VERY RARE 1960's VINTAGE COTTON CANVAS BACKPACKING TENT

BEAUTIFUL QUALITY ALUMINIUM MONO POLE DESIGN - BUILT-IN GROUNDSHEET - SEPERATE FLY SHEET

UNKNOWN MAKER - POSSIBLY RELUM / EASTERN EUROPEAN IMPORT FOR UK RETAILER

VERY GOOD AS-FOUND VINTAGE USED CONDITION

For sale here is a seriously nice vintage backpacking tent, from the traditional materials used, colour scheme and the fact it uses an Aero zip and a natural rubber coated groundsheet I am pretty certain it was made in the 1960's. Annoyingly there are no maker marks at all, this makes me think it was probably manufactured in Europe for sale through a British camping goods retailer such as Lillywhites, this would have been an expensive tent when new, it is no back garden kids effort, the design is superb and it could happily bear any number of high end period manufacturers labels and pass the quality test both in terms of design and materials. I have sold and used an untold number of vintage tents from this era and this is a lovely example!

The tent is made from a good quality and nice weight cotton tent canvas, stress points are reinforced with cotton webbing tapes and in some areas natural leather (Such at the eyelets for the pole). There is a built-in groundsheet made from a proofed canvas which is almost certainly treated with natural rubber, the main zip is a quality Aero branded item and the stitching throughout is very nice.

The tent uses a single pole along with guy lines for support, the pole is a three piece aluminium pole with a small extension for the fly sheet, it is dead easy to set, peg out the ground sheet, assemble the pole, peg out guys, add flysheet, peg and again set the guy lines and its done, even if you weren't a scout or an odball who likes to save and sell vintage tents like me, anyone can set this up without needing instructions (Which is good because none are included!). The shape is very aerodynamic and it felt very secure when I set it for the photos and I didn't even set the guy lines as well as I would were I using it, everything is nice and tight.

The tent is clearly a two-man design, it measures approximately 195cm / 76" wide, 145cm x 57" deep, internal maximum height measured from the pole comes in at 180cm / 71", the tent weighs 8.8kg.

CONDITION: Tent is in good as-found vintage used condition, this has been used and it is not mint but it clearly saw relatively little use, there is some fade to the canvas but it is light and the colours are still strong, the canvas retains it's integrity 100% and there are no repairs and no damage to note. The groundsheet is intact but being treated with a natural rubber coating it is somewhat crispy and you can see wear (See photos), it is not brittle and falling apart but personally I would use a separate groundsheet underneath just to be safe. The zips are perfect, there is evidence of light wear around the pole eyelets but they are reinforced from the back with leather so they are still strong, there are a few light water marks to the main tent but no evidence of mildew, it has been kept dry in storage and looked after. The peg rubbers have clearly perished at some point and the original owner has used inner tube sections, these work fine but to look prettier you could treat it to new rubbers, these cost pennies. I am not sure all the storage bags are original, I would say the peg bag is, the fly sheet bag possibly is, but the main bag I think is from another tent, this is annoying as I bet it had the brand name on it! The poles have no faults and are original, the tent comes with a motley assortment of pegs, wooden and wire, but there are enough to set the tent. Photos show the actual tent you will receive and were taken recently (13/5/24), on a perfectly dry day and packed away dry. This tent is perfectly useable and has a whole life ahead of it, were it an Army surplus tent I would certainly class this as Grade-1 and I am MEGA fussy when grading!

A really nice vintage tent for camping, you get an extra level of joy when camping in a traditional retro tent like this, if anyone can positively ID the make and model please let me know just out of interest, in need of a good new home, HAPPY BIDDING!