Part 1
Transcriber’s Notes
• Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. • Typographical errors were silently corrected. • New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. • Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
LADIES’ OLD-FASHIONED SHOES
LADIES’
OLD-FASHIONED SHOES
BY
T. WATSON GREIG
OF GLENCARSE
A Vice-President of the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perthshire, &c., &c.
_With Eleven Illustrations from Originals in his Collection_
EDINBURGH DAVID DOUGLAS 1885
CONTENTS.
PLATE
SHOE SAID TO HAVE BELONGED TO MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, I.
MISS LANGLEY’S SHOE, II.
COUNTESS OF PORTSMOUTH’S SHOE, III.
MRS WOODCOCK’S SHOE, IV.
SHOE OF LILIAS, DAUGHTER OF THE 12TH EARL OF V. EGLINTON,
LADY MARY MORDAUNT’S SHOE (_Black_), VI.
LADY MARY MORDAUNT’S SHOE (_Yellow_), VII.
MRS BROWN’S SHOE, VIII.
UNKNOWN, IX.
UNKNOWN, X.
UNKNOWN, XI.
_The Descriptions of the Shoes will be found before each Plate._
APPENDIX.
PAGE
I.
Lord William Pitt Lennox on Shoes, 1
II.
Shoes in the Antiquarian Museum in Edinburgh, 1
III.
Shoes at the Exhibition at Cluny, in Paris, in 1883, by R. Heath, 1
IV.
Shoes at Westminster Abbey, in Pictures, and mentioned in 9 Evelyn’s Diary,
PREFACE.
The following Illustrations of Old Shoes are intended to preserve in an intelligible form what is fast crumbling into dust; and it has been my endeavour to collect the very best and most authentic specimens, as well as to show the variety of shapes and the excellence of the workmanship and design used by our ancestors.
I have to thank Sir BERNARD BURKE; Sir ROBERT MENZIES, of that Ilk; Mrs BOURNE, of Breachoak; Mrs M’QUEEN, of Braxfield; and Messrs CASSELL & CO., for their kind assistance.
PLATE I.
This shoe is supposed to have belonged to the beautiful and unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots. Though remarkable for the smallness of its size, it is by no means a specimen of the elaborate workmanship of former days, being made of plain black satin; the simplicity of which, however, would in all probability be relieved by a diamond buckle to fasten, as was the fashion in olden times, the straps which were made to overlap each other across the instep. It is interesting and valuable to the antiquarian on account of its antiquity, and because of the rank and historical celebrity of its quondam wearer.
PLATE II.
Miss Langley, to whom this shoe belonged, lived in the reign of Charles II. Made of pale silk, most beautifully embroidered, the shoe may be considered as a _chef-d’œuvre_ in shoe manufacture of the times; while the lace, of an intricate pattern and delicate as a spider’s web, is very old and of much value. It is ornamented on the instep by a single pearl, and its _tout-ensemble_ is altogether pretty and graceful, and says much for the taste and dexterity of the shoemakers in the days of Charles II.
PLATE III.
Grace, only daughter of Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons, and afterwards created Lord Grantley, married John Charles, Earl of Portsmouth. The shoe was found amongst the effects of the late Lady Menzies of Menzies, who had received it from her aunt, and was worn by the Countess of Portsmouth with fancy dress. It is made of pale silk striped with blue, and is richly embroidered in steel. The form and style is apparently that of the last century. The inside is beautifully finished, being lined with pale pink silk and white kid; while a welt of the latter, extending in height about half an inch from the sole upwards, and in length from instep to toe, thus prevented any danger of the splitting of the material of which the shoe was made. This practice has now, for some reason or other, become impossible to the modern shoemaker. The heel is very large, and the toe pointed.
PLATE IV.
This shoe belonged to Anna Frances, wife of Walter Woodcock, and daughter of William Lea, of Halesowen Grange, Shropshire, by Frances, his wife, grand-daughter of Edward Ward, Lord Dudley, and Frances his wife, daughter of Sir William Brereton, Bart. Mrs Woodcock was consequently great-grand-daughter of Frances, Lady Dudley, and lived in the beginning of the last century. The stuff of which the shoe is composed is fine-spotted silk brocade of a yellowish colour, and ornamented with a pattern of pale blue silk embroidery above the toe. The shoe was worn with a buckle, has a small heel and round pointed toe.
PLATE V.
This shoe is made of lavender-coloured kid, with slashes of white satin “let in” in front, forming a pattern narrow at the toe, and widening towards the instep. The bottom of the heel is in the form of a heart, which peculiarity cannot be observed in the illustration, though perfectly apparent in the original. It belonged to Lilias, daughter of the 12th Earl of Eglinton, and was worn by her at her marriage about the middle of the eighteenth century. The height of the heel is what is worn at present, but the toe is pointed, and filled up for half an inch with wadding.
PLATE VI.
Lady Mary Mordaunt was the owner of this shoe, the material of which is closely spotted black silk. The shoe is without bow, tie, or straps, and has a plain and insignificant appearance; and its low heel makes it partake rather too much of the nature of a slipper.
PLATE VII.
This shoe also belonged to Lady Mary Mordaunt. The material is the same as that of the black one, but its bright colour and elaborate gimp trimming transforms it into a smarter and more stylish shoe. The point of the toe is so extremely sharp and elongated, that it had to be well stuffed with cotton-wool to preserve the shape.
PLATE VIII.
Nothing can be ascertained about Mrs Brown, the owner of this magnificent shoe, except her name. It is made of cloth of gold; of which, although for the most part the threads of the brocade are now tarnished and blackened with age, there still remain a few inches which have withstood the ravages of time, and which serve to indicate with what brilliancy and effect the chaussure must have gleamed and sparkled when fresh from the hands of the maker. This shoe was worn with a large buckle, has an immense heel and pointed toe. It dates about the time of Queen Elizabeth, and as it was procured in the vicinity of Kenilworth (namely at Leamington) may have figured at the revels and festivities there in its grand days.
PLATE IX.
From its appearance this shoe must be a very old one, but the date and name of its wearer cannot be discovered. It differs from many of the preceding ones by the fact that the heel, instead of being covered with the same material as the shoe, is formed of dark red leather. The old brocade is very rich in texture, and harmonious in colouring; and the flap above the instep is kept in place by a ribbon strap of a corresponding hue.
PLATE X.
This large buckled shoe was worn in the reign of Queen Anne, though, unfortunately, the name of its owner cannot be ascertained. The material is pink silk; the embroidery in silks and metallic threads is very rich, and the colours wonderfully preserved. The heel is of an immense height and breadth, and the toe so extravagantly pointed, that it must have protruded for a considerable distance beyond the foot.
PLATE XI.
This shoe is fastened by a ribbon tie, instead of the overlapping straps with ornamental buckle. It is made of plain black satin, with the silk binding that is usual at the present day. The heel is neatly shaped, and not of such extravagant height as that of other shoes of a corresponding date, probably about the middle or end of the last century; toe pointed.
APPENDIX.
I.
The following is an extract from “Fashions Then and Now,” by Lord William Pitt Lennox:--“From caps we descend ‘_au pied_.’ We have seen dancing-shoes four inches in height at the heel, shoes of no measure, some as broad as a tea-cup’s brim, some as narrow as the china circle the cup stands upon. While upon the subject of shoes, I may remark that some sixty years ago fashionable ladies turned ‘cordonniers,’ and having purchased a wooden last, tools, leather, soles, silk, satin, and prunella, furnished their evening ‘chaussures.’ So long as the wearers remained in-doors, or drove out in a carriage, all went well; but when these articles, ‘warranted’ (as the cheap bootmakers announce) to be made at home, were put to the test in the promenade or ball-room, the chances were ten to one they would not stand the wear, and that a heel or ball of the foot would obtrude.”
II.
CATALOGUE OF SHOES IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES, EDINBURGH.
1. Series of Specimens of Ornamental Shoe-Buckles of the 17th and 18th centuries.
2. Pair of Jack Boots as worn in the middle of the 17th century.
3. Sandal, dug up in the Magdalen Yard, Dundee, Forfarshire.--A. Sutherland, 1827.
4. Old Celtic Shoe, with open-work, found six feet below the surface, near Callander, Perthshire.
5. Soles of Shoes, found in the “Moray Vault,” under St Giles’ Church, Edinburgh.--A. Ritchie, 1837.
6–11. Ladies’ Shoes, viz.:--(6) High-heeled Shoe and pair of Clogs, as worn in the middle of last century; (7) High-heeled Crimson Satin Shoes, with plated buckles--George Sim, F.S.A. Scot., 1863; (8) Pair of Sky-blue Satin high-heeled Shoes, with buckles; (9) Pair of Black Satin Shoes, high heels, with ribband tie; (10, 11) Two Pairs lemon-coloured, sharp-pointed, high-heeled, Kid Shoes, with ribband rosettes, worn in the beginning of the present century--Dr John Alexander Smith, F.S.A. Scot., 1861.
12. Pair of Rivlins, or Shetland Shoes of untanned hide.--Gilbert Goudie, F.S.A. Scot., 1873.
13–16. Shoes of Satin and Embroidered Work.
III.
FASHIONS FOR THE FEET.
BY R. HEATH.
(_Reprinted from the “Magazine of Art” by permission of Messrs Cassell & Co._)
The collection of foot-gear at Cluny is full of interest not only for artists, archæologists, and ethnologists, but for every student of human nature. Originally formed by the eminent French engraver, the late Jules Jacquemart, it was acquired by the Musée de Cluny in 1880. Further enriched by the purchase of the collection of Baron Schvitter, it is in every respect unique, not merely in its subject-matter, but because it is at once very choice and singularly universal. Here are not only examples of boots and shoes from ancient times, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and every period since, but boots and shoes from every quarter of the globe.
The chief interest naturally centres in that portion which is most complete, and which illustrates the female fashions that have prevailed in France and Italy from the time of the Valois to that of the First Empire. One of the earliest examples is a female shoe of the age of Henri II. (1). It is of white stuff, ornamented on the instep with a large rosette of silver lace and a long metal point of gilt copper engraved in chevrons. The heel is so enormously high, that the lady must literally have stood on her toes. The long metal point is a remnant of a fashion which prevailed from the Eleventh to the Fifteenth Century, and which, though stigmatised by the bishops as immoral and impious, and moreover rendered illegal in France by royal decree, and in England by Act of Parliament, refused to do more than retire into temporary banishment, reappearing in the reign of Louis XI. under a form more offensive than ever. This was the long-peaked shoe, called in France the _chaussure à poulaine_, from the resemblance of the point to the prow of a ship. William of Malmesbury attributes its origin to a certain follower of William Rufus, and evidently regards it as part and parcel of the disgraceful morals of the Anglo-Norman court. In France it is traced back to Geoffrey Plantagenet, father of Henry II. of England, who is said to have had a great excrescence at the end of his foot, obliging him to wear a peculiar form of shoe. The cordwainer appears to have hit the public taste; for the Plantagenet shoe at once became the fashion, and every one wore a long point, which gradually became elongated to two feet, and had to be attached to the knee by a metal chain. Its full proportions, however, were confined to princes and great nobles; lords and very rich people were permitted to wear toes a foot long, but the middle-class might not exceed six inches. These protuberances were embroidered and trimmed with lace, the ends being shaped like a horn, a claw, or some other grotesque point. This prevailed until the last quarter of the Fourteenth Century, when the fashion gave way to a kind of slipper with a very broad toe just rounded off. But in another hundred years the peaked toes reappeared, and this time men wore points of iron a foot long, through the end of which a chain was passed, so that they were held aloft in the air. The same fashion appears to have obtained in England, for Camden speaks of “shoes and patterns being snowted and piked more than a finger long, looking upwards.” And here in this shoe we have evidence of a lady as late as the days of Henri II. wearing a long metal point. When we find such remarkable persistency in a fashion apparently unreasonable, we suspect that in some way it peculiarly expressed the spirit of the latter Middle Ages. In the shoe before us, the union of the high heel with the peaked toe produces a foot which very truly represents a court in which the men were satyrs and the women sirens.
The next female shoe of interest comes from the wardrobe of Catherine de Medici (2). The long toe has lost its point, and developed into something like a duck’s bill, covered as far as the instep with a piece of silk, on which are worked rosettes of silver lace placed so close as to give the appearance of a metal surface. This shoe is made of white leather, and seems to have lost its ornamentation. Both this example and another of the Sixteenth Century (3) are peculiar in having soles which connect the toe and the heel in the form of a patten. The second is made of white leather, and cut out lozenge-wise with eight thongs, which unite in a central one going up the instep; the heel is painted red, and made of leaves of leather pressed together. The most reasonable shoe of the Valois epoch, and indeed of the whole series from the French courts, belongs to the time of Henri III. (4). It is made to the natural shape of the foot, and has a heel of moderate height. Of fawn-coloured leather, it is cut out at the sides in large lozenge-shaped openings, and fastened by two straps, which spring from the neck and embrace the central thong, the edges throughout being scalloped, and the shoe embroidered with fine blue.
No specimen of woman’s wear under Henri IV. is given, but to judge from a child’s shoe, the same fashion prevailed as that last illustrated. With Louis XIII. the high heels and pointed toes reappear. An Italian example (5) of this date resembles the Henri III. specimen in its open sides, its scalloped edges, and its method of fastening; but the toe, tending to a point, ends in a fine duck’s bill. The heel is painted red. A German shoe of about the same time is tasteful, but more domestic. It is of grey kid, embroidered on the upper with a bold design in black silk. The toe is pointed and slightly raised; and the heel towards the centre of the foot is painted pink.
We now come to the Ludovican period, the early part of which coincides with that of Charles II. of England, a period whose extreme frivolity and heartlessness are well expressed in its costume. What can be more tasteless than the specimens (6, 7, 8) we have engraved of the fashion of Louis XIV., with their hard shapes, their crude glaring colours, and the recrudescence of the peaked toe? The heels have again risen enormously, and turn the foot into the cloven hoof of the early Valois period. The first is of damask, embroidered with white, blue, and silver, and fastened with narrow straps: it is elevated on a very high narrow heel, widening out at the base. The second somewhat reproduces the shoe of Henri II.: the wearer must have stood on her toes. The material is of yellow silk, embroidered from top to instep with a tasteless covering of silver lace; the very high heel is in red morocco; it is fastened just below the ankle with a strap and buckle. If these two shoes show how the art of the Renaissance had declined in France, the specimen from Italy of the same period (8) is even worse. One can hardly believe that such a shoe was made for anything but a goat. Thus shod, it is difficult to imagine how any creature less sure-footed could maintain its balance. The toe is ornamented with rosettes in cerise and yellow ribbons.
The Regency (1715–1723) is represented by a boot (9) which, apart from its high heel, shaped like a barber’s wig-stand, would not be very ugly. The front is even graceful in its lines, the flying flaps giving it a floral appearance. The next series, belonging to the reign of Louis XV., cannot be denied a certain piquant grace. Later on I shall have to remark the singular resemblance between the typical form (10) of this reign and that prevalent in Mohammedan countries and in Japan. Only, the beauty observable in Oriental and African specimens, due to innate harmony, is here destroyed by the elevation of the shoe on pegs to a height which gives it the appearance of springing from the middle of the foot. In one example, the whole form of the shoe, even to the treading down of the heel, is Oriental; but, perched on its stand, it has exactly the form of an old coal-scuttle (11). These pegs, it would seem, were helpful in dancing, for Gay writes in his “Trivia,”--
“The wooden heel may raise the dancer’s bound.”
The slippers of this period are also quite Oriental in character, being merely a sole covered luxuriously at the toes.
The Louis XV. shape prevailed in the early years of Louis XVI., but gradually gave way to a more natural and sober fashion. Among the earlier specimens is a shoe which appears to have been worn by the ordinary public. It has still much of the old style, but its proportions are very modest. The covering is black spotted silk, with a sort of puff-ball ornament over the toe, also in black silk. The pointed toe continued some time, but the heel got flattened and began to recede into its normal place. A specimen of this period is a slipper (12) said to have belonged to the unfortunate Princess de Lamballe. It is sharply pointed, but delicate in form. The material is pale green silk, set off with yellow ribbons. But the shoe that must be considered typical of the reign of Louis XVI. has a very low heel, and a toe which, at first oval, becomes what botanists distinguish as ovate. The collection affords several examples of this gradual change in the shape of the toe, commencing with a very obtuse point, which in the end is quite lost. The specimen engraved (13) is an extremely pretty slipper in green morocco, with a red heel and a double ruche of red taffetas.
These dainty shoekins must begin their last dance, and many will be whirled away in the tumbrils. The galleries of Versailles and the Tuileries resound with the noisy tread of the daughters of the people. M. Jacquemart has wisely preserved a specimen of their foot-gear (14). It is oval-toed, with a flap on both sides of the instep; the front, opening slightly, is tied by a narrow ribbon, as also the flaps could be if required, there being holes pierced for the purpose. The heels are painted red. Then the Republic gives place to the Empire, and one of the first changes in fashion is the reappearance of the pointed toe. Otherwise, the shoes affected during the Consulate and first days of the Empire are in the antique taste. The shoe we give (15) is in pearl-grey linen, with a very restrained ornamentation in green silk; it might have been worn by the women of Etruria. Born of republican admiration for Greek and Roman liberty, the fashion soon passed away, and a singularly dull mode set in. The specimen from the Empress Josephine’s wardrobe (16) is indicative of the bourgeois character of the imperial court. This fashion of neat, square, low-heeled shoes prevailed during the Restoration with both sexes. From 1820 we get a man’s evening dress shoe of varnished leather (17). The instep is cut away, and the opening made to represent an embroidered stocking by a tracery of black kid on white leather. Between this and the wear of Louis XV. there is a great lack of male foot-gear. This is to be regretted, as a number of interesting boots and shoes occur in this period. We should have the various military boots under the Empire, especially the Hessian boot so common in the early part of this century, and which in England was not quite given up until the Wellington supplanted it. If it be true that Bonaparte’s lack of boots kept him out of India, and led him into the jaws of temptation, the boots in vogue in 1795 may be regarded as historic, and ought to be represented in a French collection. We should like also to see a specimen of the pumps of the Directory, and the top-boots of the Revolution, an outcome of that Anglomania which was one of its early symptoms. But with the exception of a small boy’s boot of the age of Louis XVI., we get nothing in the way of male foot-gear until we come to a postillion’s boot (18) of the time of Louis XV. To the same period probably belongs a long flexible boot in shagreen leather, made to completely cover the leg. It was tightened by means of buckles at the top and below the knee.