Steidel

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Practice

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1895

 

In the Kingdom of Prussia, the monarch awarded the title of “Court Supplier to His Majesty the King” for meritorious suppliers with high product quality.  The title of the court supplier was not awarded to the company, but to its owner.  The title was either awarded or "approved".  The unused exhibit was distributed by the court supplier “A. Steidel, Hoflieferant, Berlin C. 54, Rosenthalerstrasse 34/35” which is printed at the back side.  The Berlin Tennis Gallery received it from a merchant from Flensburg in the mid 1990s.

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About Steidel:

Steidel was a German sporting goods shop, one of the largest stores in Germany at the turn of the century. It was founded in 1860. Adolph Steidel also sold rackets with its own brand names and the Steidel logo. His heirs later bought the house next door, tore them down and built the house there that you can still see today. A younger brother, Gustav, went to Leipziger Strasse in 1853 and opened his own shop there. The house bumped against the side of the hospital colonnades. Around 1870 Gustav bought it and the neighboring house, tore it down in 1884 and built a new one. With this new building, the shop opened as a sports shop. This sports shop was later continued by his youngest son Theodor (+1942), while the older Alexander (+1945) opened a pastry shop in the same building in 1893. The house was destroyed during world war II.