32497 shoes&pattens0

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Shoes and Pattens

further so that the ąuarters were madę in two symmetrical pieces - now properly ‘ąuarters’ in the modern sense - and joined with a vertical seam at the heel (Figs. 67 and 107). This added considerably to the importance of the heel-stiffener, making it an integral constructional element, and anticipates the sophisticated con-struction of 17th-century and later shoes. It is noticeable that when compared with 13th- and 14th-century examples far fewer early 15th-century uppers have been cut up for subseąuent reuse (c.10 per cent, compared with 20-45 per cent in earlier groups; cf., below, Table 16), and this may indicate that shoes were now madę throughout of new, rather than recycled, leather.

At the same time there seem to have been two major advances in sole manufacture, although the paucity of examples in the present groups sug-gests that the changes were taking place at just the period when the groups themselves were being deposited. One advance, exemplified by only 5 of the 359 registered shoes from Trig Lane and nonę from Swan Lane, was the addition of a separate insole to the normal turn-shoe sole. The insole lay grain-side upwards and must have added considerably to the comfort of the shoe. The other advance was the introduction of the turn-welt method of construction (for fuller discussion, see below, p. 47 & Fig. 74). This involved the widening of the normal turn-shoe rand so that it oversailed the edge of the shoe and could be sewn to a separate undersole, thereby improving greatly the durability of the whole shoe and its resistance to water. There are no examples of turn-welt shoes among the individually registered finds, although several scraps of turn-welt ‘rand’, easily recognised by the double row of stitch-holes, were located in the bulk materiał. When found separately, the lower soles may be difficult to distinguish from well-made ‘clumps’ if they are tunnel-stitched, and from the bottom components of multi-layer pattens (see below, Figs. 139-40) if through-stitched.

Decoration is sparse on London shoes of this period, although there is one vamp with magnifi-cent ‘tracery’ ornament reminiscent of the archi-tecture and metalwork of the time (Fig. 116c). Too little of the upper survives for certain recon-struction, but it seems likely that it was a low-cut shoe with buckie or latchet fastening. Distinctive touches were sometimes added to a shoe by

61 Early 15th-century shoe. Scalę 1:3 approx.

simple variations in cutting and stitching. Two vamps, for example - again probably from below-the-ankle shoes - are shaped very Iow at the wings but have a long pointed ‘tongue’ which extends upwards over the instep (Fig. 61). An-other vamp has two rows of longitudinal tunnel-stitching on the inside, which had the effect of creasing the vamp to create a slightly stepped, rather than rounded, profile (Fig. 62). Regrettably little of this shoe survives, but there are remains of a strap passing through a perforation at the vamp throat; this suggests that it had a toggle fastening, although if so it would be the only example from a London context post-dating c.1400.

62 Early 15th-century shoe. As can be seen from the illustration of the inside (flesh side) of the vamp, the longitudinal creases were formed by two rows of tunnel-stitching. Scalę 1:3 approx (inset 1:4).