Objects Database

F H Ayres Skis.

Accession Number

685.2008.1

Object Name

F H Ayres Skis.

Created

17/12/2008

Creator

Hermione Cooper

Accession Date

17/12/2008

Brief Description

Pair of English wooden(ash) skis. Simple metal binding slotted through ski with leather strap and tin footplate. Hole in 'T' pointed tip. Adverse camber and some rotting to heels.

Materials

ash, metal, leather

Dimensions

200(l) cms At widest part 9(w) cms

Number Of Objects

1 pair

Inscription Description

Ellipse in middle with "F H AYRES LTD. MANUFACTURERS LONDON E.C." At the tip a gold Maltese Cross with "TRADE ENGLISH MANUFACTURER MARK" and below "F H AYRES LTD." in a scroll

Colour

light brown

Maker

F H Ayres Ltd

Object Production Place

England

Provenance

FH Ayres of London began life back in the late 1800's producing various requisites for tennis, cricket, croquet, golf, football, ski, toboggans and sledges amongst many others. Interestingly, however, it is for rocking horses that they are better known in the antique world and as we write this in 2012 there is one for sale on the internet for £8500.
The pair of skis we have here in our collection are probably worth a little less, but uniquely for us anyway, they are the only skis that we can properly identify as being manufactured in England - other than homemade ones.
Some of our military ones could be of UK manufacture but we are not sure. The fact that we have 80+ pairs of skis and these are the only English made ones tells us that there were not many pairs made and therefore they are pretty rare.
Though we can't find any markings on them the bindings appear to be a type of the Norwegain Huitfeldt with a Høyer-Ellefsen strapping system. Whether or not these are the real thing, or a pirate version we are not sure, but they do date the skis roughly to the 1920's.
One way or another they are another fascinating set of skis to compliment our collection.

Acquisition Method

Part of collection passed on from Scottish Ski Club

Acquisition Date

01/12/2008

Condition Check Date

28/04/2009

Rules

Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007

Modified

28/04/2009

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