shoes&pattens0

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Shoes and Pattens

114 Embroidered decoration. Detail of vamp stripe on an early/mid 12th-century ankle-shoe. The three rows were embroidered in plait-stitch using red, white and green silk. The stripes were not always sewn in the same direction: here, the two lines on the left were stitched from the vamp throat to the toe and the one on the right from the toe to the throat. Scalę 1:1.

maximum and approximately 5 mm apart. The decoration continues as far as 15-16 mm from the lasting-margin, with the probable effect that the shoe when sewn would have been covered by decoration on all its visible surfaces.

The surface of Fig. 116b, probably late 14th-century in datę, is covered with diamond-shaped openings with wavy serrated edges, the whole effect being similar to the lattice-work decoration which occurs freąuently in manuscript illustra-tions, and which could be embroidered, cut out or incised (cf. below Figs. 119a and 120, and one vamp in the Museum of London coUection (MOL 4674) which actuaily combines openwork with engraved lattice-work). The comers of the pat-tem have been filled out with triangular openings so that the pattem is finished off at the lasting-margin without any irregular edges. The openings are larger and the spacing is closer than on the early/mid 13th-century shoe, indicating that the style was slightly morę developed at this stage and that the shoemakers were morę familiar with the limitations imposed by this type of decoration.

Fig. 116a shows what happens to the shoe upper when the motifs are both too large and too closely spaced. The smaller motifs, which are morę widely spaced, hołd the shape of the in-tended pattem better. The size of the openings has allowed the leather to stretch and distort here.

The shoe in Fig. 115c has survived as the quarters only, this time decorated with elongated motifs placed horizontally. The stamps have been lined up in columns and staggered, so that the whole surface is covered. A couple of stamps have