shoes&pattens5

Shoemaking and cobbling

119 Incised and scraped decoration. a: Vamp and quarters of side-latchet shoe (late 14th-century; for reconstruction see Fig. 51). b: Quarters, probably of side-latchet shoe (late 14th-century). Scalę 1:3.

so that any overcutting of the lattice could be removed.

In contrast with the above shoe, the shoe in Fig. 121c has been decorated with engraving. The lines are shallower and wider and have been affected by pressure on the leather rather than by the sharp-ness of the cutting edge. There is a central tri-angular decorative panel filled with a three-leaved motif; this is edged by two plain lines and by three lines where the leather has been stripped back as described above. The spaces at each side have been decorated with continuous rows of leaves engraved along the sloping lines, with finely en-graved parallel lines serving as a filier for the remaining empty space (see Fig. 121c detail). The overall effect is one of symmetry, with the design carefully worked out to fit the reąuired piece of leather. The leaf motifs, which occur on a number of shoe fragments in this group, seem to be varia-tions of the vine or ivy scrolls popular on other forms of leatherwork during the late medieval period. Again it seems most likely, given the structure of the design, that the areas to be decorated were marked out beforehand with shallow engraved lines.