Table Tennis History Journal 88 Excellent Research for Historians, Collectors June and All Lovers of Our Great Sport 2019
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Table Tennis History Journal 88 Excellent research for Historians, Collectors June and all Lovers of our Great Sport 2019 The Table Tennis Art of Gustav Rehberger From the Editor Table Tennis Dear Friends, Welcome to issue 88 of the Table Tennis History Journal, for History historians, writers, collectors, and all lovers of our sport. Journal We begin with an astounding drum racket hand dated 1856, with an inscription of a rally of 10,000 strokes! This is before Table Tennis, from the shuttlecock game. I also report some early images of a free-form racket and ball game. Then a summary of a fine exhibition by the Shanghai ITTF Museum at the recent World Championships in Budapest. We also explore the powerful Table Tennis art of Gustav Rehberger, and meet an Angel of Florida Table Tennis, Caron Leff. Alan Duke (ENG) reports part 1 of his research into Hamleys, and continues his research into early newspaper articles. Jorge Arango (COL) sends his 7�� installment on early pirated images, and Gerald Gurney (ENG) reports on some early Punch humour. Todd Allen (USA) discovered a cache of documents about Trude Kleinova Vogel and her husband Eric. Our Philatelic Update includes several new stamps and postmarks, with grateful thanks to our contributors. Auction No. 88 Action, features some surprises and amazing bargains. Hope you enjoy the new issue. Feedback always welcomed. Next June 2019 edition scheduled for October 1, 2019. For our sport … Table Tennis. For all. For Life. Chuck Editor and Publisher: Mystery solved! Recall the fascinating mystery of the World Chuck Hoey, Honorary Curator Championship medal discovered by a metal detector enthusiast in ITTF Museum & China TT Museum Utah (USA)? This was reported in edition 86 of the TT History [email protected] Journal. In the 1931 ITTF Archives I found a report by Montagu mentioning his stay in the USA from March until December 1930, when he escorted Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein to Hollywood. Along his journey Montagu stopped in Utah to speak Publishing Schedule: at a gathering promoting the Labor Party. Montagu also received June 1 Submit articles by May 15 the bronze medal from the 1929 Swaythling Cup as non-playing Oct 1 Submit articles by Sep 15 captain. How it ended underground we will likely never know, but Feb 1 Submit articles by Jan 15 we now have sufficient information to say … quod erat demonstrandum (QED) In this issue … World ITTF Ball & TT Art of Trude Record Museum Research Battledore Gustav Kleinova Battledore Exhibition 22-29 10-13 Rehberger Vogel 3 4-8 43-53 14-20 21 Alan Duke Back Page: Pirated Philatelic Meet Punch World Images Update Caron Humor Auction Championships Part 7 Leff 42 38-39 Action Budapest 30-37 40-41 54-67 70 Jorge Arango Caron Leff Gerald Gurney 2 New Discoveries - Old Treasures A World Record Battledore by Chuck Hoey The new world record of 10,000 strokes, recorded on the vellum of a No. 4 size battledore by Payne, hand-dated May 14, 1856, in a shuttlecock rally between Fortes and Warren. I estimate the rally lasted over 4 hours! A world record has been discovered on an old vellum drum racket (battledore) with long handle. The inscription on the vellum is dated May 14��, 1856, recording an amazing rally of 10,000 strokes in a game of Battledore & Shuttlecock. Recall that in 1891 the Jaques game of Gossima used vellum drum rackets, borrowed from the shuttlecock game. Someone contacted me many years ago at the ITTF Museum in Switzerland to inform me that a pair of battledores in the Museum had the highest known number of strokes ever recorded, 2,536, in 1896. The above battledore smashes that record, and is now the title holder. Please contact the editor and send photos if you have a battledore with a recorded rally & date. ITTF Museum, Shanghai 3 ITTF Museum Exhibition World Championships, Budapest The ITTF Museum in Shanghai continued their series of temporary exhibitions with a fine presentation at the recent World Championships in Budapest. The exhibition had a comfortable open space feel and attracted many thousands of visitors. The star of the show was the Sterling silver half-size St. Bride vase presented to Victor Barna (HUN) after he won his 3�� (of 5, a world record) World Singles title. This was displayed along with Barna’s ITTF Hall of Fame plaque. What a treat for the local fans! There was also the popular Timeline history, which I originally designed and introduced at the 2005 World Championships in Shanghai, now updated through 2018 thanks to our friend Yao Zhenxu. Congratulations to the museum team for their professionalism, exhibition design and dedication to the philosophy of taking the museum to the people. Great job! Chuck 4 Crowds of fans gather around display cases and the Timeline History The Timeline History, a series of panels documenting all World Championships and Olympic Games, plus historical notes such as ITTF Presidents and major rules changes. Always a popular exhibit. 5 Panels describing the ITTF Museum, in English and Hungarian. Next to the Timeline, panels about some of the great Hungarian players throughout history. 6 ITTF President Thomas Weikert and CEO Steve Dainton visit the museum exhibition Above right: Digital displays of the interiors of the museums in Shanghai 7 Racket displays 8 New Discoveries - Old Treasures Peerless Parlor & Lawn Tennis - 1889 Very rare set of Peerless Parlor & Lawn Tennis dated 1889, sold for a bargain $300. This is one of several early experimental games with lawn tennis motif, designed for play on the floor or on the lawn. While not for table use it is an important game, dated one year before the Foster set. The racket has steel strings and is 15.25 inches (38.7cm) in length. The set includes the net, netposts, original wood box, but sadly only one racket has survived. Below left is a copy of the patent for the racket, by G. D. Corey (USA), patent number 404,899, dated June 11, 1889, and that date is also stamped into the wooden racket handle. A great find ! 9 Early Racket & Ball Game by Chuck Hoey There is ample evidence of the ‘Battledore & Shuttlecock’ game, the predecessor of Badminton played free-form without a net. This was popular with children and adults. The famous artist Kate Greenaway (ENG) often showed scenes of children playing with small rackets and shuttlecocks, and there are many such lithographed cards made in the 19�� century. Jaques used vellum drum rackets borrowed from the shuttlecock game in his Gossima 1891. A few very rare early boxed sets of Battledore & Shuttlecock were produced in the USA, and one in France named Jeu de Raquettes. I have found some evidence of an early racket & ball game, played free-form with small strung rackets as well as vellum drum battledores. Let’s have a look … Here is an example of the free-form shuttlecock game, but note the red ball on the ground. This likely suggests that they played a free-form game using battledores and ball as well. This highly decorative early New Years Greeting card shows the game of ball played free-form with small strung rackets. 10 This is an interesting example of the free-form racket & ball game, played with strung rackets. I would love to find that boxed set in the lower right, though it is curious that the artist shows the rackets bigger than the box!? Another example of the free-form ball game played with strung rackets in this French advertising die cut. 11 Another image of the free-form racket and ball game. I wonder if there was a formal name for this game. For the shuttlecock version, boxed sets I have found were named ‘Battledore and Shuttlecock’ This example, published in New York, shows the ball & battledore game was played on both sides of the Atlantic. 12 This French boxed set of Jeu de Raquettes has two small strung rackets, with some superb colorful balls. But the box-lid shows a shuttlecock (under the R). The owners preferred the game using balls! So what do these images suggest? The fine painting on the right by Edith Hallyar (ENG) shows one possibility of how the idea of tennis on a table was conceived: bored lawn tennis players stuck indoors due to the rain used their imagination … What about bored kids stuck inside because of rain? With rackets and balls that they used to play outdoors, it seems plausible that they might have tried hitting the ball back and forth across a table - playing free- form Ball & Battledore indoors would probably be too risky. I have heard about an early engraving showing kids hitting a ball back and forth across a piano top, but have never seen this. I suppose, with reluctance, we must allow for the oft-repeated tale of using cigar box lids for rackets and a ball carved from a champagne cork, but never any credible evidence of this; once reported then copied over and over again does not make a truth. Chuck 13 The Table Tennis Art of Gustav Rehberger by Chuck Hoey Interesting how many encounters happen to us by His powerful art was shown on the front and back chance. In fact I found some excellent museum covers, plus a lengthy article entitled ‘The Spirit of pieces quite by chance, a sort of destiny I like to Table Tennis’. imagine. Today’s featured artist was introduced to me by a chance happening: our distinguished Rehberger, who was himself a strong player (ranked colleague Diane Webb of England found some #23 in the US by 1939), really captures an intense, American programs and kindly sent them to me.