Intarsia Leather Shoes

These ladies’ slip-on shoes with intarsia, so-called Chameleons, were particularly popular around 1860. Several examples are preserved in European costume collections. This heelless shoe, with straight toe and jagged cut instep, has a motif on the fore that is underlain with green silk trimmed in white chain stitch. The edges of the shoe are trimmed with a green silk ribbon and the jagged instep is covered with a tightly pleated green silk ruffle. The shoe is fully lined in dark green silk and the outer sole, made of brown leather, displays a handwritten note reading “droit”. There is a paper label that can be seen on the left sole exterior with the word “Tuiller”: an indication that the shoe was sold in one of the trendy shoe stores in the immediate surroundings of the Tuilleries, Paris and was probably likely made for order in France.