The Crispin Colloquy

A site for old sewing machine manuals and identification. Some really good info on timing and tensions too.

Tim
www.shoemakingbook.com

Here is a book I happened across, "The Romance of the Shoe: Being the History of Shoemaking in All Ages, and Especially in England and Scotland" by Thomas Wright (1922).

Not alot of meat in there, but some amusing anecdotes about the history of the trade and some of the craftsmen who worked in England in the mid-19th century. Also mentions some work being done at 60 spi.

You can find it for download or viewing here:

http://archive.org/details/romanceofshoebei00wriguoft

Lance

Lance,

I own that book. It's not an instructional book nor is it certain that everything contained in it is accurate but it's still a great book and well worth reading.

That's where the reference here to the Boughton Faire came from.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[center]Little Jack Dandiprat in a white petticoat,
The longer he lives, the shorter he grows.[/center]

When the Guild was first started, there was little else out there besides "The Romance of the Shoe." My favorite part is the poem, "A Visit from St. Crispin," or "The Likely Bor." Worthwhile sentiments for shoemakers and others.

Well now the curiosity is peaked, Dan.
Would you or one of our others be willing to share either with those of us who are without the aforementioned?

Paul

Paul
I'm sure it's out of print, perhaps Amazon? Of course, if someone were to put it on line, we all could share--though it's true, there's little useful information about shoemaking.

Guys:

Look at my message above, with link to the book included.

You can either download the PDF or look at the book online.

Or am I mis-understanding something?

Lance

Lance
You are right you can download the entire 450 pages in PDF form .thinks for the link
Larry Waller
WWW.walrusshoe.com

Thank you, Lance. Some of us need a little more computer expertise!

Dan

Just FYI.

Its seems Colin Barnlsey does have a catalog for woodenware repetitions. he sent me it and a copy of the barnsley 1980s catalog. The woodenwaare cat has lots of knives awls etc.

Cody

Al may have posted this years ago, but I just happened to have this wonderful document show up in a somewhat unrelated search.

hopefully the post will work ok, since this is my first url post on the new system.

http://www.jefpat.org/NEHWeb/Assets/Col ... otwear.pdf

Thanks Al

Terry,

For some reason the link didn't work from the email notification but when I came to the forum here and clicked on the link inside your post, it worked fine.

DW,

I am guessing that is because the first time I posted the wrong link and I edited the post.

Terry

Hi; this is my first post here, so I hope this is the correct thread.

For my research, I'm seeking an elusive book and would appreciate any leads:

Title: Records of the York Cordwainers Company, from circa 1395
Author: York Cordwainers Company, compiled by F.C. Margetts
Publisher: William Sessions, Ebor Press, 1983
ISBN: 0900657812
Length: 171 pages


So far I've found exactly two copies, #1 and #34 of a limited edition, both in York, England, and they are not available via Interlibrary Loan.

One copy is held by the University of York and the other by York Minster. The Company of Cordwainers of the City of York does not have a copy (pers. comm.).

Anyone know of any other copies, especially here in the US? The HCC library itself does not appear to have one.


-Ken

Sadly I know of no copies in the US. Perhaps you might turn up a second-hand copy on-line for sale, or one of the UK holders might scan particular pages--all 171 pages might be asking a lot. Good luck.

Do you have any familiarity with the contents at all? I have no references to particular pages, so I'm not even sure what might be the most helpful parts if I did find someone to do some scanning. That could be my first request for scanning, of course, or the index if it has one.

Al,
How soon can we get a copy of the Hartwig you are working on ? Isn't it going to the publisher soon?
I am very much looking forward to reading it
Sharon

It'll be a free download off of this site, not a paper "publication". The 46 page text is in final, and the intro will go to the editor this weekend, so stay tuned.

Al,
Thank you for giving us the translation with explanatory notes from German of: The Shoemaker and Slippermaker--Hartwig, 1775, Saguto, 2018

http://www.thehcc.org/Hartwig.pdf

Why did Hartwig have so much praise for English shoemakers? Leather, heel rands (248) , 244 special english polish with mystery ingredients including spikenard oil. etc. and none for the French shoemakers.

Hartwig uses pitchbarm like duct tape, everywhere including finishing the edges of womens shoes and burnishing the pitchbarm in page 252.
What is it?

The pressed leather heels have me totally puzzled. Are there any left to examine, or did they all dissolve? Poor soldiers.

Overall, Hartwig explains so much about shoe and bootmaking in few pages.

Thanks Sharon. Just typed most of the reply, then ventured away and the computer ate it all. Have been laid-up with a broken foot, so convalescence afforded me the needed down-time I doubt if I would have found otherwise to polish "Uncle Otto" (L. Hartwig).

If you think Hartwig had high praise for things English, please refer to "Herr Doktor" Daniel Gottfried Schreber's comments throughout my 2009 'Art of the Shoemaker', especially pp. 83, FN 31, and pp. 123, FN 43. As I wrote in the preface, you should cross reference Hatwig with 'AotS', which holds many answers. The Germans and English were allies, and a German prince sat on the English throne--they were "buds" as well as trading partners. But even the French M. de Garsault mentions English leathers, as well as several English techniques that were adopted by the French, though the two countries had been mortal enemies "forever" [that whole Protestant versus Catholic thing] and embroiled in war against each other for much of the 18thc. Remember, even though England's primary staple export was wool, and wool fells (things made of wool), second was leather and leather fells, which amounted to more GDP than all of England's metal and metal trades combined in the later 18thc.

Things like shoe polish were proprietary commercial products, the recipes were top secret. I'm sure the English were happy to sell various polishes and waxes abroad, but kept the exact formulas under lock and key. Rob Welch has done more research on 18thc boot blackings than anyone I've known, see here http://makinghistorynow.com/2016/01/mak ... lack-ball/ He presented a fascinating paper and hands-on demo of various products at last year's AGM. Apparently the French, like the Germans, were simply smitten with the superiority of English polishes, though German gloss is discussed 'AotS' pp. 140, with that "spike" (spikenard) oil.


I've only tried pitchbarm one season with no success. Today's wheat bears little genetic resemblance to "old" (pre GMO) wheat, so that may have accounted for my lack of success, or it may have been climate, or pure operator error. Since I've never read of the English using pitchbarm, I went right back to good bookbinders' paste and Hirschkleber (potato starch paste).

Yes, there're surviving Anglo-American examples with pressed heels, but they are commonly enclosed in a heel cover, and on men's dress shoes less likely to be worn outdoors in the wet weather to fall apart. I've had good luck pressing fleshings in an iron mold a la Hartwig, stuck with thinned-out Hirshkleber, but again only for covered heels, like slippers.

Hartwig is concise, but I feel like he ran out of steam for details after his boot section, and gets rather befuddled by the time he gets to women's shoes and slippers.

Great questions, feel free to follow-up.

If I may...??

Following up on Sharon's question, what is pitchbarm?

And how was it used?

Beer, Beer BEER (by-products)

Hartwig tells you what it is. First viscous barm from wheat-beer brewing, mostly yeast.

OK...sorry. I have a busy schedule this month and haven't DL'd or read it.

I thought pitchbarm might be one of those archaic terms / products that everyone in the 18th century knew about but didn't make the journey into the modern lexicon.

PS...wheat beer is not my thing. I hastily avert my eyes when I see it.

This is the only reference to pitchbarm, using it as an adhesive or burnishing aid, I've ever encountered anywhere. It might have been a Berlin thing? Even Schreber (1769) over in Saxony doesn't mention it in his shoemaking book, his excerpts contradicting or commenting on Garsault are salted all through 'AotS' BTW. When it comes to beer, if I can see through it, I don't drink it.