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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

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 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

The antique real tennis racquet from the end of the eighteenth century features the classic lopsided head with a pronounced downward angle. The frame is made of solid hardwood, a material commonly used for racquet production throughout the eighteenth century. The stringing follows the trebling technique, where each cross string is looped completely around the main string. This method produced alternating surfaces on the string bed, one smoother and one rougher, which allowed

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

The Racquet of the Majesty, dated 1583, belongs to the Golden age of Real Tennis, the sport of European kings. The game had evolved from the French Jeu de Paume and became a symbol of royal prestige. Courts were built in palaces such as Hampton Court under King Henry VIII, where the game was played indoors with refined skill and ceremony. Across France, by the end of the sixteenth century, hundreds of such courts stood in use, serving nobles and courtiers alike. In Normandy,

Antonio Scaino, an Italian priest and theologian from Salò, completed Trattato del giuoco della palla  in 1555. The work was printed in Venice by Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari and his brothers, one of the leading publishing houses of the Renaissance. It is recognized as the earliest known treatise devoted entirely to the study of ball games in Europe. Scaino described the social context of play at the courts of Ferrara and Mantua and divided existing games into three main types

The tennis ball has come a long way since its inception, showcasing a fascinating journey of innovation and craftsmanship. From the traditional hand-stitched leather balls to the cutting-edge materials and designs used today, each era has contributed to the evolution of this essential piece of tennis equipment. The Evolution of Tennis Balls Early forms of the game were played with rudimentary balls made of wool, hair, or tightly wound fabric, wrapped in leather and sewn by ha

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