The Crispin Colloquy

Gentlemen, thank you. My ambivalent feelings about museums could not have been better expressed than it has been (so far!) by your discussion.

As to shoes: how can I get my hands on a copy of that Devlin monograph? Or at least, see it on my computer? He's the best writer in the HCC library.

Dan:

It is here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=6_MHAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=james+devli n+crispiana&source=gbs_book_other_versions#v=onepage&q&f=true


It is on Google Books, you can read it for free and I think even download it.

Lance

Nasser,

I, too, am glad nothing said here offended--it is a delicate subject with many sides and dimensions. We ought to sit a drink a bottle of wine and discuss all this some day.

As to wars of invasion and conquest, and the toll these take on peoples and cultures, I have no answers. Seems that psychopaths manage to gain power and take whole nations to war against their better judgment time and time again. These critters behave no better en masse than they do individually committing horrible crimes--remorseless, without empathy or moral code. But then Lao Tzu (sp?) in his ancient book on the art of war told us: "all war is deception", trickery of the worst sort IMO.

The catastrophic destruction in Iraq and looting at the Baghdad Museums was "front-page news" in world-wide museums journals as soon as it happened, and the list of lost artifacts was widely published in the hope that some if not most of the objects would be spotted and "saved". I'm afraid the private collector market conceals a lot of them, and what was funneled into that criminal rat-hole will be lost forever--those are also your current day Mongol Hoards, or maybe worse, they buy the stuff the Mongols steal which only encourages them.

Dan,

"Ambivalence" about museums? You? Sorry to hear that, I thought you were a fan

I guess if we looked hard into any large professions and institutions, medicine, the law, universities, etc. we'd find plenty to get ambivalent about. I only hope we can keep museums from falling to the same popular distaste as "big-pharma", "big-farma", and the oil industry.

I think you'll enjoy reading Devlin's critique of the 1852 exposition. He is ever a wordy guy with Victorian sentences that trail-on for most of a page, but lots of meaty detail in there. He even explains more details on his famous "shamrock tongue".

Thank you both, esp. Lance for practical help. I read until my eyes got tired--if you're a devotee, this is pure gold. I'll download and print my own.

Al,

That is some jewel of a book,the tongue is very 19c and funny in it's own right,Thanks for the suggestion,I read half of it yesterday and downloaded it to read later when my hands are free.

Lance, Thanks for providing us with the link.

Hi Nasser,

I would be happy to show you shoes in brighter light! Call the museum and ask for me, I am usually around and would love to let our shoes inspire you. I understand your frustration with the lighting at the museum but the shoes that we currently have on view are chopines from the 16th century and early heeled footwear from the early 17th century. Part of our loan agreements with the lending museums (including the V & A) was the low light levels.

Call me and arrange a visit!

Kind regards,
Elizabeth (Semmelhack)

Elizabeth,

Well, That is kind spirited of you,I will be delighted to meet someone as keen and diligent of our art as you are and happy to see the museum has someone like you there,I will call and make arrangement for a visit and thanks again.

Best regards
Nasser Vies
HCC-Member

(Message edited by dearbone on July 24, 2010)

I've been sort of lurking in the background a little since joining at Al's suggestion: I'm a Clogmaker in Wales (currently a part of the UK incase geography is a little remiss!).
Now the Heel (ie Wood) thread had me intrigued but now the word Chopines blossomed in my email inbox...Pictures please!!!
While most of the Clogs I make fall into the Traditional UK styles (not slip ons or all wood, but wood soles and leather uppers), I do venture into mediaeval styles of Pattens for re-enactors over here, and am always looking for examples to broaden my knowledge..
cheers Trefor

Hi Trefor,

If you go to www.batashoemuseum.ca and click the "On a Pedestal:Renaissance Chopines to Barogue Heels" link you will be taken to a webpage on the exhibition and you can see some of the chopines that are on display. They are pretty interesting!

Elizabeth

Hi Nasser,

I look forward to it!

Elizabeth

I always wanted to see a highland sporran close by,So when the kilt keeper of the Toronto highland regiment walked in the shop and asked me to do some work on the sporran i was delighted,I put silver ware on the horse skin and sew the back facing and he was happy with the work and i got some good education about the history of the Toronto Highland regiment from him.

So the sporran came back for a new binder and i stitched a new one by hand so faithfully working with a fragile 1970s sporran made in Edinburgh,This one i was told is going to His Highness prince Charles as the new head of the "Scottish highland regiment" of Toronto after the passing away of his grand mother which was the head of the regiment in Toronto,I was also told by the keeper,that i am now a "Maker of military Accoutrement"? and more work to restore more military accoutrement is coming,who would have thought?

Nasser

Nasser,
I realize I am digging up ancient history but...
Do you know anything else about making sporrans?
I would be very interested in learning more as the Highland Games are coming up here and I thought I might be able to make a little cash selling handmade custom sporrans etc.

Thanks,
Cody

Oh lucky you, I heard a lot about the highland games when i was making shoes in the highlands one winter,parading on foot from village to village and being greeted with single malt,wearing colourful costumes, i always wanted to watch the highland games, way better than the video games that are corrupting the mind of youth.

I think it is a good idea making some sporrans and maybe some kilt belts for the games,i also think a more common sporran like the one Al and DW wear will be easier to sell than the one with horse hair which is made only for chiefs,I will be visiting a book collector friend over Christmas and i will look for a book on sporrans.

Cheers
Nasser

OK thanks. Definetely look forward to any info I can get as i have never actually seen a sporrans up close.

BTW i havent once played a video game in my 16years they definetly do mess kid up...

Thanks,
cody

Here's a couple that I built:

Rob Roy made from Am. Bison.


Dress sporran with veg-tanned leather cantle, goat pelt, and silver tassle/chains


Along with a sgian dubh I made from ebony and ivory (wart hog tusk)


Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

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

Very sweet looking DW.

Wow nice!
Are you a blacksmith? thats some nice looking damascus. I have never even tried that though...

Right now I am working on my first pair of boots so a sporran will have to wait.
Thanks for the info though!

Cody

Hope this is the best place to post this. A few days ago I got a call from a leather worker who's been doing his stuff for several decades (mostly motorcycle accessories, I believe) and he is apparently quite a reader as well. He ran across "The Romance of the Shoe" years ago and was astonished to find someone else who possessed the book! He related a particular tale to me that he'd read somewhere, and wondered if I could source it. It's about long-ago tanners in England, who were menaced by wolves in the woods where they preferred to live, and how a clever monarch got rid of the wolves and filled the stew pot at the same time. This story is briefly given in ''Romance" but the version this chap related to me had far greater detail... So my question is, has anyone else run across this story in a historical document or book - and if so, where? I would like to point that curious reader toward that book (as well as read it myself!)

Just thought I'd share...

I had occasion to be in the big city a month or so ago and popped into a bespoke tailor's shop.

I've always had a rather strange physique and shoemaking over the years hasn't helped. At age 69 I have a pub growler stored somewhere in my belly , no butt to speak of, and a Quasimodo back and shoulders. So getting clothes to fit me is a bit of a problem.

But I've always said that a man should have at least one good suit in his lifetime to get buried in and one kilt in his clan tartan to pass on to the next generation...or vice versa.

And of course, the problem is that I don't like modern styles--skinny, high water pant legs, narrow lapels, etc., [shudder]. I couldn't...I wouldn't...buy something off the rack even if it fit me. I like a classic three button jacket with a high stance and a notched lapel waistcoat--something Boardwalk Empire or Downton Abby...even a little La Belle Epoch.

Anyway, I ended up ordering a bespoke suit...

Went in for a fitting on Monday:
Sort of a deep, dark heather with a slight green cast and a rust coloured windowpane in a very fine lightweight wool. Somewhat "country estate."

Not perfect but the best fitting garment I've ever had or have.

This may not mean anything to anyone but me but two people --Jeff Brittin and Isaac Caldero completed stage three of American Ninja Warrior this season and both went on to the fourth and final stage where they had to climb a 75 foot rope in under 30 seconds. At the top was a million dollars waiting for the first or the fastest.

Both completed the climb--Jeff (who is 36 years old BTW) made it to the top in 29+ seconds. He was the first to climb and became the first American Ninja Warrior in seven seasons. Isaac climbed second and made it to the top in 27 seconds, he won a million dollars.

I've been watching this program for all seven seasons and two seasons before that when it was entirely in Japan and just Ninja Warrior. Every year it gets tougher and tougher.

I never thought I'd see the day.

I'm wondering which images of shoemaking people like, be it in art, photography or technical literature of the past, and why. It seems to me that many pictures represent a rich master, who may be casually cutting pieces of leather (uppers?) with a round knife, or talking to (generally female) clients, surrounded by poor minions doing the hard graft of shoemaking work, and / or involve especially poor and miserable looking young apprentices, particularly in the industrial revolution era. Alternatively, the shoemaker is often depicted on his own (always his, never her...) generally in rather disorganised, dank and shabby surroundings, and typically show a very frail old man hunched myopically over a shoe. These representations whilst they may capture the something of the reality of the trade often do not seem very uplifting.
This must be an overly crude take on things, so stark exceptions to this would be interesting if people know of them. I recently came across Louis Toffoli's shoemaker (I think the original French title may have been "Le Savetier" which comes from the word for "saviour", a far more flattering word than "cobbler" to describe a repairer):
Toffoli's representation is warm, respecful and colourful (and it seems to me you can see in it the shoe being "saved", reborn even). But probably the same can be said of all his representations of manual work trades ('metiers'), for which he seems particularly renowned.
So there it is, does anyone have any favourite images of shoemakers / bootmakers / cobblers? And why do they like them?