Antique Leather Roller Skates with Wooden Wheels

C-18880 Early pair of clamp-style roller skates constructed with high-top black leather shoes mounted to steel trucks and fitted with cylindrical wooden wheels. The shoes feature stitched leather uppers with cotton laces and reinforced soles, secured to the metal skate frames by riveted plates. The trucks are a simple, robust design typical of pre-ball-bearing recreational skates, relying on solid axles and hardwood wheels rather than later rubber or composite materials. Compact, utilitarian, and built for durability, this style reflects an era when skating equipment was closer to work footwear than sport fashion. Roller skates of this type were commonly used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for both indoor rink skating and outdoor recreation, predating standardized sizing and m...