Jonathan Hose and Son, London, c.1770
Courtesy, Historic New England
These cream silk brocaded shoes, with blue and red flowers on a patterned ground, were made by a London family of cordwainers named Hose. The upper features an attractive floral silk in browns and greens on white with an oval toe. A well-proportioned 2.5 inch heel and period buckles (owned by Prudence Jenkins and worn for her wedding in 1778) complete this tasteful ensemble.
As Historic New England catalog information notes, many eighteenth-century shoes are called buckle shoes because a removable metal buckle was used to fasten the straps along the top. The high heel, round toe, angled side seams, and exuberant floral pattern of this buckle shoe are characteristic of shoes made in the third quarter of the eighteenth century.
In eighteenth-century Boston, Massachusetts, as in Philadelphia, PA, Newport, RI and Portsmouth, NH, the latest London fashions were readily available to those who could afford them. These brocade shoes were made in the section of London called Cheapside, known for its textile merchants and shoemakers. Like most shoes of the period, they have no right or left but were made to be interchangeable. The long tabs were intended to be fastened by buckles, which were worn like jewelry and could be transferred from one pair of shoes to another. Buckles could be set with diamonds for the wealthiest wearers, or, like these, made of paste.
For similar examples by the Hose family, see earlier posts and collections at Historic Deerfield and the Charleston Museum.
Acc. # 1919.140AB
Gift of Miss Mary C. Wheelwright
Information and photograph courtesy, Historic New England
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