specially selected ash rods were boiled to make them flexible and then bent in half, so that the resulting loop became the embryo racquet-head and the long ends, bound together became the handle. A seventeen-inch-long centre piece of soft wood was inserted between these ends and strengthened with the fibre of tendons taken from between the hock and hind hoof of an ox, and glued over with parchment. A tilt was then imparted to the head of the racquet making it "pear shaped" with the aid of a special clamp, and it is this weighting of the head of the racket that helps a player apply the cut stroke more effectively

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The effect of a cut shot is to make the ball "die" when it bounces off the back wall. A lawn tennis player's top spin shot is not ideal in real tennis as the ball sits up after hitting the back wall and gives the opponent more time to get into position and play a decisive shot. The frame was pierced with holes and strung with sheep gut, vertically and horizontally.