Are these shoes Liberty of London

[Ann Louise]

Hi Everyone,

I acquired these shoes recently and on the inside of both it says Liberty. I havent been able to find a vintage label anywhere online matching this. Can anyone tell me if they are Liberty of London and if so what date?

Thanks
Ann Louise

 

[Jonathan]

Liberty of London never did shoes as far as I know, at least not in the 1940s when these date from (they may have done some shoes in the 1970s/80s -- everybody was doing shoes then). I expect these are postwar and the 'Liberty' is a line of footwear from some company. Are you in England or did you get these in the UK? The boots look European to me, not American (fleece lined bootees are very postwar Europe), but the printed label in English, suggests England.

 

[Ann Louise]

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you so much for the reply. Yes I am based in Northern Ireland and these came from a lady who lived in Scotland. I was doubtful they were but thank you so much for confirming this for me,

Kind Regards
Ann Louise

 

[lkranieri]

Just FYI, here are some Irish and Scottish ads for Liberty boots. The references are from (top to bottom): 1911, 1927, 1932:

 

[Ann Louise]

How fantastic I couldn't find anything online so this is just lovely.

 

[lkranieri]

In a quick look, the last ad I saw for Liberty shoes was from 1955, but that may just be the latest date of the newspapers in the database.

 

[retro ruth]

Re that middle piece, talking about the Prince driving from Oadby then visiting the Liberty Boot Works. This is in the Midlands in England, near Leicester. There was a lot of shoe manufacturing around there, as Melanie will know.

I was born in Oadby, so I know exactly where that is!

 

[Pinkcoke]

Yes Liberty was a Leicester shoe company Please see this post about the origin of the name:
http://forums.vintagefashionguild.org/threads/the-british-statue-of-liberty.57731/

The Wolsey mentioned in the article above is the famous hosiery brand. The midlands was also a centre for all sorts of knitting and weaving.

 

[thespectrum]

I love those!

 

[lkranieri]

Yes Liberty was a Leicester shoe company Please see this post about the origin of the name:
http://forums.vintagefashionguild.org/threads/the-british-statue-of-liberty.57731/

I am impressed that you remembered the prior discussion and I enjoyed reading the history, but the fly in the ointment is the first ad I posted is from a 1911 newspaper. Could the date discrepancy be because it was a Scottish paper?

 

[Pinkcoke]

Hmm The Liberty building was built in 1919. The company changed the name to Liberty in 1920 and the earliest advert I've found is from 1921 showing both Lennard Brothers and the 'Liberty' brand name.
Two options are the date of the newspaper is a typo and is from 1921, the other is that the company were using the brand name for the footwear before they changed the name of the company.
There is of course no reason why another company could not have used the name seperately in 1911, though as you can see from the 1932 advert, this type of slogan/statement brand name was much more typical post WWI. For example before becoming Liberty the Lennard Brothes Ltd traded as The Public Benefit Boot Co. which is in league with the other 'health' promoting names of the early 20thC.

http://www2.le.ac.uk/library/find/s...itions/industrial-leicester-online-exhibition
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Lennard_Brothers

1921:

 

[BonniesVintageClothesLine]

Your boots are lovely and look to be in such nice condition, too. So glad our members could help to answer your question regarding "Liberty" brand.

 

[Ann Louise]

Your boots are lovely and look to be in such nice condition, too. So glad our members could help to answer your question regarding "Liberty" brand.

Thank you so much I am completely gobsmacked at the amount of information I received. I am so glad I found this site.