Having fought with the Partisans against the Nazis during the Second World War, Ricardo Cassin went on to become one of Italy’s leading alpinists with a glittering array of first ascents to his name.

Cassin started making mountaineering equipment in the Italian town of Lecco in 1947 and at some point, circa 1960, teamed up with another Italian manufacturer called Bonaiti, a company which had been making gear for a lot longer. Although all three karabiners here in the collection are nearly identical, only one has both the Cassin and Bonaiti logo, dating it to the 1960s. We think the other two are earlier Cassin versions.

Carico Minimo Rottura Kg 2200 is the maximum breaking strain, making them the strongest karabiners around at that time, albeit the heaviest too!