The idea of acquiring an existing historical footwear collection came originally from the staff at the college’s Boot and Shoe School who felt that a historical perspective would enhance the existing display of modern shoemaking. In 1939 Arthur Penfold, then director of the museum, was in London seeking exhibits that would be ‘of interest to Australians’; at the suggestion of the editor of a trade journal, the Footwear Organiser, contact was made with a shoemaking company called Joseph Box Ltd about a collection amassed by the present owner’s uncle and grandfather during the second half of the 1800s.
Writing back to the museum, Penfold described Joseph Box Ltd’s collection as having about 300 shoes including ‘hand made shoes from 1500 to date … The stitching is so fine that a magnifying glass is required to see some of it’. So began a lengthy negotiation which concluded in 1942 when the museum purchased the Joseph Box collection. The pressures of World War Two presumably added to the urgency of finding a safe home for the collection as the company itself was winding down and was taken over by bespoke shoemakers John Lobb Ltd some time after 1953.
Joseph Box Ltd had its origins in a London shoemaking business established in 1808 by a ladies shoemaker called James Sly. From 1816 Sly’s apprentice was Robert Dixon Box, the fifteen-year-old son of a bankrupted Quaker attorney. When Sly moved his business to 187 Regent Street in 1824 he made Robert his right hand man. Sober, hard working and deeply religious, Robert was appointed manager of the business by Sly’s executors when Sly died in 1826. The promotion was made over Sly’s son, who apparently was not considered suitable, and when in 1832 Robert became owner of the business the younger James Sly was apprenticed to him. This situation led to a certain amount of friction, as family records claim that Sly tried to stab his master with a clicking knife and had to be restrained by workshop employees.
Despite such setbacks, under the ownership of Robert the workshop gained a reputation for fine shoemaking through its participation at international exhibitions and by obtaining Royal Warrants.
The business became known as Joseph Box Ltd after it was transferred to Robert’s son Joseph in 1862. Like his father, Joseph started in the trade at the age of 15, but retired at the relatively early age of 42 to enable his daughters to enter society. Although he transferred the business to his cousins the Box Kinghams in 1882, Joseph maintained an active interest in shoemaking through collecting. In 1889 he organised a widely publicised exhibition at 187 Regent Street of his own collection and others with the aim of showing ‘the progress made in the art of shoemaking, especially in the finer and more expensive kinds worn by the wealthy classes’.
The collection acquired by the museum was probably started by Robert Dixon Box and consolidated by Joseph Box and the Box Kinghams during the second half of the 1800s. It includes remnants of leather shoes from the Middle Ages found in English archaeological sites, intact European shoes from the 1600s onwards, ‘foreign’ shoes collected as ‘curiosities’ from around the world, shoe buckles and spurs, as well as documents relating to Joseph Box Ltd.
A selection of the collection was on display in the old museum from 1954 to 1978 but when the museum closed and the development of the Powerhouse began, the collection went into storage. The new museum opened in 1988, and while shoes have featured in various exhibitions, the main shoe collection, of which the Joseph Box collection is the core, has remained in storage. Conscious of its significance, the museum invited footwear scholar June Swann, former Keeper of the Boot and Shoe collection at Northampton Museum, to come to Sydney and catalogue the collection. As dates and descriptions of shoes were amended and provenances clarified, the collection was ‘rediscovered’ and the time seemed right to display it again. The temporary exhibition Stepping out: three centuries of shoes, held at the Powerhouse Museum provides an opportunity to view a collection that has not been seen for many years.
Since the purchase of the Joseph Box collection, the museum has continued to collect shoes. The museum’s collecting scope is broad and covers the areas of decorative arts and design, social history and science and technology. Shoes are collected as much for their historical associations as for their aesthetic and technical qualities. Boots worn by the cricketer Don Bradman and rubber boots worn by an Antartic explorer, Dr Peter Towson, are examples of footwear acquired primarily for their Australian provenance. Shoes that represent styles of dress which evolved independently of European fashion are also collected, either as examples of good or significant design or because they have interesting technical features.
However, the majority of shoes acquired since the purchase of the Joseph Box collection have complemented it by representing mainstream fashions in shoes, and in particular stylistic changes in the 1900s. It is the development since 1700 of the fashionable shoe, accompanied, and in some cases made possible, by technical development, which is the main focus of the first two chapters of this book. Although most of the illustrated shoes in the first chapter covering the 1700s and 1800s were made in England, they represent styles of shoes worn throughout Europe and in countries influenced by European fashion. The third chapter presents aspects of the history of Australian shoemaking.
The making of a shoe
Leather is usually associated with shoemaking, although wood and plant fibre are also important materials in the history of shoemaking. Societies with traditions of craft techniques such as basketry and wood carving made coverings for feet using these skills. It is leather, however, that has become the predominant material for making shoes, favoured as it is for its flexibility, practicality and comfort.
The first step in constructing a leather shoe is the making of a last, a smoothly contoured and stylised wooden, or moulded plastic, model of the foot. The last determines the shape of the shoe. The production of the last can be a time-consuming and expensive process as a different pair of lasts is required for each shoe style, whether the shoes are handmade or mass produced.
Using the last as a guide, the next step is to cut out the leather for the sole, the insole and the upper. The insole is the inside bottom part of a shoe on which the foot rests; the upper covers the top of the foot and usually consists of a number of pieces including the vamp, the front section of the shoe covering the toes and part of the foot’s instep, and the quarters which cover the upper sides of the foot. The cutting of leather requires considerable skill as the cutter or ‘clicker’ must take into consideration the elasticity of the leather and the direction of stretch, as well as aesthetic qualities such as grain and colour, and the most economical use of the piece of leather.
After the cutting, the ‘closer’ joins the pieces of the upper and incorporates the lining. Then the leather is fitted precisely to the last, first the insole and sole and then the upper, through the skilful combination of pulling, stretching, shaping and temporary nailing. The sole is then stitched on, and the heel constructed in wood, plastic or layers of leather.
Modern shoe construction was widely adopted by the 1500s, and superseded the turnshoe construction technique, characteristic of the Medieval period, whereby the shoe is constructed inside out and then reversed – or turned – so that the seams are on the inside. The turnshoe technique is still used for specialty footwear such as ballet shoes and slippers. An important innovation in Medieval shoemaking was the invention of the ‘rand’, a wedge-shaped strip of leather sewn between the upper and the sole to make the shoe more waterproof. This developed into the welt construction method whereby a strip of leather wider than a rand is stitched onto the edge of the upper and insole and the sole is then attached to the welt. The welted construction technique was used for the making of heavy protective boots in the early 1500s as the use of heavier soles and thicker leather made it impossible to turn a shoe inside out as in the turnshoe construction technique.
Whether undertaken by a shoemaker working alone or in a workshop with artisans performing the specialists tasks of the ‘clicker’, the ‘closer’, and the ‘maker’, the above process of shoemaking was in place until the mid-1800s when mechanisation took over from handwork. Although most shoes today are made in factories with sophisticated machinery, and modern methods of attachment use a variety of cements and adhesives, there are still bespoke establishments catering for those who appreciate – and can afford – the robustness, flexibility and comfort of the handmade shoe.
This essay is taken from the book Stepping Out: three centuries of shoes, from Powerhouse Publishing.