If you have an old wood racquet you would like to estimate the age of you can start by identifying some design trends in our 'design features' chart.  You may have an antique tennis racquet.

We won't get technical here, but if terms such as 'head', 'throat' and/or 'grip' are not comfortable - you may want to consult the Racquet Terminology page.

For brand lines see the Makers page.

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Prior to what we know today as 'tennis' or 'lawn tennis'  there was (and is) 'jeu de paume'.  Today's tennis racquet heritage is derived from jeu de paume.  

Here is an 18th century depiction of jeu de paume racquet design.

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In 1873 Major Walter Clopton Wingfield patented and sold complete tennis sets, including racquets, to go with his lawn tennis game.   Additionally, in the early days with jeu de paume well established people could bring their jeu de paume racquets to use for tennis.

The lopside racquets were soon replaced by symmetrical designs.  This Spalding Windermere is from the mid-1880s:

This racquet illustrates the concave throat and pronounced shoulders of the relatively flat top design common at this time.  The butt of this racquet is flanged with wood.  The flange at the butt was generally done with a leather strap probably at least as early as the 1890s, but may well have been done with wood prior to then.  The leather strap on the butt was maintained until leather grips replaced the bare wood grips in the 1930s.

Horsman, Peck & Snyder, Spalding, and Wright and Ditson were some of the premier early US tennis racquet and equipment manufacturers and re-sellers - the ads below illustrate some of the evolutions of early racquets.  

 1885 ads for: Spalding "Windermere", "Kenwood", "Union Club", and "Junior"

Horsman "Brighton"

Peck & Snyder "Franklin" and "Far and Near"

The ads (above) from the mid 1880s show us the prevalent "shoulders" of the 'flat top' design that was common in racquets since the mid-to-late 1870s.   

The concave wedge at the throat also appears to be the commonplace, albeit some cartoons from the early 20th century have depicted convex throat wedges originating in jeu de paume racquets and carrying forward.  

In the mid-1880s both flat top and early rain drop head shapes were being sold (as shown below). 

The Peck and Snyder "Franklin" is show above and below, in ads from 1885 and 1884 respectively.

Also from 1885: D.W. Granbery & Co "Shepard"

Wright & Ditson "Octagon", "The Club" & "New Triangle"

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This 1884 ad shows the 'new' Peck & Snyder "The Franklin" (Pat. 2/12/1884) and gives an option for a 'fancy inlaid handle' for almost 50% more cost.

Also from 1884, Wright and Ditson's "The Club" is shown with a rain drop head as opposed to the more distinct shoulders of the more flat-top "Franklin".  "The Club" also displays a convex wedge at the throat.

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In the mid-1890s, as shown below, the convex wedge throat designs had been introduced by Wright & Ditson on two of their premier racquets and the head tending toward a more oval shape.

The Wright and Ditson ad above is from 1893 and shows the "Sears Special" and the "Campbell".   Richard Sears won the US Championships 7 consecutive years from 1881-1887, and Oliver Campbell won them 3 consecutive years 1891-1893.

This convex wedge design would remain popular and in production for about 3 decades more, before becoming almost unseen in the early 1930s.

Below, a Spaulding racquet with convex wedge throat and with carrying cover illustrating a design style available in the mid 1890s. 

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The three racquets below show several design feature distinctions.  

Note the handles/grips of the outer (top and bottom) racquets are simply textured wood with no covering or wrap-around grip.  

Also note the convex throat on the lower racquet, compared to the concave throat of the upper two.  

The racquet in the center is the most modern of the trio.  It is sleeker even though it is still solid wood preceding the wood plies (layers) that would come later.  Also note the leather grip on the center racquet, unlike the two older racquets.

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This trio of Wright and Ditson racquets again crosses generations.  The oldest racquet is in the middle this time.  Note the racquet on the bottom utilizes plies (layers) of wood, has more complete cosmetics (paint), a leather grip, and a "Y" throat.  The "Y", or "open" throat design did not dominate the wood racquet industry, but of course was the way with the introduction of aluminum frames beginning in the late 1960s.

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 This Spalding Domino DD was likely made in the 1920s, or late teens, and illustrates what was becoming the typical concave throat designs of the times.  Re-enforcement of the shoulder areas was also becoming common around this time.

The bare wood grip area shows the leather strap at the base/butt of the racquet.  The bottom of the racquet butt was not covered at this time other than the leather strip serving as flange for better gripping.  Later base of the butt was covered with leather or fabric and then in the 1960s and 70s plastic butt caps replaced the leather flange and the covering of the base of the butt.

But not all of the convex throats we're gone in the 1920s - here is an example.  According to our sources the Wilson Popular was sold in the late 1920s and shows the convex throat design, bare wood handle and leather butt strap.

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It is no surprise that differences in equipment have long been recognized as making a difference in one's game (click it for a larger view of the cartoon).

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The ads (below) for Kent, American Beauty, and Wright & Ditson racquets from 1930 and 1931 illustrates that the convex wedge was virtually a thing of the past by this time, and also shows the use of multiple wood and construction techniques.  Laminated wood is being used by 1930, and the evolution of ply composite design and wood type continued for decades.

Also note that the racquets advertised here were still mostly sold with a bare wood grip.  The Kent and Wright & Ditson racquets are all bare wood grips.  The American Beauty racquets illustrate grips of 'cellophane sleeve' and leather.  Commonplace leather wrapped grips were just around the corner.

(click the images above for a larger view - also in the Kent ad above note the reference to the 1840s, in the jeu de paume era)

The 1931 Wright & Ditson advertisement above shows one concave throat design (bottom right) out of a total of eleven.  (click for a larger view)

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Also in the 1930's were ventures with metal racquets.  While never a dominant racquet design in the overall market a significant number of wooden handle and metal head (and strings in some cases)  were made, particularly from the Dayton racquet company (shown here).

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These Wilson Ellsworth Vines racquets are probably from the late 1930s or early 1940s.  They would have had to have been sold with his likeness (see lower left, and on each of the 3)/endorsement after he gave up his amateur status and turned pro.  Such endorsements were not allowed amateurs at the time (Mr Vines was the #1 ranked US male in the early 30s, between Messrs Tilden and Budge).

All three are in the common style of racquet press of the time.   The butts of these racquets also show that the bottom of the butt was covered with leather by this time, not just the leather strap around the base of the grip.  In the picture (bottom right) one of the 'butt caps' is quite worn and the other quite intact (and says "it's a Wilson").  These racquets also show the leather grips of the time that had replaced the bare wood handle/grip of the early 1930s and prior.

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The artwork on these three Slazenger racquets is but a small example of the artistry that can be found in these older racquet (the oldest of these is probably from the 1960s)

In the old days, as today, racquets were stored on display for the consumer to see.  In even earlier times, as each was hand-made, it seems that new racquets were commonly stored in deep shelves (like a "cubbie"), not so visible to the consumer. 

These racquets range from the 1960s and 1970s.

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And then came the use of aluminum, the beginning of bye bye to wood racquets. 

The Wilson T2000, introduced in 1968, was made famous by Jimmy Conners.  Early aluminum racquets were in some cases even more flexible than their wood predecessors, but allowed for greater innovations, and ultimately larger heads. 

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The tennis-flourishing 1970s and early 1980s saw an amazing array of choices for the consumer as wood, metal, and a variety of composites all emerged and co-existed over a decade plus of innovation.

This group of Slazenger racquets show some of the variety of designs in metal racquets that were being put on the market.  Generally speaking, the wider the shaft the stiffer the 'beam' (racquet). 

Wood, aluminum and early composite racquets co-existed on the courts.

The Prince Woodie and these Snauwerts illustrate the evolution of wood 'foundation' racquets as wood (ashe and maple) design was re-inforced with a graphite and glass-fiber 'face' and "inlays".

Above, the Prince Classic shows another type of "composite" racquet design with a "plastic" throat integrated into a metal (aluminum composite) frame.  This probably had the most significant impact on the racquet's torsional stiffness ('twist').

Also above, the PDP (Professionally Designed Products) Fiberstaff II is a more uniform or homogeneous composite because the frame itself is a composite of man-made materials, unlike the Classic which had distinct plastic and metal components.   The PDP Fiberstaff was very flexible, comparable to wood racquets, in an age when racquet design was pursuing increased stiffness.

Howard Head introduced metal racquets in the late 1960s.  Head bought the Prince tennis company and in 1976 introduced the "Prince Advantage", the first oversized racquet.  Besides being a major breakthrough in playability for players of all levels, this oversized racquet also prompted the International Tennis Federation to create size limitations for racquets (1979).

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Graphite composite racquets were introduced in the early 1980s as graphite fibers were bonded with a variety of other materials such as glass fiber, boron, or titanium. 

Wilson Pro Staff series - Jimmy Connors (1985).

Graphite racquets are generally lighter than their aluminum and wood predecessors. Generally, wood racquets ran 13-15 ounces, aluminum a little lighter. Graphite composites came in around 11 or 12 ounces.  They are increasingly stiffer than prior racquets, and with the larger head size of the oversized racquets, the hitting power (speed) of the game was increased significantly.

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Graphite also increased the racquet designer's flexibility - here are a couple of innovations that never caught on in a big way:

The MacGregor Bergelin Long String - note not only the head shape, but the string alignment.

  The Maynard Air Racquet has an inflatable element integrated into it that could be 'blown up' with the traditional bicycle pump.

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Arguably the next big innovation was the wide body design.  The wide body (deep frame) added further stiffness, and particularly aided the recreational players.  The Wilson Profile was introduced in 1987.

Selective weighting was debatably the next big innovation.  Graphite racquets do not require an even distribution of mass along their length.  Graphite racquets can have the weight balanced toward the handle (head-light) for maneuverability; or, weight balanced toward the head (head-heavy); or balanced  evenly.

Wilson combined oversize, wide-body design with head-heavy and called it the Hammer series of racquets which were very popular beginning in the 1990s.  Hammer racquet designs were particularly effective because of the multiple benefits of a light weight, head-heavy racquets.  Since the ball is struck toward the upper area of the racquet, having additional weight there is beneficial.  Momentum/inertia resulting from the increased weight increases power, stability and spin, while reducing vibration (all other things constant).  Taking it a step further they increased the head size, more pronounced at the top, and extended the length thus resulting in the Sledge Hammer series of racquets (example below).

Another significant breakthrough with weighting came around 2000 when Prince introduced the Triple Threat series of racquets which have the mass distributed at key points around the frame.  Once again there was increased mass high near the ball-strike point, but also low and on the sides for increase stability and minimal vibration.

Also in the late 1990s racquet length became a major variable in racquet design for the first time.The 27 inch racquet length had been pretty much the standard for over 100 years, and now up around 30 inches was on the market.Increased length not only provides a little more reach, but a 'longer lever' hits harder and potentially with more spin as well.Maneuverability is sacrificed, however, and lengths have settled back to the 27-28 inch range, most at 27 or 27.5 inches.

Increasing length with oversize heads resulted in the Gamma Big Bubba racquet, which was subsequently deemed illegal for competitive play in at least some leagues.The original Big Bubba was 32 inches long with a had size of 137 square inches (compare with a nominal 90ish square inches for a wood racquet).

The next innovations were in the arena of improved materials and manufacturing techniques - even though graphite fiber is still the primary material of the composite improved bonding and thinner frame walls resulted in the ability for ultra-light racquets.  Once again this proved a significant advance for recreational players who now had a faster and more maneuverable racquet.With stiff racquets under 10 ounces ones arm strength could be somewhat less (but it's not always good for biomechanics and vibration).

After about 2 decades of pushing for power in graphite racquets, the industry has turned toward comfort in racquets.Minimizing vibration and reducing shock to the arm is being pursued with new materials and construction technique.Not so much altering the graphite composite as using cushions or spacing for vibration reduction.

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This 1997 advertisement for the Union Bank of Switzerland illustrates some of the racquet innovations over the span of tennis history.  The top row begins with a pre-tennis bat, shows a flat-top racquet with concave throat wedge in the middle, and the most common design style of the early 20th century oval head sans leather grip.  The 'fish tail' design in the Slazenger Demon in the middle was never a dominating feature, and is fairly rare to find a vintage racquet of such design today.

The second/middle row begins with the unique Hazell design of the 1930s, in the middle shows possibly the best selling model of wood racquet of all time the Wilson Jack Kramer, and then shows the Jimmy Connors famed Wilson T-2000 which was the first aluminum racquet to really popularize the move away from wood.  The third/bottom row shows the Prince classic as an illustration of the 'plastic' handle and throat wedges that became prominent for increased torsional stability, then the Spalding taxi carbon composite racquet design of the 1980s that is generally maintained today, and finally a Wilson Sledge Hammer 3.8 Stretch innovative design that was discussed above.

The Wilson Sledge Hammer shown above also sports "power holes" (not visible in the picture) which effectively increased the string length by eliminating the inside sidewall touch points and allowing increased movement.  This provides effectively the same effect of having a slightly larger racquet head, and this racquet was also stretched beyond the standard 27 inches.

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