Pair of Antique Wooden Skis with Leather Bindings. Clever interlocking mechanism on tips to store the skis together easily. The single simple leather strap used for keeping the ski on the foot was the standard until the 1840s, when the boot heel strap was invented by Sondre Norheim to allow for increased flexibility and movement. 

Condition: Commensurate with age and use. 

Size: 4 3/4 x 74 in. 

The word ski comes from the Old Norse word skíð which means “cleft wood” or “stick of wood.” The modern Norwegian word ski and the Swedish word skid have largely retained the Old Norse meaning in words for split firewood, wood building materials, and the roundpole fence. The contemporary word (and its common form) proliferated throughout Europe beginning in the 14th Century, but skiing itself (traveling over snow on skis) has a history dating back at least nine millennia, and some archaeologists believe it is possibly older than the invention of the wheel. The earliest surviving examples of skis were found in a bog in Karelia (a region in western Russia on the border with Finland) and date to around 6300 BC. Oral histories place them even earlier, with some Arctic tribes like the Inuit describing a comparable activity used to cover great distances during ancient migrations. Although skiing’s origins were purely utilitarian, the modern sport evolved from beginnings in Scandinavia, with the first recorded skiing exercises and races coming from military records of Norwegian and Swedish infantries in the early 1700s. By the mid 1800s skiing became a popular recreational activity and sport throughout Northern Eurasia and North America, thanks to the standardization of ski size and the development of alpine skiing. 20th Century inventions like the ski lift made previously insurmountable areas accessible and proliferated the activity further, and now it is practiced in snow-covered regions worldwide, providing a market for the development of ski resorts and their related communities, as well as being one of the most popular and diverse sports included in the Winter Olympics.

#4 #5954 . 

Commensurate with age and use.