Frenchman, J Charlet, started making ice axes in Chamonix, in the shadow of Mont Blanc, around 1880 and we suspect that the axe we have here in the collection is one of his early versions – circa 1900. It’s beautifully crafted, probably hand forged and bears the ‘chamois’ label of early Charlet ice axes. The Charlet factory was handed down from father to son for many decades until combining with another organisation to become Charlet Moser. They were in turn taken over by Petzl in 2000 to become Petzl Charlet, though the ‘Charlet’ bit seems to have disappeared by 2018. Unfortunately, we have no record of the donator. It could be one we bought at auction. Interestingly, the maker’s name only became apparent once we had removed 100 years or so of rust!