Thanks to the kindness of Mr. Kaare Samuelsen, President of the Norwegian Badminton Association, we publish on the opposite page a reproduction of a picture by the Danish painter, Jakob Munch. It depicts a very young Danish prince participating in the quite ancient game of Battledore and Shuttlecock, from which of course modern Badminton was devised.
The picture was painted in the gardens of the Berndorfs Palace in Denmark in 1813, and the young player later became, in 1848, King Frederick 7th of Denmark. In 1813 Denmark and Norway were still, after nearly 400 years, united,and the Danish kings reigned over Norway. In 1814, however, Norway became a completely independent nation though for nearly another one hundred years the king of Sweden was also the king of Norway.
Jakob Munch presented his painting to the Eidsvold-Bygningen, a historic building in Eidsvold in Norway where the convention declaring Norway an independent nation was held on May 17th,1814. The building is now the property of the nation and a museum, and the picture may still be seen there.
This painting is, of course, by no means the oldest to show anyone playing Battledore and Shuttlecock, but we feel that it is of great interest. It may well be, however, the oldest to show a member of the Danish Royal Family, pursuing a sport at the successor of which Danish players have become so prominent throughout the world.
Battledore and Shuttlecock was not a game in the strict modern sense. There existed no court markings, nor indeed a net, and the object of two players was to keep the shuttlecock in flight as long as possible. This is very much the reverse of Badminton!
-- The IBF Handbook for 1970