Pair of Manchu woman’s platform (“flower pot”) shoes. Black satin upper sides, delicately embroidered with moths at tip. Upper edge black suede with piped edges; the lower, scalloped. Suede coarsley embroidered with white, pink, green-shaded twisted silk thread in a narcissus (?) pattern. Front and back tipes piped with donkey leather, secured in front with strong black belting weave; in back suede covered. A white and green strip of cloth separates the uppers from the platform. Its wood core covered above and below by cloth soles: the upper one padded and covered with lavendar piped white cotton; the lower one made of twine-quilter layers of cotton. Platform whitened. Overall Length: 24 cm. bottom of platform: 8 cm; top 21 cm; height of platform: 4 cm.
Donor:
Ilse Martin Fang
Collection place:
Peking, Beijing province, China
Verbatim coll. place:
China. First half of 20th century. Given to Ilse Fang by Erich Wolters, antique dealer in 1943, Peking.
Culture or time period:
Manchu people
Collector:
Ilse Martin Fang
Collection date:
1943
Materials:
Cotton (textile), Leather, Satin, Silk, Suede, and Wood (plant material)
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Embroidery (visual works) and Shoes (footwear)
Function:
2.1 Daily Garb
Production date:
First half of 20th century
Accession date:
December 15, 1998
Context of use:
Shoes. Illegal for Manchurian women to bind feet. “Flower pot” shoes gave the illusion of bound feet and forced “delicate” gait.