[Regia-NA] Jorvik shoes

[Di]

The funniest thing about this is as a young girl I used to put my shoes
on the wrong feet because it was always easier to do up the buckle when
it's on the inside rather than trying to reach to the outside...  My
mother thought I was insane...
=D

Dyrfinna

--- Robert Kenyon <robertpkenyon at adelphia.net> wrote:

> Hi all,
> Just thought I'd share this annoying little epiphany.  After recently
> completing a pair of Jorvik style turnshoes with the flap and toggle
> going
> over the instep and fastening at the outside of the foot, I re-read
> the
> relevant section of "Leather and Leatherworking in Anglo-Scandinavian
> and
> Medieval York" by Quita Mould, Ian Carlisle, and Esther Cameron (from
> The
> Archaeology of York series, The Small Finds 17/16 Craft, Industry and
> Everyday Life).  Much to my chagrin I discovered a passage that I had
> previously overlooked.  I had always assumed that the flaps fastened
> on the
> outside of the foot and others have too, judging by the reproductions
> offered by many of the suppliers out there, and the photos on the
> leatherwork page of Regia's website.  However, according to Page
> 3302:
> 
>  "A large group of distinctive ankle-shoes fastened with flaps and
> toggles
> over the instep were found at the sites under consideration here, and
> elsewhere in York.  Though varying slightly in aspects of
> construction, they
> all comprised an upper of fundamentally one-piece construction closed
> with a
> single side seam at the vamp wing on the inside of the foot...  The
> shoes
> were fastened over the instep by a flap or flaps with toggles that
> were
> passed through loops mounted low down on the quarters.  Complete
> examples of
> shoes of this style show that the fastenings and the single seam were
> placed
> on the inside of the foot though one would have thought that
> practicality
> dictated that any fastening would have been placed on the outside. 
> This
> same phenomenon was noted on a near complete example from 5
> Coppergate and
> commented upon by MacGregor (pp.138, 163, Fig.72, 627, AY 17/2)."
> 
> The accompanying illustrations in this section of the book were a
> little
> deceiving to me at first because they seemed to show the outside of
> the
> upper and the inside of the sole in the relative positions they would
> be
> when assembled.  Then I read this passage on p. 3274:
> 
> "The accompanying illustrations use stitch conventions shown in
> Fig.1596,
> taken principally from Goubitz (1984, 187-96), and are generally
> shown from
> the flesh side."  Then I realized that these drawings are showing the
> insides of both the upper and the sole, indicating the stitches. 
> Seen in
> that light, the side seam and flap are indeed on the inside of the
> foot.
> The same holds true for the double-flap shoes.  Aw, crud.  Time to
> make new
> shoes...
> 
> I'd love to hear feedback on this.
> Wulfric
> 
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