Artifact: Steel Shoe Buckles
Materials: Pewter, Steel
Dimensions: 2 5.8 x 2 in.
Date: 1780s
Origin: United States
Collection: LACMA
License: Public Domain
Ledger Entry: Best Steel Shoe Buckles
Department: Footwear
Customer: Captain Lewis Ellzey
Ledger Page: 30
Imported From: Buckles were frequently imported from Sheffield or Birmingham
Product Description
Buckles were the most common means of fastening shoes from the mid seventeenth century through the end of the eighteenth century. While they did serve a practical function, they often served as fashion accessories worn by both men and women. By changing out buckles of different styles and levels of ornament, a single pair of shoes could be adapted to different social functions. They were fashioned from a variety of metals ranging from elaborately decorated jewel-encrusted silver to simple iron rectangles. Lower grades of metal such as steel, brass, copper, or pewter were often still cast in ornamental molds.
Citation: Ivor Noël Hume. A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 84-86.; James M. Gaynor and Nancy L. Hagedorn, Tools: Working Wood in Eighteenth-Century America (Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1993).
Historical Price: 1 shilling, 10 pence per pair; Modern USD: $20.6
Product Variations
The databases record only four purchases of shoe buckles. Their prices range from ten pence to one shilling ten pence.
