My \"new\" riding boots Do you like my "new" riding boots? ;) <img src="http://www.corsetsandcrinolines.com/example/1860ridingboots1.jpg"> <img src="http://www.corsetsandcrinolines.com/example/1860ridingboots2.jpg"> <img src="http://www.corsetsandcrinolines.com/example/1860ridingboots3.jpg"> <img src="http://www.corsetsandcrinolines.com/example/1860ridingboots4.jpg"> I'm dating them from about 1868- 1870 but any thoughts would be welcome! They are ULTRA rare, tthe only other pair of antique lady's riding boots I have ever come across or seen, are my 1880's ones! The boots were flat, bone dry, flaking away and disintegrating before my eys so I've had to condition them carefully. The lady at my tack shop gave me a jar of Jeffries leather conditioner which did the trick and I saddle soaped all 130+ years of crud off them. Although there are a few small holes in them from not being loked after, they are super soft now. The soles are straight although there are toe marks on the soles so you can see which feet she wore them on and they have square toes. The Louis heels are lovely and they even have spur rests at the back! What is really unusual about them is the fact that they are Field boots as they have lacing at the throat. The very few antique women's riding boots I have seen have all been regular dress boots. They are only lined at the inside cuff in pink leather! Now I just need to find a post Civil War era habit now! Lei
I *LOVE* them, and these are probably the oldest I have seen. Unusual footbed from what i am used to seeing. I mean, when you look at the bottoms there is another bulge..or they almost look like figure 8's. does that make sense to anyone? from the bottom it looks like the heel is mounted way behind but when you look at them standing, it looks like the heel is very "under" the ball of the ankle and very balanced. curious... no slipping through the stirrups in those heels, that is for sure?
Those are truly rare objects Lei. We only had one pair of Victorian riding boots at Bata, and they were Russian! I wonder why the boots are so bloody rare. The habits survive in much larger numbers than the boots do. These are the Hessian style, or 'a la Polonaise' as they were also known at the time. They might date as early as 1868, but I think they are more likely mid 1870s, if I had to pick a year, I would say 1875 due to that shape heel in combination with the square toe, and the Hessian topline. We had a large collectin of fashion boots from one woman's wardrobe with the bill of sale from 1875 that had the exact combination of style elements as this pair. Those boots were made by Pinet, and his heels were state of the art at the time. Very nice find... you should be proud, they are indeed very rare items.
I wish mine were Pinet's but there no maker's marks whatsoever. Wondered if the Louis heels could be more 1870s as well as most of the heels on 1860's shoes I have come across have been knock on heels, these are much more substantial. At the Fair Equestrienne exhibit I went to while on holiday in September had no early riding boots either. They had a pair of men's leather short legged Wellington style boots which were mislabeled as "ladies riding boots" and the normal brown boots you see from the 1920's onwards. They did have a habit which would have gone perfect with my boots though! Lei
Nope Chris, your feet wouldn't slip through the stirrup in these, not like the flat boring 1" heels on riding boots today. Lei
Great job on the leather Lei. I restored a WW1 1914 saddle a couple years ago, I used neatsfoot oil and it came out great. How high up the calf do they go? Deb
They come up to about my lower calf but these would have been worn by a woman waaaay shorter than me so I guess on someone about 5'- 5'2", they would come up to about upper calf length. Lei
This type of vintage (antique really) is new to me, so I'm very curious as to the fact that these boots were made without a corresponding right or left boot. Were all old shoes made this way? I had no idea. These are very cool indeed!
Actually, these do have the slightest left and right foot shape, although it is very slight, you can just make out a slightly wider swing on the sole on the inner ball area. However, they are pretty close to being 'straights'. All shoes were made with left and right defination until about 1600, then with the addition of heels, they began to be made as straight soles, simply because you need two lasts to create a left and right heeled shoe. Unheeled shoes you don't need a fitted last to construct, and lasts (wooden foot forms) were expensive, time-consuming things to make. When heels disappeared from shoes in about 1800, left and right shapes came back into fashion, but slowly -- very slowly. There were improvements on making lasts faster and cheaper, but none were perfect until Metzlinger, an Czech born American, develped a machine for making wooden lasts cheaply and acurately, in the 1880s. So, you don't have universal left and right foot definitions, as well as width sizing in footwear until the very end of the 1880s - early 1890s.
Nope, they are definitely straights! It does look like they are right and left shaped in the photos but if you look at the boots in real life there is black paint on the edges of the sole which kind of make it look like they are shaped for right and left feet but the leather sole itself is actually straight. It boggles my mind why the edges were painted like this, the only reason I can think of is that the shoe maker wanted to make them "look" like they were shaped right and left without actually doing the work? Mind you, there are spur rests on each boot which would have not been needed if the boots were actually shaped for each foot as if the original wearer was riding in a normal nearside sidesaddle, the right leg wouldn't have needed a spur. The only explanation I can see for putting spur rests on each boot is too allow the wearer to change feet thereby keepng the boot nice and straight (which she clearly didn't doo as the toe marks on the soles show) or 2) the original wearer rode in a reversable sidesaddle or sometimes rode astride. Lei
