Shoe Buckle

Dateca. 1800

MediumSilverplate, steel

DimensionsW: 3"; L: 2 7/8"

Credit LineAnonymous gift

Object number1971-1201

DescriptionBuckle: reeded silver plate rectangle with rounded corners' central hinge on which pivot all of iron: on one side a fastener of 2 teeth connected by 2 arches.Label TextThe most common way to fasten shoes throughout the 18th century was with a buckle. Shoe buckles ranged in material, shape, and changed in size depending on the fashion. The buckles attach to shoes by using chapes. One side; known as a fluke and in the shape of a whales tail, has two tines that attached to the latchet of the shoe. The other side of the chape; known as the tongue, pierces the leather to hold the shoe closed.

By the 1780s and 1790s, chape makers in England began to patent chapes to allow for wider buckles and to fasten to shoes more securely. This buckles show a hinged method by which the tongue of the chape, rests on a bar.