CHAPTER XIVBATTS AND BROAGS, BOOTS AND SHOESOne of the first sumptuary laws in New England declared that men of mean estate should not walk abroad in immoderate great boots. It was a natural prohibition where all extravagance in dress was reprehended and restrained. The “great boots” which had been so vast in the reign of James I seemed to be spreading still wider in the reign of Charles. I have an old “Discourse” on leather dated 1629, which states fully the condition of things. Its various headings read, “The general Use of Leather;” “The general Abuse thereof;” “The good which may arise from the Reformation;” “The several Statutes made in that behalf by our ancient Kings;” and lastly a “Petition to the High Court of Parliament.” It is all most informing; for instance, in the trades that might want work were it not for leather are named not only “shoemakers, cordwainers, curriers, etc.,” but many now obsolete. The list reads:—“Book binders.Budget makers.Saddlers.Trunk makers.Upholsterers.Belt makers.Case makers.Box makers.Wool-card makers.Cabinet makers.Shuttle makers.Bottle and Jack makers.Hawks-hood makers.Gridlers.Scabbard-makers.Glovers.”Unwillingly the author added “thoseupstart trades—Coach Makers, and Harness Makers for Coach Horses.” It was really feared, by this sensible gentleman-writer—and many others—that if many carriages and coaches were used, shoemakers would suffer because so few shoes would be worn out.From the statutes which are rehearsed we learn that the footwear of the day was “boots, shoes, buskins, startups, slippers, or pantofles.” Stubbes said:—“They have korked shooes puisnets pantoffles, some of black velvet, some of white some of green, some of yellow, some of Spanish leather, some of English leather stitched with Silke and embroidered with Gold &; Silver all over the foot.”A very interesting book has been published by the British Cordwainers’ Guild, giving a succession of fine illustrations of the footwear of different times and nations. Among them are some handsome English slippers, shoes, jack-boots, etc. We have also in our museums, historical collections, and private families many fine examples; but the difficulty is in the assigning of correct dates. Family tradition is absolutely wide of the truth—its fabulous dates are often a century away from the proper year.The Copley Family Picture.The Copley Family Picture.Wedding Slippers and Brocade. 1712.Wedding Slippers and Brocade. 1712.Buskins to the knee were worn even by royalty; Queen Elizabeth’s still exist. Buskins were in wear when the colonies were settled. Richard Sawyer, of Windsor, Connecticut, had cloth buskins in 1648; and a hundred years later runaway servants wore them. One redemptioner is described as running off in “sliders and buskins.” American buskins were a foot-covering consisting of a strong leather sole with cloth uppers and leggins to the knees, which were fastened with lacings. Startups were similar, but heavier. In Thynne’sDebate between Pride and Lowliness, the dress of a countryman is described. It runs thus:—“A payre of startups had he on his feeteThat lased were up to the small of the legge.Homelie they are, and easier than meete;And in their soles full many a wooden pegge.”Thomas Johnson of Wethersfield, Connecticut, died in 1840. He owned “1 Perre of Startups.”Slippers were worn even in the fifteenth century. In thePaston Letters, in a letter dated February 23, 1479, is this sentence, “In the whych lettre was VIII d with the whych I shulde bye a peyr of slyppers.” Even for those days eightpence must have been a small price for slippers. In 1686, Judge Samuel Sewall wrote to a member of the Hall family thanking him for “The Kind Loving Token—the East Indian Slippers for my wife.” Other colonial letters refer to Oriental slippers; and I am sure that Turkish slippers are worn by Lady Temple in her childish portrait, painted in company with her brother. Slip-shoes were evidently slippers—the word is used by Sewall; and slap-shoes are named by Randle Holme. Pantofles were also slippers, being apparently rather handsomer footwear than ordinary slippers or slip-shoes. They are in general specified as embroidered. Evelyn tells of the fine pantofles of the Pope embroidered with jewels on the instep.So great was the use and abuse of leather that a petition was made to Parliament in 1629 to attempt to restrict the making of great boots. One sentence runs:—“The wearing of Boots is not the Abuse; but the generality of wearing and the manner of cutting Boots out with huge slovenly unmannerly immoderate tops. What over lavish spending is there in Boots and Shoes. To either of which is now added a French proud Superfluity of Leather.“For the general Walking in Boots it is a Pride taken up by the Courtier and is descended to the Clown. The Merchant and Mechanic walk in Boots. Many of our Clergy either in neat Boots or Shoes and Galloshoes. University Scholars maintain the Fashion likewise. Some Citizens out of a Scorn not to be Gentile go every day booted. Attorneys, Lawyers, Clerks, Serving Men, All Sorts of Men delight in this Wasteful Wantonness.“Wasteful I may well call it. One pair of boots eats up the leather of six reasonable pair of men’s shoes.”Jack-boots. Owned by Lord Fairfax of Virginia.Jack-boots. Owned by Lord Fairfax of Virginia.Monstrous boots seem to have been the one frivolity in dress which the Puritans could not give up. In the reign of Charles I boots were superb. The tops were flaring, lined within with lace or embroidered or fringed; thus when turned down they were richly ornamental. Fringes of leather, silk, or cloth edged some boot-tops on the outside; the leather itself was carved and gilded. The soldiers and officers of Cromwell’s army sometimes gave up laces and fringes, but not the boot-tops. The Earl of Essex, his general, had cloth fringes on his boots. (See his portrait facinghere; also the portrait of Lord Fairfaxhere.) In the court of Charles II and Louis XIV of France the boot-tops spread to absurd inconvenience. The toes of these boots were very square, as were the toes of men’s and women’s shoes. Children’s shoes were of similar form. The singular shoes worn by John Quincy and Robert Gibbes are precisely right-angled. It was a sneer at the Puritans that they wore pointed toes. The shoe-ties, roses, and buckles varied; but the square toes lingered, though they were singularly inelegant. On the feet of George I (see portraithere) the square-toed shoes are ugly indeed.James I scornfully repelled shoe-roses when brought to him for his wear; asking if they wished to “make a ruffle-footed dove” of him. But soon he wore the largest rosettes in court. Peacham tells that some cost as much as £;30 a pair, being then, of course, of rare lace.Joshua Warner.Joshua Warner.Friar Bacon’s Brazen Head Prophecie, set into a “Plaie” or Rhyme, has these verses (1604):“Then Handkerchers were wroughtWith Names and true Love Knots;And not a wench was taughtA false Stitch in her spots;When Roses in the Gardaines grewAnd not in Ribons on a Shoe.“NowSempsters few are taughtThe true Stitch in their Spots;And Names are sildome wroughtWithin the true love knots;And Ribon Roses takes such PlaceThat Garden Roses want their Grace.”Shoes of buff leather, slashed, were the very height of the fashion in the first years of the seventeenth century. They can be seen on the feet of Will Sommers in his portrait. Through the slashes showed bright the scarlet or green stockings of cloth or yarn. Bright-colored shoe-strings gave additional gaudiness. Green shoe-strings, spangled, gilded shoe-strings, shoes of “dry-neat-leather tied with red ribbons,” “russet boots,” “white silken shoe strings,”—all were worn.Red heels appear about 1710. In Hogarth’s original paintings they are seen. Women wore them extensively in America.The jack-boots of Stuart days seem absolutely imperishable. They are of black, jacked leather like the leather bottles and black-jacks from which Englishmen drank their ale. So closely are they alike that I do not wonder a French traveller wrote home that Englishmen drank from their boots. These jack-boots were as solid and unpliable as iron, square-toed and clumsy of shape. A pair in perfect preservation which belonged to Lord Fairfax in Virginia is portrayedhere. Had all colonial gentlemen worn jack-boots, the bootmakers and shoemakers would have been ruined, for a pair would last a lifetime.Shoe and Knee Buckles.Shoe and Knee Buckles.In 1767 we find William Cabell of Virginia paying these prices for his finery:—£s.d.1 Pair single channelled boots with straps121 Pair Strong Buckskin Breeches1102 Pairs Fashionable Chain Silver Spurs2101 Pair Silver Buttons61 fine Magazine Blue Cloth Housing laced121 Strong Double Bridle466 Pair Men’s fine Silk Hose44Buttons &; trimmings for a coat52New England dandies wore, as did Monsieur A-la-mode:—“A pair of smart pumps made up of grain’d leather,So thin he can’t venture to tread on a feather.”Buckles were made of pinchbeck, an alloy of four parts of copper and one part of zinc, invented by Christopher Pinchbeck, a London watchmaker of the eighteenth century. Buckles were also “plaited” and double “plaited” with gold and silver (which was the general spelling of plated). Plated buckles were cast in pinchbeck, with a pattern on the surface. A silver coating was laid over this. These buckles were set with marcasite, garnet, and paste jewels; sometimes they were of gold with real diamonds. But much imitation jewellery was worn by all people even of great wealth. Perhaps imitation is an incorrect word. The old paste jewels made no assertion of being diamonds. Steel cut in facets and combined with gold, made beautiful buckles. A number of rich shoe and garter buckles, owned in Salem, are shownhere.These old buckles were handsome, costly, dignified; they were becoming; they were elegant. Nevertheless, the fashionable world tired of its expensive and appropriate buckles; they suddenly were deemed inconveniently large, and plain shoe-strings took their place. This caused great commotion and ruin among the buckle-makers, who, with the fatuity of other tradespeople—the wig-makers, the hair-powder makers—in like calamitous changes of fashion, petitioned the Prince of Wales, in 1791, to do something to revive their vanishing trade. But it was like placing King Canute against the advancing waves of the sea.Wedding Slippers.Wedding Slippers.When the Revolutionists in France set about altering and simplifying costume, they did away with shoe-buckles, and fastened their shoes with plain strings. Minister Roland, one day in 1793, was about to present himself to Louis XVI while he was wearing shoes with strings. The old Master of Ceremonies, scandalized at having to introduce a person in such a state of undress, looked despairingly at Dumouriez, who was present. Dumouriez replied with an equally hopeless gesture, and the words, “Hélas! oui, monsieur, tout est perdu.”President Jefferson, with his hateful French notions, made himself especially obnoxious to conservative American folk by giving up shoe-buckles. I read in theNew York Evening Postthat when he received the noisy bawling band of admirers who brought into the White House the Mammoth Cheese (one of the most vulgar exhibitions ever seen in this country), he was “dressed in his suit of customary black, with shoes that laced tight round the ankle and closed with a neat leathern string.”When shoe-strings were established and trousers were becoming popular, there seemed to be a time of indecision as to the dress of the legs below the short pantaloons and above the stringed shoes. That point of indefiniteness was filled promptly with top-boots. First, black tops appeared; then came tops of fancy leather, of which yellow was the favorite. Gilt tassels swung pleasingly from the colored tops. Silken tassels—home made—were worn. I have a letter from a young American macaroni to his sweetheart in which he thanks her for her “heart-filling boot-tossels”—which seems to me a very cleverly flattering adjective. He adds: “Did those rosy fingers twist the silken strands, and knot them with thought of the wearer? I wish you was loveing enough to tye some threads of your golden hair into the tossells, but I swear I cannot find never a one.” The conjunction of two negatives in this manner was common usage a hundred years ago; while “you was” may be found in the writings of our greatest authors of that date.In one attribute, women’s footwear never varied in the two centuries of this book’s recording. It was always thin-soled and of light material; never adequate for much “walking abroad” or for any wet weather. In fact, women have never worn heavy walking-boots until our own day. Whether high-heeled or no-heeled they were always thin.The curious “needle-pointed” slippers which are picturedherewere the bridal slippers at the wedding of Cornelia de Peyster, who married Oliver Teller in 1712. Several articles of her dress still exist; and the background of the slippers is a breadth of the superb yellow and silver brocade wedding gown worn at the same time.When we have the tiny pages of the few newspapers to turn to, we learn a little of women’s shoes. There were advertisements in 1740 of “mourning shoes,” “fine silk shoes,” “flowered russet shoes,” “white callimanco shoes,” “black shammy shoes,” “girls’ flowered russet shoes,” “shoes of black velvet, white damask, red morocco, and red everlasting.” “Damask worsted shoes in red, blue, green, pink color and white,” in 1751. There were satinet patterns for ladies’ shoes embroidered with flowers in the vamp. The heels were “high, cross-cut, common, court, and wurtemburgh.” Some shoes were white with russet bands. “French fall” shoes were worn both by women and men for many years.Mrs. Abigail Bromfield Rogers.Mrs. Abigail Bromfield Rogers.Hereis a pair of beautiful brocade wedding shoes. The heels are not high. Another pair was made of the silken stuff of the beautiful sacque worn by Mrs. Carroll. These have high heels running down to a very small heel-base. In the works of Hogarth we may find many examples of women’s shoes. In all the old shoes I have seen, made about the time of the American Revolution, the maker’s name is within and this legend, “Rips mended free.” Many heels were much higher and smaller than any given in this book.Mrs. Carroll’s Slippers.Mrs. Carroll’s Slippers.It is astonishing to read the advocacy and eulogy given by sensible gentlemen to these extreme heels. Watson, the writer of theAnnals of Philadelphia, extolled their virtues—that they threw the weight of the wearer on the ball of the foot and spread it out for a good support. He deplores the flat feet of 1830.In 1790 heels disappeared; sandal-shapes were the mode. The quarters were made low, and instead of a buckle was a tiny bow or a pleated ribbon edging. In 1791 “the exact size” of the shoe of the Duchess of York was published—a fashionable fad which our modern sensation hunters have not bethought themselves of. It was 5 3/4 inches in length; the breadth of sole, 1 3/4 inches. It was a colored print, and shows that the lady’s shoe was of green silk spotted with gold stars, and bound with scarlet silk. The sole is thicker at the back, forming a slight uplift which was not strictly a heel. Of course, this was a tiny foot, but we do not know the height of the duchess.I have seen the remains of a charming pair of court shoes worn in France by a pretty Boston girl. These had been embroidered with paste jewels, “diamonds”; while to my surprise the back seam of both shoes was outlined with paste emeralds. I find that this was the mode of the court of Marie Antoinette. The queen and her ladies wore these in real jewels, and in affectation wore no jewels elsewhere.In Mrs. Gaskell’sMy Lady Ludlowwe are told that my lady would not sanction the mode of the beginning of the century which “made all the fine ladies take to making shoes.” Mrs. Blundell, in one of her novels, sets her heroine (about 1805) at shoe-making. The shoes of that day were very thin of material, very simple of shape, were heelless, and in many cases closely approached a sandal. A pair worn by my great-aunt at that date is shown on this page. American women certainly had tiny feet. This aunt was above the average height, but her shoes are no larger than the number known to-day as “Ones”—a size about large enough for a girl ten years old.White Kid Slippers. 1815.White Kid Slippers. 1815.It was not long after English girls were making shoes that Yankee girls were shaping and binding them in New England. I have seen several old letters which gave rules for shaping and directions for sewing party-shoes of thin light kid and silk. It is not probable that any heavy materials were ever made up by women at home. Sandals also were worn, and made by girls for their own wear from bits of morocco and kid.In the early years of the century the thin, silk hose and low slippers of the French fashions proved almost unendurable in our northern winters. One wearer of the time writes, “Many a time have I walked Broadway when the pavement sent almost a death chill to my heart.” The Indians then furnished an article of dress which must have been grateful indeed, pretty moccasins edged with fur, to be worn over the thin slippers.An old lady recalled with precision that the first boots for women’s wear came in fashion in 1828; they were laced at the side. Garters and boots both had fringes at the top.
O
ne of the first sumptuary laws in New England declared that men of mean estate should not walk abroad in immoderate great boots. It was a natural prohibition where all extravagance in dress was reprehended and restrained. The “great boots” which had been so vast in the reign of James I seemed to be spreading still wider in the reign of Charles. I have an old “Discourse” on leather dated 1629, which states fully the condition of things. Its various headings read, “The general Use of Leather;” “The general Abuse thereof;” “The good which may arise from the Reformation;” “The several Statutes made in that behalf by our ancient Kings;” and lastly a “Petition to the High Court of Parliament.” It is all most informing; for instance, in the trades that might want work were it not for leather are named not only “shoemakers, cordwainers, curriers, etc.,” but many now obsolete. The list reads:—
“Book binders.Budget makers.Saddlers.Trunk makers.Upholsterers.Belt makers.Case makers.Box makers.Wool-card makers.Cabinet makers.Shuttle makers.Bottle and Jack makers.Hawks-hood makers.Gridlers.Scabbard-makers.Glovers.”
“Book binders.Budget makers.Saddlers.Trunk makers.Upholsterers.Belt makers.Case makers.Box makers.Wool-card makers.Cabinet makers.Shuttle makers.Bottle and Jack makers.Hawks-hood makers.Gridlers.Scabbard-makers.Glovers.”
Unwillingly the author added “thoseupstart trades—Coach Makers, and Harness Makers for Coach Horses.” It was really feared, by this sensible gentleman-writer—and many others—that if many carriages and coaches were used, shoemakers would suffer because so few shoes would be worn out.
From the statutes which are rehearsed we learn that the footwear of the day was “boots, shoes, buskins, startups, slippers, or pantofles.” Stubbes said:—
“They have korked shooes puisnets pantoffles, some of black velvet, some of white some of green, some of yellow, some of Spanish leather, some of English leather stitched with Silke and embroidered with Gold &; Silver all over the foot.”
“They have korked shooes puisnets pantoffles, some of black velvet, some of white some of green, some of yellow, some of Spanish leather, some of English leather stitched with Silke and embroidered with Gold &; Silver all over the foot.”
A very interesting book has been published by the British Cordwainers’ Guild, giving a succession of fine illustrations of the footwear of different times and nations. Among them are some handsome English slippers, shoes, jack-boots, etc. We have also in our museums, historical collections, and private families many fine examples; but the difficulty is in the assigning of correct dates. Family tradition is absolutely wide of the truth—its fabulous dates are often a century away from the proper year.
The Copley Family Picture.The Copley Family Picture.
The Copley Family Picture.
Wedding Slippers and Brocade. 1712.Wedding Slippers and Brocade. 1712.
Wedding Slippers and Brocade. 1712.
Buskins to the knee were worn even by royalty; Queen Elizabeth’s still exist. Buskins were in wear when the colonies were settled. Richard Sawyer, of Windsor, Connecticut, had cloth buskins in 1648; and a hundred years later runaway servants wore them. One redemptioner is described as running off in “sliders and buskins.” American buskins were a foot-covering consisting of a strong leather sole with cloth uppers and leggins to the knees, which were fastened with lacings. Startups were similar, but heavier. In Thynne’sDebate between Pride and Lowliness, the dress of a countryman is described. It runs thus:—
“A payre of startups had he on his feeteThat lased were up to the small of the legge.Homelie they are, and easier than meete;And in their soles full many a wooden pegge.”
“A payre of startups had he on his feeteThat lased were up to the small of the legge.Homelie they are, and easier than meete;And in their soles full many a wooden pegge.”
Thomas Johnson of Wethersfield, Connecticut, died in 1840. He owned “1 Perre of Startups.”
Slippers were worn even in the fifteenth century. In thePaston Letters, in a letter dated February 23, 1479, is this sentence, “In the whych lettre was VIII d with the whych I shulde bye a peyr of slyppers.” Even for those days eightpence must have been a small price for slippers. In 1686, Judge Samuel Sewall wrote to a member of the Hall family thanking him for “The Kind Loving Token—the East Indian Slippers for my wife.” Other colonial letters refer to Oriental slippers; and I am sure that Turkish slippers are worn by Lady Temple in her childish portrait, painted in company with her brother. Slip-shoes were evidently slippers—the word is used by Sewall; and slap-shoes are named by Randle Holme. Pantofles were also slippers, being apparently rather handsomer footwear than ordinary slippers or slip-shoes. They are in general specified as embroidered. Evelyn tells of the fine pantofles of the Pope embroidered with jewels on the instep.
So great was the use and abuse of leather that a petition was made to Parliament in 1629 to attempt to restrict the making of great boots. One sentence runs:—
“The wearing of Boots is not the Abuse; but the generality of wearing and the manner of cutting Boots out with huge slovenly unmannerly immoderate tops. What over lavish spending is there in Boots and Shoes. To either of which is now added a French proud Superfluity of Leather.“For the general Walking in Boots it is a Pride taken up by the Courtier and is descended to the Clown. The Merchant and Mechanic walk in Boots. Many of our Clergy either in neat Boots or Shoes and Galloshoes. University Scholars maintain the Fashion likewise. Some Citizens out of a Scorn not to be Gentile go every day booted. Attorneys, Lawyers, Clerks, Serving Men, All Sorts of Men delight in this Wasteful Wantonness.“Wasteful I may well call it. One pair of boots eats up the leather of six reasonable pair of men’s shoes.”
“The wearing of Boots is not the Abuse; but the generality of wearing and the manner of cutting Boots out with huge slovenly unmannerly immoderate tops. What over lavish spending is there in Boots and Shoes. To either of which is now added a French proud Superfluity of Leather.“For the general Walking in Boots it is a Pride taken up by the Courtier and is descended to the Clown. The Merchant and Mechanic walk in Boots. Many of our Clergy either in neat Boots or Shoes and Galloshoes. University Scholars maintain the Fashion likewise. Some Citizens out of a Scorn not to be Gentile go every day booted. Attorneys, Lawyers, Clerks, Serving Men, All Sorts of Men delight in this Wasteful Wantonness.“Wasteful I may well call it. One pair of boots eats up the leather of six reasonable pair of men’s shoes.”
Jack-boots. Owned by Lord Fairfax of Virginia.Jack-boots. Owned by Lord Fairfax of Virginia.
Jack-boots. Owned by Lord Fairfax of Virginia.
Monstrous boots seem to have been the one frivolity in dress which the Puritans could not give up. In the reign of Charles I boots were superb. The tops were flaring, lined within with lace or embroidered or fringed; thus when turned down they were richly ornamental. Fringes of leather, silk, or cloth edged some boot-tops on the outside; the leather itself was carved and gilded. The soldiers and officers of Cromwell’s army sometimes gave up laces and fringes, but not the boot-tops. The Earl of Essex, his general, had cloth fringes on his boots. (See his portrait facinghere; also the portrait of Lord Fairfaxhere.) In the court of Charles II and Louis XIV of France the boot-tops spread to absurd inconvenience. The toes of these boots were very square, as were the toes of men’s and women’s shoes. Children’s shoes were of similar form. The singular shoes worn by John Quincy and Robert Gibbes are precisely right-angled. It was a sneer at the Puritans that they wore pointed toes. The shoe-ties, roses, and buckles varied; but the square toes lingered, though they were singularly inelegant. On the feet of George I (see portraithere) the square-toed shoes are ugly indeed.
James I scornfully repelled shoe-roses when brought to him for his wear; asking if they wished to “make a ruffle-footed dove” of him. But soon he wore the largest rosettes in court. Peacham tells that some cost as much as £;30 a pair, being then, of course, of rare lace.
Joshua Warner.Joshua Warner.
Joshua Warner.
Friar Bacon’s Brazen Head Prophecie, set into a “Plaie” or Rhyme, has these verses (1604):
“Then Handkerchers were wroughtWith Names and true Love Knots;And not a wench was taughtA false Stitch in her spots;When Roses in the Gardaines grewAnd not in Ribons on a Shoe.“NowSempsters few are taughtThe true Stitch in their Spots;And Names are sildome wroughtWithin the true love knots;And Ribon Roses takes such PlaceThat Garden Roses want their Grace.”
Shoes of buff leather, slashed, were the very height of the fashion in the first years of the seventeenth century. They can be seen on the feet of Will Sommers in his portrait. Through the slashes showed bright the scarlet or green stockings of cloth or yarn. Bright-colored shoe-strings gave additional gaudiness. Green shoe-strings, spangled, gilded shoe-strings, shoes of “dry-neat-leather tied with red ribbons,” “russet boots,” “white silken shoe strings,”—all were worn.
Red heels appear about 1710. In Hogarth’s original paintings they are seen. Women wore them extensively in America.
The jack-boots of Stuart days seem absolutely imperishable. They are of black, jacked leather like the leather bottles and black-jacks from which Englishmen drank their ale. So closely are they alike that I do not wonder a French traveller wrote home that Englishmen drank from their boots. These jack-boots were as solid and unpliable as iron, square-toed and clumsy of shape. A pair in perfect preservation which belonged to Lord Fairfax in Virginia is portrayedhere. Had all colonial gentlemen worn jack-boots, the bootmakers and shoemakers would have been ruined, for a pair would last a lifetime.
Shoe and Knee Buckles.Shoe and Knee Buckles.
Shoe and Knee Buckles.
In 1767 we find William Cabell of Virginia paying these prices for his finery:—
New England dandies wore, as did Monsieur A-la-mode:—
“A pair of smart pumps made up of grain’d leather,So thin he can’t venture to tread on a feather.”
Buckles were made of pinchbeck, an alloy of four parts of copper and one part of zinc, invented by Christopher Pinchbeck, a London watchmaker of the eighteenth century. Buckles were also “plaited” and double “plaited” with gold and silver (which was the general spelling of plated). Plated buckles were cast in pinchbeck, with a pattern on the surface. A silver coating was laid over this. These buckles were set with marcasite, garnet, and paste jewels; sometimes they were of gold with real diamonds. But much imitation jewellery was worn by all people even of great wealth. Perhaps imitation is an incorrect word. The old paste jewels made no assertion of being diamonds. Steel cut in facets and combined with gold, made beautiful buckles. A number of rich shoe and garter buckles, owned in Salem, are shownhere.
These old buckles were handsome, costly, dignified; they were becoming; they were elegant. Nevertheless, the fashionable world tired of its expensive and appropriate buckles; they suddenly were deemed inconveniently large, and plain shoe-strings took their place. This caused great commotion and ruin among the buckle-makers, who, with the fatuity of other tradespeople—the wig-makers, the hair-powder makers—in like calamitous changes of fashion, petitioned the Prince of Wales, in 1791, to do something to revive their vanishing trade. But it was like placing King Canute against the advancing waves of the sea.
Wedding Slippers.Wedding Slippers.
Wedding Slippers.
When the Revolutionists in France set about altering and simplifying costume, they did away with shoe-buckles, and fastened their shoes with plain strings. Minister Roland, one day in 1793, was about to present himself to Louis XVI while he was wearing shoes with strings. The old Master of Ceremonies, scandalized at having to introduce a person in such a state of undress, looked despairingly at Dumouriez, who was present. Dumouriez replied with an equally hopeless gesture, and the words, “Hélas! oui, monsieur, tout est perdu.”
President Jefferson, with his hateful French notions, made himself especially obnoxious to conservative American folk by giving up shoe-buckles. I read in theNew York Evening Postthat when he received the noisy bawling band of admirers who brought into the White House the Mammoth Cheese (one of the most vulgar exhibitions ever seen in this country), he was “dressed in his suit of customary black, with shoes that laced tight round the ankle and closed with a neat leathern string.”
When shoe-strings were established and trousers were becoming popular, there seemed to be a time of indecision as to the dress of the legs below the short pantaloons and above the stringed shoes. That point of indefiniteness was filled promptly with top-boots. First, black tops appeared; then came tops of fancy leather, of which yellow was the favorite. Gilt tassels swung pleasingly from the colored tops. Silken tassels—home made—were worn. I have a letter from a young American macaroni to his sweetheart in which he thanks her for her “heart-filling boot-tossels”—which seems to me a very cleverly flattering adjective. He adds: “Did those rosy fingers twist the silken strands, and knot them with thought of the wearer? I wish you was loveing enough to tye some threads of your golden hair into the tossells, but I swear I cannot find never a one.” The conjunction of two negatives in this manner was common usage a hundred years ago; while “you was” may be found in the writings of our greatest authors of that date.
In one attribute, women’s footwear never varied in the two centuries of this book’s recording. It was always thin-soled and of light material; never adequate for much “walking abroad” or for any wet weather. In fact, women have never worn heavy walking-boots until our own day. Whether high-heeled or no-heeled they were always thin.
The curious “needle-pointed” slippers which are picturedherewere the bridal slippers at the wedding of Cornelia de Peyster, who married Oliver Teller in 1712. Several articles of her dress still exist; and the background of the slippers is a breadth of the superb yellow and silver brocade wedding gown worn at the same time.
When we have the tiny pages of the few newspapers to turn to, we learn a little of women’s shoes. There were advertisements in 1740 of “mourning shoes,” “fine silk shoes,” “flowered russet shoes,” “white callimanco shoes,” “black shammy shoes,” “girls’ flowered russet shoes,” “shoes of black velvet, white damask, red morocco, and red everlasting.” “Damask worsted shoes in red, blue, green, pink color and white,” in 1751. There were satinet patterns for ladies’ shoes embroidered with flowers in the vamp. The heels were “high, cross-cut, common, court, and wurtemburgh.” Some shoes were white with russet bands. “French fall” shoes were worn both by women and men for many years.
Mrs. Abigail Bromfield Rogers.Mrs. Abigail Bromfield Rogers.
Mrs. Abigail Bromfield Rogers.
Hereis a pair of beautiful brocade wedding shoes. The heels are not high. Another pair was made of the silken stuff of the beautiful sacque worn by Mrs. Carroll. These have high heels running down to a very small heel-base. In the works of Hogarth we may find many examples of women’s shoes. In all the old shoes I have seen, made about the time of the American Revolution, the maker’s name is within and this legend, “Rips mended free.” Many heels were much higher and smaller than any given in this book.
Mrs. Carroll’s Slippers.Mrs. Carroll’s Slippers.
Mrs. Carroll’s Slippers.
It is astonishing to read the advocacy and eulogy given by sensible gentlemen to these extreme heels. Watson, the writer of theAnnals of Philadelphia, extolled their virtues—that they threw the weight of the wearer on the ball of the foot and spread it out for a good support. He deplores the flat feet of 1830.
In 1790 heels disappeared; sandal-shapes were the mode. The quarters were made low, and instead of a buckle was a tiny bow or a pleated ribbon edging. In 1791 “the exact size” of the shoe of the Duchess of York was published—a fashionable fad which our modern sensation hunters have not bethought themselves of. It was 5 3/4 inches in length; the breadth of sole, 1 3/4 inches. It was a colored print, and shows that the lady’s shoe was of green silk spotted with gold stars, and bound with scarlet silk. The sole is thicker at the back, forming a slight uplift which was not strictly a heel. Of course, this was a tiny foot, but we do not know the height of the duchess.
I have seen the remains of a charming pair of court shoes worn in France by a pretty Boston girl. These had been embroidered with paste jewels, “diamonds”; while to my surprise the back seam of both shoes was outlined with paste emeralds. I find that this was the mode of the court of Marie Antoinette. The queen and her ladies wore these in real jewels, and in affectation wore no jewels elsewhere.
In Mrs. Gaskell’sMy Lady Ludlowwe are told that my lady would not sanction the mode of the beginning of the century which “made all the fine ladies take to making shoes.” Mrs. Blundell, in one of her novels, sets her heroine (about 1805) at shoe-making. The shoes of that day were very thin of material, very simple of shape, were heelless, and in many cases closely approached a sandal. A pair worn by my great-aunt at that date is shown on this page. American women certainly had tiny feet. This aunt was above the average height, but her shoes are no larger than the number known to-day as “Ones”—a size about large enough for a girl ten years old.
White Kid Slippers. 1815.White Kid Slippers. 1815.
White Kid Slippers. 1815.
It was not long after English girls were making shoes that Yankee girls were shaping and binding them in New England. I have seen several old letters which gave rules for shaping and directions for sewing party-shoes of thin light kid and silk. It is not probable that any heavy materials were ever made up by women at home. Sandals also were worn, and made by girls for their own wear from bits of morocco and kid.
In the early years of the century the thin, silk hose and low slippers of the French fashions proved almost unendurable in our northern winters. One wearer of the time writes, “Many a time have I walked Broadway when the pavement sent almost a death chill to my heart.” The Indians then furnished an article of dress which must have been grateful indeed, pretty moccasins edged with fur, to be worn over the thin slippers.
An old lady recalled with precision that the first boots for women’s wear came in fashion in 1828; they were laced at the side. Garters and boots both had fringes at the top.