ON THE MORE MODERN FORMS OF FOREIGN BOOTS AND SHOES.
Upon critically examining the various forms assumed by the coverings for
the feet adopted by the nations around us, we shall find that they were
in no small degree modified by the circumstances with which they were
surrounded, or the necessities of the climate they inhabited.
Thus the northern nations enswathed their legs in skins, and used the
same material for the shoes, binding the whole in warm folds about the
leg, the thongs being fastened to them in the manner represented in
plate IV., fig. 1, and which is copied from a full length figure of a
Russian boor, in 1768. The sandal of a Russian lady of the same period,
is given in the same plate, fig. 2, and the men of Friesland at the same
time, wore sandals or shoes of a similar construction, the common people
generally wearing a close leathern shoe and clog, something like those
in use in the
[Illustration: Pl. 4.]
middle ages, one delineated in fig. 3 of our plate, and is represented
on the feet of a countrywoman, in the curious series of costumes of
Finland, engraved in “Jeffery’s Collection of the Dresses of different
Nations,” published in 1757, and which were copied from some very rare
prints, at least a century earlier in point of date. Another female’s
shoe is given in fig. 4; it is a low slipper-like shoe, and is secured
by a band across the instep, having an ornamental clasp, like a brooch,
to secure it on each side of the foot; it was probably a coarsely-made
piece of jewelry, with glass or cheap stones set around it; as the
people of this country at that time were fond of such showy decorations,
and particularly upon their shoes. The noblemen and ladies always
decorated theirs with ornaments and jewels all over the upper surface,
of which we give two specimens in figs. 5 and 6: the former upon the
foot of a nobleman, the latter upon that of a matron of the upper
classes. It will be seen, that both are very elegant, and must have been
very showy wear.
The boots of an Hungarian gentleman, in 1700, may be seen in fig. 7, of
plate IV., and such boots were common to Bohemia at the same period.
They are chiefly remarkable for the way in which they are cut upward
from the middle of the thigh to the knee, and then curl over in front
of the leg.
A Tartarian lady of 1577, is exhibited by John Wiegel, the engraver of
Nuremburgh, in his work on dress, in the boots delineated in fig. 8.
They are remarkable for the sole to which they are affixed, and which
was, no doubt, formed of some strong substance, probably with metallic
hooks to assist the wearer in walking a mountainous country where frosts
abound.
Descending toward the south, we shall find a lighter sort of shoe in
use, and one partaking more of the character of a slipper, used more as
a protection for the sole of the foot in walking, than as an article of
warmth. Thus the shoes generally used in the East, scarcely do more than
cover the toes, yet, from constant use, the natives hardly ever allow
them to slip from the feet. The learned author of the notes to “Knight’s
Pictorial Bible,” speaking from personal observation of these articles,
says, “The common shoe in Turkey or Arabia, is like our slipper _with_
quarters, except that it has a sharp and prolonged toe turned up.” No
shoes in western Asia have ears, and they are generally of colored
leather--red or yellow morocco in Turkey and Arabia, and green shagreen
in Persia. In the latter country, the shoe or slipper in general use
(having no quarters), has a very high heel; but with this exception, the
heels in these countries are generally flat. No shoes or even boots have
more than a single sole (like what we call “pumps”), which in wet
weather imbibes the water freely. When the shoe without quarters is
used, a slipper, with quarters, but without a sole, is worn inside, and
the outer one alone is thrown off on entering a house. But in Persia,
instead of this inner shoe of leather, they use a worsted sock. Those
shoes that have quarters are usually worn without any inner covering for
the foot. The peasantry and the nomade tribes usually go barefoot, or
wear a rude sandal or shoe of their own manufacture; those who possess a
pair of red leather or other shoes, seldom wear them except on holyday
occasions, so that they last a long time, if not so long as among the
Maltese, with whom a pair of shoes endures for several generations,
being, even on holyday occasions, more frequently carried in the hand
than worn on the feet. The boots are generally of the same construction
and material as the shoes; and the general form may be compared to that
of the buskin, the height varying from the mid-leg to near the knee.
They are of capacious breadth, except among the Persians whose boots
generally fit close to the leg, and are mostly of a sort of Russia
leather, uncolored; whereas those of other people are, like the slipper,
of red and yellow morocco. There is also a boot or shoe for walking in
frosty weather, which differs from the common one only in having under
the heel iron tips, which, being partly bent vertically with a jagged
edge, give a hold on the ice, which prevents slipping, and are
particularly useful in ascending or descending the frozen mountain
paths--reminding us of the sort of boot worn by Tartarian ladies, as
given in fig. 8. The shoes of the oriental ladies are sometimes highly
ornamented; the covering part being wrought with gold, silver, and silk,
and perhaps set with jewels, real or imitated. Examples of such
decorated shoes are given in plate IV., figs. 9 and 10, and will
sufficiently explain themselves to the eye of the reader, rendering
detailed description unnecessary. The shoes of noblemen are of precisely
similar construction.
[Illustration]
In China, the boots and shoes of the men are worn as clumsy and
inelegant as in any country. They are broad at the toe, and sometimes
upturned. We give a specimen of both in the foregoing engraving. They
are no doubt easy to wear.
Not so are the ladies’ shoes, for they only are allowed the privilege of
discomfort, fashion having in this country declared in favor of small
feet, and the prejudice of the people having gone with it, the feet of
all ladies of decent rank in society, are cramped in early life, by
being placed in so strait a confinement, that their growth is retarded,
and they are not more than three or four inches in length, from the toe
to the heel. By the smallness of the foot the rank or high-breeding of
the lady is decided on, and the utmost torment is endured by the girls
in early life, to insure themselves this distinction in rank; the lower
classes of females not being allowed to torture themselves in the same
manner. The Chinese poets frequently indulge in panegyrics on the beauty
of these crippled members of the body, and none of their heroines are
considered perfect without excessively small feet, when they are
affectionately termed by them “the little golden lilies.” It is needless
to say that the tortures of early youth are succeeded by a crippled
maturity, a Chinese lady of high birth being scarcely able to walk
without assistance. A specimen of such a foot and shoe is given in plate
III., fig. 11. These shoes are generally made of silk and embroidered
in the most beautiful manner, with flowers and ornaments, in colored
silk and threads of gold and silver. A piece of stout silk is generally
attached to the heel for the convenience of pulling up the shoe.
Having bestowed some attention on ancient Egypt, we may briefly allude
to the shoes of modern times, as given in Lane’s work devoted to the
history of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians. They, like
the Persian ones, have an upturned toe, and may with equal ease be drawn
on and thrown off. Yet a shoe is also worn with a high instep and high
in the heel, which will be best understood by the first figure in the
accompanying cut.
[Illustration]
The Turkish ladies of the sixteenth century, and very probably much
earlier, wore a very high shoe known in Europe by the name of a
“chopine.” In the voyages and travels of N. de Nicholay Dauphinoys,
Seigneur D’Arfreville, valet de chambre and geographer to the king of
France, printed at Lyons, 1568, one of the ladies of the grand
seigneur’s seraglio, is represented in a pair of chopines, of which we
copy one in plate III., fig. 12. This fashion spread in Europe in the
early part of the seventeenth century, and it is alluded to by Hamlet,
in act ii., scene 2, when he exclaims, “Your ladyship is nearer heaven
than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine,” by which it
appears that something of the kind was known in England, where it may
have been introduced from Venice, as the ladies there wore them of the
most exaggerated size. Coryat, in his “Crudities,” 1611, says; “There is
one thing used of the Venetian women, and some others dwelling in the
cities and towns subject to signiory of Venice, that is not to be
observed (I think) among any other women in Christendom”--the reader
must remember that it was new to Coryat, but a common fashion in the
East--“which is so common in Venice that no woman whatsoever goeth
without it, either in her house or abroad--a thing made of wood and
covered with leather of sundry colors; some with white, some red, some
yellow. It is called a _chapiney_, which they never wear under their
shoes. Many of these are curious painted; some of them I have also seen
fairly gilt; so uncomely a thing, in my opinion, that it is a pity this
foolish custom is not clean banished and exterminated out of the city.
There
[Illustration]
are many of these chapineys of a great height even half a yard high,
which maketh many of their women, that are very short, seem much taller
than the tallest women we have in England. Also, I have heard it
observed among them, that by how much the nobler a woman is, by so much
the higher are her chapineys. All their gentlewomen, and most of their
wives and widows that are of any wealth, are assisted and supported
either by men or women, when they walk abroad, to the end they might not
fall. They are borne up most commonly by the left arm; otherwise they
might quickly take a fall.” In Douce’s Illustrations of Shakspere, a
woodcut of such a chapiney, or chopine, is given, which is here copied;
and it is an excellent example of the thing, showing the decoration
which was at times bestowed on it.
Douce quotes some curious particulars of this fashion, in “Raymond’s
Voyage through Italy,” 1648, and the following curious account of the
chopine occurs: “This place [Venice] is much frequented by the walking
may-poles: I mean the women. They wear their coats half too long for
their bodies, being mounted on their _chippeens_ (which are as high as a
man’s leg); they walke betweene two handmaids, majestically deliberating
of every step they take.” Howel also says of the Venetian women: “They
are low and of small stature for the most part, which makes them to
raise their bodies upon high shoes, called _chapins_, which gave me
occasion to say that the Venetian ladies were made of three things, one
part of them was wood, meaning their chapins, another part was their
apparel, and the third part was a woman. The senate hath often
endeavored to take away the wearing of those high shoes, but all women
are so passionately delighted with this kind of state, that no law can
wean them from it.” Douce adds, that “some have supposed that the
jealousy of Italian husbands gave rise to the invention of the chopine;”
and quotes a story from a French author, to show their dislike to an
alteration; he also says, that “the first ladies who rejected the use
of the chopine, were the daughters of the doge Dominico Contareno, about
the year 1670.” The chopine, or some kind of high shoe, was occasionally
used in England. Bulwer, in his “Artificial Changeling,” p. 550,
complains of this fashion as a monstrous affectation, and says that his
countrywomen therein imitated the Venetian and Persian ladies. In
“Sandy’s Travels,” 1615, there is a figure of a Turkish lady with
chopines, and it is not improbable that the Venetians might have
borrowed them from the Greek islands in the Archipelago. We know that
something similar was in use among the ancient Greeks. Xenophon, in
Œconomics, mentions the wife of Ischomachus as wearing high shoes,
for increasing her stature. They are still worn by the women in many
parts of Turkey, but more particularly at Aleppo. Douce’s notice of
their antiquity, is curiously corroborated by the discovery in the tombs
of ancient Egypt of such shoes. They are formed of a stout sole of wood,
to which is affixed four round props, raising the wearer a foot in
height; specimens were among the collections of Mr. Salt, the British
consul in Egypt, from which some of the choicest Egyptian antiquities in
the national collection were obtained. The other remark of Douce’s, that
they were probably derived from the Greek islands of the Archipelago,
is confirmed by the fact that high-soled boots and shoes were much
coveted by the ladies there, to raise their stature, and were worn when
chopines had long been disused; thus the high-soled boots delineated in
plate IV., fig. 13, are found upon the feet of “a young lady of
Argentiera,” one of these islands, in a print dated 1700; and, in
another of the same date, giving the costume of a lady of the
neighboring island of Naxos, the shoe shown in fig. 14, is worn.
Of the modern European nations with whom we have been most in
contact--Spain, France, and the Netherlands--their boots and shoes have
so nearly resembled our own, as to render a detailed description
scarcely necessary. Indeed, as France has been tacitly submitted to as
the _arbiter elegantiarum_ in all matters of dress, much has been
derived thence.
There was, however, a French shoe that we do not ever appear to have
adopted; it was made low in the quarters and ended at the instep; there
was no covering for the heel, or the sides of the foot beyond it. The
fashion spread to Venice, and the figure of a Venetian lady of 1750, has
supplied us with the specimen in plate IV., fig. 15.
The _sabots_ of France, is another peculiarity which we never adopted,
and which our peasantry have always looked on with great distaste; and
it became popularly said of William III., that he had saved us from
popery, slavery, and _wooden shoes_. They are generally clumsy enough;
their large size, and bad fit, are generally improved by the
introduction of others made of list, which give warmth and steadiness to
the foot. A small wooden shoe is, however, made in Normandy, and else
where, much like that which came into fashion about 1790, with an
imitation of its fringes and pointed toe, and which is generally painted
black; the ordinary _sabot_ being totally unadorned, and the color of
the wood. In the cut here given, both are introduced. Fig. 1, is the
ordinary shoe; fig. 2, the extraordinary or genteel one.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
And now, having in the pursuit of our history of boots and shoes,
“Travelled the wide world all over,”
let us not dismiss the subject, without a parting glance at the sister
island, and look at the “brogues” of Ireland; which upon the authority
of Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, especially deserve our attention. In their
work on Ireland, they engrave the figure of this article, which we copy,
plate IV., fig. 16, and say: “The brogue, or shoe, of the Irish
peasantry, differs in its construction from the shoe of any other
country. It was formerly made of untanned hide, but, for the last
century at least, it has been made of tanned leather. The leather of the
uppers is much stronger than what is used in the strongest shoes; being
made of cowhide dressed for the purpose, and it never had an inside
lining, like the ordinary shoe; the sole leather is generally of an
inferior description. The process of making the brogue, is certainly
different from that of shoemaking; and the tools used in the work,
except the hammer, pinchers, and knife, bear little analogy. The awl,
though used in common by those operators, is much larger than the
largest used by the shoemaker, and unlike in the bend and form. The
regular brogue was of two sorts, the single and double pump, the former
consisted of the sole and uppers only; the latter had a welt sewed
between the sole and upper leather, which gave it a stouter appearance
and stronger consistency; in modern times, the broguemaker has
assimilated his manufacture to the shoe, by sewing the welt on an inner
sole, and then attaching the outer sole to it, in shoe-fashion. In the
process of making the regular brogue, there formerly were neither hemp,
wax, nor bristles, used by the workmen, the sewing all being performed
with a thong, made of horsehide, prepared for the purpose.” Thus the
construction of this article is quite different from that of the English
shoe; and it is made and stitched without a last, the upper leather and
side being secured by sewing together; it is then turned inside out, and
for the first time put upon the last, and being well-fitted to it by a
smooth iron surface, it is placed before the fire to dry and harden.
“The heel of the brogue is made of what they call ‘jumps,’ tanner’s
shavings stuck together with a kind of paste, and pressed hard, and
dried, either before the fire or in the sun. This, when properly dried,
is cut to the size of the heel, and sewed down with the thong, and then
covered with a top-piece of very thin sole-leather, fastened on with
deal or sally pegs; and in this one particular they had to boast over
the shoemakers, in the neatness of execution. When the brogue is ready
to be taken off the last, they give it the last finish by rubbing it
over with a woollen rag saturated in tallow, and then the brogue is
considered fit for sale. The brogue is worn larger than the foot, and
the space is filled up with a sap of hay or straw. They are considered
by the country people more durable for field-labor, being less liable to
rip in the sewing, than if put together with hemp and wax; and being
cheaper than shoes, are in more general use, although there are few
people, particularly females, who can afford it, who do not keep shoes
for Sunday or holyday wear. The brogue-makers pride themselves in the
antiquity of their trade; and boast over the shoemakers, whom they
consider a spurious graft on their most noble art.”
Sir Walter Scott, in his “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,” has
noticed a peculiarity in the make of the “original” shoe of that
country, in the notes to the ballad of the “Souters,” or shoemakers of
Selkirk, who achieved immortality in song, by their bravery in aiding
their sovereign, James IV., in the fatal field of Flodden; he says “the
single-soled shoon,” made by the souters of Selkirk, were a sort of
brogues, with a single thin sole; the purchaser himself performing the
further operation of sewing on another of thick leather. The rude and
imperfect state of this manufacture, sufficiently evinces the antiquity
of the craft. He notices “a singular custom observed at conferring the
freedom of the burgh. Four or five bristles, such as are used by
shoemakers, are attached to the seal of the burgess ticket. The new-made
burgess must dip in his wine, and pass through his mouth, in token of
respect for the souters of Selkirk. This ceremony is on no account
dispensed with.” And when Sir Walter afterward adds, in a note that he
has “himself the honor to be a souter of Selkirk,” we may feel the
additional zest that would give to the chorus of their old trade-song:--
“Up wi’ the souters of Selkirk,
And down wi’ the Earl of Home;
And up wi’ a’ the braw lads,
That sew the single-soled shoon.”