Battoir

In the outdoor game of jeu de longue paume, the battoir was used to strike a small, hard ball deep into the opponent’s side of an open-ended court. The wood surface of the head and shaft were covered with layers of vellum and parchment, which in time would wear through and to which new layers would be added. The handle was wrapped with sheepskin.

This battoir is one of seven discovered in 1989, all bearing the name of Hullot or Gullot. This rare racquet—the earliest of any type known to have survived to the present day—may be older than the fragments of early 18th Century parchment that cover it.