Shoe Buckles in Original Case

Up until the French Revolution both ladies’ shoes as well as men’s shoes closed with shoe buckles. These were outfitted more or less extravagantly according to the status and financial situation of their owner. Shoe buckles with polished glass stones were produced in particularly large quantities in England. Richly faceted and with their backs lined in metal foil, these imitated the sparkling lustre of valuable diamonds. 56 baguette-shaped, polished stones form a double frame, each with a six petal flower in the middle of the long sides. The double thorn is heart-shaped in design. Both buckles have been preserved in their original case. During the 1770’s shoe buckles were worn particularly large and with a high curve. The word “strass”, the French and German designation for faceted glass stones, goes back to French inventor jeweller Georg Friedrich Strass (1701-1773) who, in the 1730’s, developed a glass mass from which he drew glass stones that he could facet to particularly great effect.