Sutor Mantellassi Experts

[pkincy]

Expert help desired:

On the Sutor Mantellassis. I have 3 pair now and each has the label marked differently.

One has a sewed in label in the heal that is darker than the tan leather lining of the shoe liner and looks much like a cloth suit label sewn in the shoe where it would be underneath your heel. It has Sutor in a circle and Sutor Mantellassi in block letters and says made in Italy in smaller letters.

The other has Sutor Mantellassi in block letters with Sutor over the Mantellassi and the letters perpendicular to the shoe.

The third has Sutor Mantellassi in script along the axis of the shoe written on the tan leather heel liner.

Is any of this indicative of quality/price levels? If so in what order?

My guess would be the label is the least pricey, the script and/or the block being the higher quality/price line.

But that would in fact only be an educated (some empirical evidence) guess.

TIA for your help.

Perry

 

[pkincy]

It is probably bad form to answer your own thread but a little research has, I believe, answered the questions.

The heel pattern thread shows the high end (Benchmade if you want to call it that) has double nails in each of the nailed spots on the heel. That corresponds to the sock with the block Sutor over the block lettered Mantelassi or the script Sutor Mantallassi along the sock axis.

The label sewn on to the sock corresponds to shoes with the heel (regular line) with single nails in them.

Enjoy,
Perry

 

[A Harris]

Pretty much correct. But to throw a wrench in the works, I once had a pair of handmade Mantellassi captoes that had the fabric label, and did not have any fancy nailwork on the sole... They were a rarity, but did exist. The one definitive and infallible trait of the handmade line is the dimpling you will see along the edges of the insole if you look inside the shoe.

 

[gdl203]

I agree with Andrew - nail pattern and a look inside the shoe are a better way to differentiate them. From my experience, the label vs. "handwritten" signature is not a consistent differentiation between the lower and handgrade lines.