No 5. The (Shoe-) Horns of a dilemma!

So, I solve my problem and take as my text this week - Shoe Horns!! – leg shaped of course.

A shoehorn (also historically called shoespooners or shoe schlipps) is a tool usually about 8 inches long to assist people in horning (i.e squeezing) their feet into shoes, without breaking down the back of the shoes. Consider the use in the context “the bus driver tried to see how many passengers he could shoehorn into the bus.” Shoehorns come in various sizes, long handles enabling feet to be horned in without the need to bend down.  

In days of yore!!, like in the 19^th century, the fashion was for long boots to have lengthy laces. With a large number of lace holes to thread the lace, a hook was devised, that would enable the wearer to pull up the slack in a lace, without having to bend down and to tease the lace through each of the lace holes. I will talk about boot and shoe hooks at a later date, but it can be appreciated that levering the foot into the shoe, and then pulling up the lace do go hand in hand.

I only mention hooks at this stage, because it is relevant to shoe horns as below.

   

I have six shoe horns in my collection - it was some time before I actually saw my first shoehorn modelled on a leg.

The first one, number 17 in my catalogue and at the bottom of the picture, was bought in 2010 at the NEC (By now you should know what the NEC is!!) As the NEC antiques are all datelined, this plastic horn IS an antique, c 1900 and at the time of purchase it was the most naff in my collection. Now I consider this plastic shoehorn is actually a good example of how plastic has progressively become an important material used in making dressing aid. (combs; brooches, toothbrushes, which will all be covered in due course).  

The red horn on the right is as simple a model of a leg as one can get, but it is dated as 1900, made of plastic and cost £9 so it qualifies for inclusion in my collection, and it is an antique. It now also qualifies as the most naff!

The pair of similar brass horns at the top are Victorian, and were bought at a Nottingham Racecourse antique fair and careful examination of the different markings shows that whilst they are not an identical pair, the engraving suggests that they are “His and Hers”. Whilst they both have the same size heel, you can see the top leg has a ridge cut across near the ankle position suggesting it has a shoe. As the carving does not extend very far up the leg, if the one without the shoe  was a long boot, this is not evident.   (bit of guess work here!)  The soles of both boots are each stamped with c25 dots to make it appear like studs.  The horns are not very old, probably mid-20^th Century.

The large shiny horn is my only example of Trenchart. As the name implies, trench art covered items made by hand during the war, and in the trenches. Many of them were brass and were culled from whatever could be salvaged in the trenches, to help soldiers with their hobbies. The end products were sold when possible to get some small income and many items of Trenchart came from shells and bullets etc. The practice flourished in the first world war, but then continued into the Second.

This brass leg has some very decorative engraving undoubtedly carved from a military shell, but sex is a problem!!  The long boot, the 10 lace holes and the low heel, point in my opinion to a man's boot. Turning the leg over to see the detail, this picture shows the very good carvings of a garter with a bow

 

....and further up still there is another bow, this time on something frilly which suggests it is meant to be the leg of a pair of Victorian or Edwardian style bloomers, with frill and lace.  The jury is out! Whether male or female, this horn would be very useful and would form a useful pair with a with a boot hook.

There is a very small Mother of Pearl tamper in the picture, for size comparison.

Finally the sixth horn is hand made and made of Bronze. What is surprising is the weight of the bronze item.  The piece of Trenchart weighed 3 ounces – the bronze shoe horn is 9.5 ounces, three times the weight.  Here again detailed examination throws up questions. For a start I would estimate the leg was made in the 19^th century, maybe earlier.

But first let me explain Bronze. Bronze is an alloy of 88% Copper with about 12% of tin, and often includes other non-metals elements such as Arsenic, or Phosphorous. Bronze is harder and tougher than copper and can be distinguished by it’s gold or brown colour. It will not shine like Copper.

I have 2 or 3 bronze items, but this shoe-horn leg is the best bronze example. The overall impression is that it is quite rudimentary, yet the outside also includes the carving of a bloomer like frill! The shoe has several rows of small punched holes, right round the foot suggesting footwear with a pattern.

So those are shoe horns, with an interesting range of materials and age.