Buckle Shoes

[Bugbear]

I'm not sure I know what to ask.
What do I need to know about shiny black shoes with buckles?
I'm not really thinking about shoes with brogueing, and I think I would prefer a buckle across the instep. I don't have a problem with the buckle being lower either, though.


Looking around on the web, I don't find many formal-ish buckle shoes, but there are lots of tuxedo shoes. Any suggestions?
And right now, I only have a pair of shiney black, cap toe bluchers, just for reference.

For some reason, I think the buckle style would go real well with an outfit featuring a jabot...

[Rollo]

"I think the buckle style would go real well with an outfit featuring a jabot..."

I think so !

[Bugbear]

"I think the buckle style would go real well with an outfit featuring a jabot..."

I think so !

At least in my mind...

For some reason they just seem to go together, to me.

I guess Oxfords would look all right.

[Phil]

These are the ones I have which were the usual commercially available ones, although I think they may now be out of production. I still see them on Ebay but for how much longer I don't know -



There is also the "Glenfinnan" type which is made to look like an authentic historic type of 18th century shoe, illustrated here -

http://www.scotweb.co.uk/sr_macfr_glenfinnan

but at nearly £200 are a lot more expensive.

We also have an accomplished "souter" here who showed his workmanship recently and very good it was too. Don't know if he takes commissions but you couls always ask. DWF11 I think he is.

[Bugbear]

Yes, DWFII's thread is actually what lead me to starting this thread.

The second type of shoe, "Glenfinnan," is probably a bit like what I'm thinking of.

I do know where I can get some eighteenth-nineteenth century replica, buckle shoes. I don't know if they are properly shiney, though. I suppose they might be able to be shined up...
That might be going out on a limb a bit, but it is closer to what I have in mind.

I'm thinking of shoes that don't have all the holes in them too.

[Rollo]

Scotweb's models are very nice.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

You can always think outside the box a bit and shop around at some reenactment suppliers, such as James Townsend & Sons.

They have 18th century style buckle shoes for $90.

You have to attach your own buckle (which they also sell, a few different styles from $20 to $50). And these are made in 18th century fashion, which means they are straight lasted (no difference between right and left).

So I doubt they would be quite as comfy as a modern shoe, but they certainly would have an authentic look and the price is much lower than what you'd pay for a buckle brogue at most Highland dress suppliers.

[DWFII]

Ted,

Well, shiny in the sense we think of it today probably would not have been available in the 18th century. A lot, maybe most, of those shoes were made with the flesh (rough) side out and the the leather itself was "stuffed" with lanolin and oil...which would have further confounded any attempt to polish them. Additionally, the leather was coloured with the black residue (the soot) that accumulated in oil lamps of the period.

Such leathers can be made shiny (very shiny) but it was done with sizing (something very like wallpaper paste). The sizing was rubbed in very thoroughly while it was wet, allowed to dry slightly, and then burnished up to a high shine with bones or hardwood sticks.

This technique was common throughout the 18th and 19th century.

What with the chimney black and the sizing it was a very dirty job. Which is why gentlemen always employed a servant to polish their boots.

[KFCarter]

I've said it before and I'll say it again (and again), a day doesn't go by without learning something interesting on this forum!

[lethearen]

Wow. The things we take for granted these days!