History of brogues with straps?

[Wandering Spark]

You raise such an interesting question!

It's puzzling the two paintings showing shoes with flaps, Mungo Murray as you show, and Lord Duffus, both seen in this collage I did.


I actually hadn't paid attention to the fact that Mungo Murray's shoes have a small gap between the shoe and the strap.

With Lord Duffus the flap hides whatever might be going on there.

I hadn't seen that Penny Wedding painting. I had always imagined that putting a strap over the instep was a later development.

We can see that the 18th century shoes that covered the whole foot and had functioning buckles evolved as the 19th century progressed, being cut lower and lower, becoming slip-on pumps with a nonfunctional buckle at the toe.

I had thought that it was a matter of a strap being added to this shoe. Highland officers in the mid-19th century can be seen wearing both the strapless pump and the brogue with strap in the same orders of dress (Levee Dress, Mess Dress) depending on regiment.

Here even late in the 19th century Argylls officers are still wearing the slip-on style.

Where is the 1793 example in your collage from? I don't have a copy of that one.

I'm guessing that our modern buckle brogue is result of someone combining the toe-buckle pump with the earlier instep strap brogue. I just found some more early 19th c. examples I had never seen.

Sir Francis Grant circa 1824 source These remind me of the hybrid style in Highlanders of Scotland.


Lewis Alexander Grant-Ogilvy. An early 2 buckle brogue. No date, but he died in 1840, so this painting must be from before 1840. source


Duncan MacDonell. The basic version. Again no date, but it looks to me like this painting is a similar date to the Lewis Alexander Grant-Ogilvy portrait. source
If anyone has a better idea of the dates for these, I would love to know.

There was definitely some interesting variety in 19th c. Scottish footwear.

[OC Richard]

Thanks!! Those are great images.

That pushes the strap quite a bit earlier than I had imagined (mid-19th century).