The Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection
689.2008.1
Huitfeldt/Hoyer Ellefsen Binding on Swiss Skis.
19/12/2008
Hermione Cooper
19/12/2008
Pair of Swiss wooden skis. Huitfeldt Binding with Hoyer Ellefsen heel strap. Binding fitted through slot in ski, leather heel strap and leather footplate. Early - circa 1920
wood, metal, leather
220(l) cms At widest part 7.8(w) cms
1 pair
Initials "CNT" on both skis and "495" On sole below tip, a man carved into the wood and "IDR" TAG BERN SPORTS LTD. ( ) J BRUNER ADELBODEN"
dark brown
J Brunner
Adelboden, Switzerland
Lots of info on the tips of these skis which tell us they are Swiss, probably made by J Brunner of Adelboden, though we are not 100% sure of that. We are sure though, that the Huitfeldt/ Hoyer Ellefsen binding is the best example we’ve seen outside of a museum, albeit in need of a little TLC.
Fritz Huitfeldt invented his revolutionary binding back in 1894, the first one to give good stability to skis by clamping the toe either side and retaining it with a strapping system. His initial strapping was rather crude but another Norwegian, Hoyer-Ellefsen, created a much better version in 1904 with his toggle tensioning system. The two inventions combined were the basis for ski bindings for decades to come and we are delighted to have this pair of skis + bindings donated by the Scottish Ski Club. We have a good clue as to who the previous owner was with the initials CNT clearly carved on the skis. Unfortunately, we don’t know the full name.
Part of collection passed on from Scottish Ski Club
01/12/2008
SSC ref 3
28/04/2009
Bohuntin
Bohuntin
Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007
28/04/2009