Late 19th Century Pair of Antique English Brass High Top Shoe Spills

Late 19th century solid brass 1870 English single shoe spill vase with incised detail and a rear holder from a private collector who traveled the world buy and selling...

Mid to late 19th century monumental antique architectural pair of bronze door knockers, the largest I have even seen. This amazing pair of door knockers...

- Unusual pair of Victorian-style brass boots - Beautifully cast - Shoes are steeped in custom, symbolic meaning and stories; Cinderella, Dorothy. Shoes were offered as gifts on special occasions in the 17th and 18th centuries often exchanged between lovers as a symbol of good luck in marriage. - These boots were either made as ornaments, gifts, or vases Originally, boots and shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as cordwainers). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen and apprentices (both men and women) would work together in a shop, dividing up the work into individual tasks. A customer could come into a shop, be individually measured, and return to pick up their new shoes in as little as a day. Everyone needed shoes, and the median price for a pair was about one day’s wages for an average journeyman. The shoemaking trade flourished in the 18th and early 19th centuries but began to be affected by industrialization in the later 19th century. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by Industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or craftsmanship. Today, most shoes are made on a volume basis, rather than a craft basis. A pair of "bespoke...

1970s English pair of silver plated metal shoes.