Roman Sandals

[Sheilajeanne]

Wow, if this statue is accurate, the Romans certainly knew a thing or two about carving leather!!

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1606773432988293&set=gm.631730784643480&__cft__[0]=AZWjkPvfqsDQVr3EqB6V5xPdfKrDhUrtuTWfu3hMP5OUxdtG1MeQswA7HNlm9iH5WhyZpr87r-DxC99c-BypBM_2zb0YUu1FoQDq0qqBzufpDkx-QIHxKTeNMfsMzyg8TGfX0mWgmeD6vY1Pm6Bg0xu5dn7OaH8JSeZCJpqgEcaQVXloGdieUpQjnv9xcnH8Wjw&__tn__=EH-R

 

[fredk]

Those weren't fully leather. They were embroidered silk uppers with leather soles. Some examples still survive in the storage boxes of certain museums

[Sheilajeanne]

Do you know where I could find pictures, Fred? This is an area that really fascinates me!

[fredk]

Only in very specialised books by archaeologists. Not the sort of books you find through Amazon or your local book store. These are books written as research papers by archaeologists and only a small number of copies are printed up, thus they are very expensive. You need to contact archaeologists or museums directly to find out if such publications by them exist. Very often a museum will direct you to their 'visitors shop' for mainstream books

[Sheilajeanne]

Lots of different styles of Roman sandals if you google on the net, but nothing with embroidery, at least not from that period and culture.

[Spyros]

2000 years later those Italians still don't know how to make proper sandals.  It's fun walking around in Rome and watching tourists slip and slide on the cobblestone because someone sold them sandals with nice, shiny veg tan soles 

Kidding aside I don't know anything about those sandals in the photo but they look impossible to make in leather, especially that lion head at the top 

[Sheilajeanne]

I was thinking that might be made of some sort of metal, maybe gold or silver. The guy was a king, after all!

[fredk]

1. remember google is only as good as what people put up on the internet. There is a fair bit of mis-information posted up by people who 'think' they know. 

2. Is a long time since I read the books, they were on loan to me.

but

a. its a myth that Romans wandered around wearing just sandals and togas speaking latin

b. keeping to footwear; just as people do today, Romans and Greeks wore sandals in hot weather, wearing full vamp shoes in cold weather or cold countries, eg Britannia, look up;  vindolanda, shoes

c. keeping to these style of sandals;  they were made of multiple layers of silk, embroidered with copper and silver wire and gold thread. Many of the very upper class had them and they were passed down the family line. Thus some survived a long time and ended up in museums.  They evolved into full vamp soft shoes, which we would call slippers, still  made of silk and heavily embroidered with silver and gold thread, worn by medieval kings and lords. Usually only worn inside around their palaces and castles, reserving their thicker leather boots for outside, rather like what we do today. Nothing really changes that much

[chuck123wapati]

here is a cool one found in  a well if you made a copy of these and told someone they were roman they wouldn't believe you. Then i found a copy lol click the link to see the original.

 

https://mymodernmet.com/womens-shoes-ancient-rome/

Edited November 27, 2021 by chuck123wapati

[Sheilajeanne]

Chuck, guess who originally posted that shoe on this site?   Yes, it certainly looks very modern!

https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/86190-roman-shoes/

[Sheilajeanne]

4 hours ago, fredk said:

1. remember google is only as good as what people put up on the internet. There is a fair bit of mis-information posted up by people who 'think' they know.

Speaking of which - when I googled the statue, hoping for a better look at the legs, I found out it's frequently misidentified. It's actually a statue of the Roman God of war, Mars.

[Spyros]

Well, it looks like in Rome 2,000 years ago they had better round punches than some of the crap they sell today lol

Edited November 28, 2021 by Spyros

[Handstitched]

....and they were the " Peoples Front of Judea sewerage  workers on the way to a conference" .

Sorry , off topic, couldn't help myself.  

 

[Sheilajeanne]

Ummm...WHAT??    

 

Spyros, you got THAT right!  

Edited November 28, 2021 by Sheilajeanne

[Handstitched]

3 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Ummm...WHAT??   

It was a ' Monty Python'  reference, and way off topic, well....sort of ........I was just being a bit of a smarty pants   

I'm a self confessed  Monty Python freak , can't you tell?   Have a look at my quote. 

HS

Edited November 28, 2021 by Handstitched

[Sheilajeanne]

Okay, my knowledge of Monty Python is mostly from The Holy Grail! If you'd mentioned a shrubbery or 'it's only a flesh wound' I would have gotten it right away!  

[fredk]

1 hour ago, Handstitched said:

It was a ' Monty Python'  reference, and way off topic, well....sort of .......

you're "just a very naughty boy!" 

26 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Okay, my knowledge of Monty Python is mostly from The Holy Grail! If you'd mentioned a shrubbery or 'it's only a flesh wound' I would have gotten it right away!  

"Ah, Camelot! On second thoughts, lets not go there, its a silly place"

[billybopp]

3 hours ago, Handstitched said:

It was a ' Monty Python'  reference, and way off topic, well....sort of ........I was just being a bit of a smarty pants   

I'm a self confessed  Monty Python freak , can't you tell?   Have a look at my quote. 

HS

Blessed are the cheesemakers?

Always look on the bright side of life!

[fredk]

[chuck123wapati]

"Run away run away" 

[fredk]

Back on to the topic;

Whilst these embroidered sandals and slippers did exist, when they appear on statues what in real life is a soft and only slightly raised embellishment is depicted in hard strong and deep relief. Europe's Cathedrals and Churches have very many effigies of knights, kings and such where a design painted or sewn on to their surcote is depicted in 3 dimensions and was originally painted

 

"Romanes eunt domus"

[Sheilajeanne]

Gotcha, Fred. So in that case it COULD be some fancy leather tooling, just not as pronounced as the statue shows.

Back to Monty Python:

Sorry, couldn't resist:

 

[Handstitched]

O'h dear....what have I done??? 

' O'h sh*t...its Mr Creosote!!  '

 

Must dash....byeeee

HS

[cardinal leather]

For the archaeologists books, you might find something At the Library of Congress if you google it there are a number of sites where you might find information. You could also try the Project Gutenberg, they have a lot of vintage books available to download.

[chuck123wapati]

A few more https://www.vindolanda.com/Blogs/blog/the-curators-favourite-shoes