Pair of Antique Wooden Mountain Skis with Leather Bindings, Early 20th Century

These impressive antique wooden skis measure a full two metres in length and preserve much of their original character, including the leather strap bindings that secured the skier’s boots to the broad flat boards. The wood — likely ash or hickory, the preferred materials of early ski-makers for their combination of strength and flexibility — has acquired a deep, warm brown patina over decades of use in the mountain environment, telling of seasons spent on the slopes of the French, Swiss or Italian Alps. The turned-up tips are well preserved and retain their elegant upswept form.

Alpine skiing as a leisure pursuit emerged in the late nineteenth century, inspired by Scandinavian traditions of cross-country travel on snow. The first dedicated mountain ski resorts appeared in the Swiss and French Alps around 1900, and equipment such as this pair would have been used in the inter-war decades of the 1910s–1930s, when skiing rapidly evolved from a utilitarian winter activity into one of the defining sports of the European bourgeoisie. Leather bindings of this type, with straps passing over the toe and sometimes around the ankle, represent one of the earlier binding systems before the development of steel cable and release bindings.

Today, such skis are prized as decorative objects and as evocative souvenirs of the golden age of Alpine sports. They display magnificently mounted on a wall or propped against a stone fireplace, evoking the chalet interiors and adventurous spirit of the early ski pioneers.

Early 20th century. Dimensions: W. 14 × D. 8.5 × H. 200 cm (per ski).