Pair of silk shoes with a two inch heels, oval toe, square tongue, and a floral design.
shoes (footwear)
brocade (textile)
stitching
silk (textile)
Shoe
Shoe
Walk Right In 11/98-3/99 Many eighteenth-century shoes are called buckle shoes because a removable metal buckle was used to fasten the straps along the top. The high heel, round toe, angled side seams, and exhuberant floral pattern of this buckle shoe are characteristic of shoes made in the third quarter of the eighteenth century.
"Cherished Possessions": In eighteenth-century Boston, Massachusetts, the latest London fashions were readily available to those who could afford them. These brocade shoes were made in the section of London called Cheapside, known for its textile merchants and shoemakers. Like most shoes of the period, they have no right or left but were made to be interchangeable. The long tabs were intended to be fastened by buckles, which were worn like jewelry and could be transferred from one pair of shoes to another. Buckles could be set with diamonds for the wealthiest wearers, or, like these, made of paste. The original owner of these buckles, Prudence Jenkins, wore them at her wedding in 1778.
1919.140AB
Jonathan Hose and Son (Maker)
London, England
4 3/4 x 2 3/4 (HxW) (inches)
Gift of Miss Mary C. Wheelwright
1919.140AB
London (Greater London, England, United Kingdom)
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