The Book of the Feet

1948 book by J. Sparkes Hall

Notes

• The frequency of the development of literary talent among shoemakers has often been remarked.

• being a trade of light labor, and therefore resorted to, in preference to most others, by persons in humble life who are conscious of more mental talent than bodily strength

I. On the most ancient Covering of the Feet

• ancient Egyptians used semi-circular knife
• one Hebrew word (naal) for sandal and shoe

• there is nothing in the way of boots that may not be found upon the existing monuments of early nations

• Ancient Greek and Roman shoes never sacrificed comfort

• it was considered as a mark of rusticity to wear shoes larger than the foot, or which fitted in a loose and slovenly manner

• Romans
  • lower classes: solea, crepida, pero, soccus
  • soldiers: caliga
  • tragedians, hunters, horsement, nobles: cothurnus

• it was a joke in ancient Rome against a man who owed respect solely to the accident of birth or fortune, that his nobility was in his heels

II. The History of Boots and Shoes in England

• extra pointed toes from reign of Rufus, who used to disguise deformed feet
• Richard II: pointed toes so long that chained to knees

• It was of course only the nobility who could thus inconvenience themselves.

• Edward IV sumptuary laws to limit pointed toe length

• This only had the effect of widening the toes…

• Mary prohibited toes wider than six inches
• [figure of Edward VI-era shoe looks a bit like a modern foam shoe]
• Charles I: boot tops very wide at the top

• to stilt the female foot

• George I and II: nobility wore red heels
• 1790: women’s fashion changed suddenly to flat, low heels

• the prince of Wales was petitioned by the alarmed buckle-makers, to discard his new-fashioned strings

• Hessian with silk tassel
• Wellingtons retained fullness of lower parts

III. On the more modern Forms of foreign Boots and Shoes

• in Persia, instead of this inner shoe of leather, they used a worsted sock

• the Maltese, with whom a pair of shoes endures for several generations…more frequently carried in the hand than worn on the feet

• China
  • foot binding

  • utmost torment

  • Chinese poets frequently indulge in panegyrics on the beauty of these crippled members…

  • little golden lilies

  • scarcely able to walk without assistance

• man 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

• The senate hath often endeavored to take away the wearing of those high shoes…

• Spain, France, and the Netherlands—their boots and shoes have so nearly resembled our own, as to render a detailed description scarcely necessary

• it became popularly said of William III., that he had saved us from popery, slavery, and wooden shoes

• is modern times, the broguemaker has assimilated his manufacture to the shoe, by sewing the welt on an inner sole

• were neither hemp, wax, nor bristles…with a thong, made of horsehide

• ‘jumps’, tanner’s shavings stuck together with a kind of paste, and pressed hard, and dried

• The brogue is worn larger than the foot, and the space is filled up with a sap of hay or straw.

• Four or five bristles…are attached to the seal of the gurgess ticket. The new-made burgess must dip in his wine, and pass through his mouth, in token of respect for the souters of Selkirk.

IV. Commencement of the Trade

• the gauger had legal authority to take away any shoe which had not the proper number of stitches

• linen linings

• felt between insole and outsole to prevent creaking

• According to Barny O’Rierdon, in Ireland they are entirely avoided, as a man comes into market with a barrow full of brogues, and every one helps himself; there is no measuring in the case, and if a brogue is too long, he claps a wisp of straw in the toe.

• Persons may occasionally purchase a pair of these articles [read-made] which will suit them tolerably well, as there is no rule without an exception…

• Masters and workmen, quarrelling with each other, do not see, in the blinded and blinding system of their reprisals, what must finally be the result.

• the woman’s shoemaker, more than any other class in the trade, has found himself lowered

• He may, it is true, considerably slight the articles; indeed, he must do so, to live at all

• “A clumsy boot was till lately a distinguishing mark of a true Englishman abroad…

• it is easier to bawl for prohibiting duties than to beat the foreign workmen out of the market

• James Devlin’s book on French bootmaking

• inferior manner of blocking, or the turning the front piece of our Wellington boot

• flourish best by being let alone

V. The Structure of the Human Foot, etc.

• The feet, with proper treatment, might be as free from disease and pain as the hands…

• Every one who has corns knows and feels that pressure is the cause; “no one knows better where the shoe pinches, than he who wears it.”

• Sometimes a shoe is too large, often too small, very often too short, but generally the wrong shape altogether.

• Every one who wishes to be comfortably fitting, should have a pair of lasts made expressly for his own use…

• the length and the width are now every-day affairs, but the judgment of fitting is another thing, and here is the true skill.

• Many persons have an idea that right and left shoes are a comparatively modern invention, but the illusions and illustrations to the contrary, in pages 39-44 disprove this; straight lasts are decidedly a modern invention, and notwithstanding what many persons say to the contrary, are decidedly inferior to a well-formed right and left pair.

• The straight last has often been a better right and left for certain feet, than the pair made for them…

• The form of the feet should be taken in outline on a sheet of paper, and the prominent toes noted down at the time and immediately after a pair of lasts made suitable in every way.

• even children should have their own lasts

VI. The Poetry of the Feet, etc.

• [excerpts of verse mentioning feet]

• For many years I have scarcely made any other kind of boots but the elastic; but, I have not made a fortune.

• “the road to health is a footpath”

• But then people in past days, when they had their boots on, were thought to look prepared for a journey, whereas, at present, the boot is almost as domestic a thing as the slipper. We go to the ballroom in it, the theatre, the houses of parliament, and even royalty itself is approached in the boots!

• Bluchers, Alberts, Clarences, Cambridges

• A good Wellington boot of the softest calf-leather, the sole moderately thick, the waist hollow and well-arched, firm and yet flexible, cut to go on without dragging all your might with boothooks, and made with an intermediate sole of felt to prevent creaking, is the best boot for general wear that can be made.

• For many years, this department of the trade [closers] has been quite distinct from shoemaking, or bootmaking.

• from twenty to thirty stitches have been done to the inch in this way [bling stabbing], and pricework as many as sixty, every stitch being clear, sharply defined, beautiful and regular.

• elastic boot with a golosh of leather all around [vamp running all the way back to the backseam in one piece]

• Dress Pumps are almost the only shoes now worn…

• Oxonian Shoe

• wear stockings inside out for corns and tender feet

VII. History of Boots and Shoes in the United States

• a pair of boots was then expected to last a man’s life

• Suwarrow boot, so named after Suwarroff, a Russian general

• The Suwarrow boot continued in fashion for about fifteen years, when, after the battle of Waterloo, it was superseded by the Wellington boot, which it is well known was named after the duke of Wellington. This boot seems to have settled the laws of fashion respecting the feet, as decisively as the battle of Waterloo settled the affairs of Europe.

• do penance to the tyrant fashion on tiptoe

• Jefferson Boot

• The laced boot, which was laced u pat the side, came in fashion soon after the Jefferson boot, but the inconvenience of lacing, prevented it from being generally adopted.

VIII. Biographical Sketches of Eminent Shoemakers

• Roger Sherman
• Daniel Sheffey
• Gideon Lee

  • apprenticed to the tanning and shoemaking business, it being then the practice to conduct both branches by the same person, working at the former in the summer, and at the latter during the winter months

  • Death did not find him a reluctant or unwilling voyager to his dark domains. [!!!]

• Samuel Drew

  • “The man who makes shoes is sure of his wages—the man who writes a book is never sure of anything.”

• Robert Bloomfield
• Nathaniel Bloomfield
• William Gifford
• Noah Worcester
• James Lackington
• Joseph Pendrell
• Thomas Holcroft
• William Carey
• George Fox

  • the founder and first preacher of the Christian sect of Friends

• James Nichol
• William Huntington

IX. Crispin Anecdotes, etc.

…