Zwerven op de schaats door Holland This post continues the backlog of skating books books I have to write about. This one is in Dutch, and the title means "roaming on skates through Holland." It's a small book—only 96 pages and about 5"x7"—published by Van Gorgum in 1942. The book includes short chapters on the… Continue reading Zwerven op de schaats door Holland
Ice Dances, Figures and Exercises
This book was published in 1966 by the US Figure Skating Association, but exists outside of the Rulebook and test structure. It, according to the foreward [sic], exists to help further interest, proficiency and enjoyment to the skaters who like this phase of our sport.Ice Dances, p. 3 The book can be divided into three… Continue reading Ice Dances, Figures and Exercises
Creative figures and the USFS Adult Gold Figure test
The idea of designing your own figure is something that goes way back in figure skating. Late nineteenth-century competitions in the International style invited skaters to create their own patterns on the ice, called special figures. Many of these were published in books like Holletscheck's Kunstfertigkeit im Eislaufen. Some were actually what we'd call freestyle… Continue reading Creative figures and the USFS Adult Gold Figure test
Georges Deny, Traité du patinage
Traité du patinage (Treatise on Skating) by Georges Deney, was published twice: in 1891 or 1892 and again in 1914. WorldCat gives the date of the first edition as 1891, but Fowler includes it in his list of books published in 1892. Everyone has the year in square brackets, which means nobody's really sure. Fowler's… Continue reading Georges Deny, Traité du patinage
Bone skates vs. archetype skates
This short video illustrates the major advantage of metal-bladed skates over bone skates. Even if the earliest metal-bladed skates were used with poles (I'm not sure when people started pushing with their feet), it was much easier to turn on them. Here I'm trying to keep the hockey circle between my feet on my archetype… Continue reading Bone skates vs. archetype skates
Courtney Jones, Around the Ice in 80 Years
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Around-Ice-Eighty-Years-irreverent/dp/0992851432/ Courtney Jones's autobiography on Amazon UK. Courtney Jones is being the third Jones discussed on this blog, after Robert Jones and Ernest Jones. I have no idea whether they are related. This Jones's achievement is the publication of a memoir, Around the Ice in Eighty Years: An Irreverent Memoir by an Accidental Champion, currently… Continue reading Courtney Jones, Around the Ice in 80 Years
The bone skates from Lincoln Castle
Lincoln Castle Revealed from Oxbow Oxbow's new book about Lincoln Castle, Lincoln Castle Revealed: The Story of a Norman Powerhouse and its Anglo-Saxon Precursor describes two bone skate fragments found during the excavation. The authors date them to before the Norman Conquest and include them in the catalog of artifacts under "Recreation"—where they are the… Continue reading The bone skates from Lincoln Castle
Robert Jones’s skates again
My Robert Jones skates. In A Treatise on Skating—the first book on skating, published exactly 250 years ago—Robert Jones describes, in great detail, his ideal skates. I made a pair and tried them out. Jones's skates are the type used in England at his time, in contrast to the Dutch type. They have short, curved… Continue reading Robert Jones’s skates again
The oldest skating art (again)
The dates of the Hieronymus Bosch paintings in my previous post aren't quite clear—there's a range of 10–20 years for each. I found it interesting that the early ends of these ranges are actually earlier than the woodcut of St. Lydwina's accident, which often gets the credit for being "[t]he first depiction of ice skating… Continue reading The oldest skating art (again)
Skating in the art of Hieronymus Bosch
I've found two instances of skating in Hieronymus Bosch's paintings. Note that they are all using snavelschaatsen! The Garden of Earthly Delights This triptych was probably painted between 1495 and 1505. Skating appears in the panel representing Hell. Courtesy of Wikimedia commons. The Temptation of Saint Anthony There's a messenger bird skating in the lower… Continue reading Skating in the art of Hieronymus Bosch