Skates were and still are widely used in winter time in The Netherlands, when the rivers, canals, creeks, ponds etc. are frozen solid. Paintings out of around 1600-1700 show models of skates very much like the one shown. Even until as recent as 40 years ago, the wooden skates (with steel blade) that are tied to the shoe with leather strap and laces, were widely used in the Netherlands. Even now they are still made in children sizes, because of there flexibility in adjusting to a range of shoe sizes.Skating is a tradition which remains popular.Wooden skates, with brown leather straps. It has a metal strip on the base of the wood, which is necessary for gliding on ice.Letter R for right foot No letter for left footdutch migration skates wood