{"product_id":"vintage-rangeley-bald-mountain-ski-way-embroidered-patch","title":"Rangeley Bald Mt. Ski Way Patch, Felt — c. 1950s","description":"\u003cp\u003eA vintage Rangeley Bald Mt. Ski Way patch from Maine, estimated to date from the 1950s, cut from a round of cream felt with no applied border — a red ring chain-stitched around the edge carrying RANGELEY BALD MT. ME. over the top and SKI WAY around the foot, and in the middle a figure in red and black standing upright on his skis with one arm raised.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSki Way. Not area, not resort, not mountain. That word puts this in the fifties or very early sixties, when the vocabulary of the sport had not settled and every operator was calling their hill whatever sounded right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEverything about the construction says the same thing. Felt ground rather than twill. Chain stitch rather than the dense satin fill that came later. Two thread colors, because more than two cost more than the job was worth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is close to as early as New England ski patches get. It was made by a process that was already old when it was new, for a hill that was charging a couple of dollars, for customers who were skiing on wood with leather bindings and getting down however they could.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePatches this old are also frequently mistaken for later reproductions, because the construction looks crude to an eye trained on modern embroidery. Crude is the tell. Nobody reproducing a patch for the collector market chain-stitches it onto felt in two colors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eChain-stitched on felt, cut edge, no applied border. Photos are the condition report.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ropetow Vintage Co.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55537893900593,"sku":"RV-ME-112","price":125.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0996\/2048\/7473\/files\/ropetow-vintage-co-rangeley-ski-patch.webp?v=1785621353","url":"https:\/\/ropetowvintage.com\/products\/vintage-rangeley-bald-mountain-ski-way-embroidered-patch","provider":"Ropetow Vintage","version":"1.0","type":"link"}