Manchu women’s platform (“flower pot”) slippers. Off-white damask uppers in two zones: embroidered cracked-ice pattern with flowers and buds above; a sober flowering bamboo pattern appliqued below. All decorations and piped edgings in black. Front seam raised with a cord covered with off-white damask and reinforced at the tip with a patch of the same material and decoration as the lower uppers. Seam at the heel covered with black broadcloth below and with off-white damask above. Upper lined with white cotton cloth. Black-piped intermediate sole, again covered with white cotton. Twine stitched to uppers. Whitened platform supports the intermediate sole, receded to a 4 cm long and 5 cm wide sten, increasing again to a 7.5 cm long and 8.7 cm side heel covered with a pad of quilted textile layers glued and nailed to the heel. Overall length of uppers: 24 cm.
Donor:
Ilse Martin Fang
Collection place:
Peking, Beijing province, China
Verbatim coll. place:
China. Manchu (Qing) Dynasty 1644-1911. GIven to Ilse Fang in Peking by Erich Wolters, antique dealer.
Culture or time period:
Manchu people and Qing dynasty (1644–1912 AD)
Collector:
Ilse Martin Fang
Collection date:
1945
Materials:
Cotton (textile), Paint (coating), Suede, and Wood (plant material)
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Slippers (shoes)
Function:
2.1 Daily Garb
Production date:
Manchu (Qing) Dynasty
Accession date:
December 15, 1998
Context of use:
Worn by Manchurian women to give effect and appearance of 'bound feet’ which was the Chinese (Han) style. Mandarin women were forbidden by law to bind their feet.