1909.74.41.1

Collection type

Object

Description

Bark shoes

Long description

Description taken from Conservation Card by Pierette Simpson 08/01/1997 - Bark shoes - Child's slippers of plain plaiting weave with no fastenings. Spiral wound bark binding to opening, square heel. No markings on objects, shoes may not be from same pair, slight size difference or wear. (Pierette Simpson 08/01/1997) [LKG 16/04/2009]

Geographical reference

Russia

Europe > Eastern Europe > Russia

Kirov

Cultural groups

European Russian

Person

Field collector Michel de Bernoff

PRM source Michel de Bernoff

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1909

Date collected

By 1909

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1909

Materials and processes

Material Bark Fibre Plant, Process Plaited

Dimensions

Length 150 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1909.74.41.1 Accession number: 1909.74.41.2

Research and responses

According to S.P. and E. Dunn (in The Peasants of Central Russia (1967); Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press), men usually wore lapti for work, plaited bast shoes worn over onuchi (linen puttees), although such shoes were no longer made individually by each family, as they had been in the 1930s. Rather, they were made for each village by one or two specialists, usually elderly men. Lapti were replaced by high boots on dress occasions.

Similarly, R. E. F. Smith (in Peasant farming in Muscovy (1977); Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) states that footwear in many areas of Russia was frequently made of woven bast, although leather footwear was common in areas where livestock husbandry had become well developed. 3 - 4 young limes were cut for each pair of shoes, which lasted approximately one month. [CW 11 9 1997]

The Oxford University Herbaria suggests that these shoes could perhaps be made from ?Betula pubescens. [CW 6 10 1997]

Search terms: Clothing Footgear, Children and Childcare, Shoe