Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[Paul902]

You ALWAYS seem to get first pick (well except for that one McHale Bomber time). In any case, the ads you list are not for the same shoe as they are true longwings with separate pieces of leather for the wing and vamp, unlike the Longwing Lite™ style of those under discussion that have the brouges in the single piece of upper leather. However, we will award you 2 points for your research, exemplary, as always, and a further 1 point for the included puns.

 

[Jiqea]

You ALWAYS seem to get first pick (well except for that one McHale Bomber time). In any case, the ads you list are not for the same shoe as they are true longwings with separate pieces of leather for the wing and vamp, unlike the Longwing Lite™ style of those under discussion that have the brouges in the single piece of upper leather. However, we will award you 2 points for your research, exemplary, as always, and a further 1 point for the included puns.

Like a cheap piece of leather, I stand corrected. Here are two images from 1974 adverts showing the correct "faux" style of long wing brogue. These were cheaper shoes, and although the images below show a scotch grain option, I think it is unlikely that expensive exotic leathers would have been used on a lower priced shoe. Tea tomorrow?

 

[CWOyaji]

The Sanders England wingtips from yesterday:

After brushing, VSC, Bick 4 with the 3200 grit sanding cloth and Saphir Medium Brown cream polish

Spoiler: The Salvation Army delivers again

 

[Paul902]

Like a cheap piece of leather, I stand corrected. Here are two images from 1974 adverts showing the correct "faux" style of long wing brogue. These were cheaper shoes, and although the images below show a scotch grain option, I think it is unlikely that expensive exotic leathers would have been used on a lower priced shoe. Tea tomorrow? View attachment 1324752 View attachment 1324753

You are getting closer. Now just find the ad for the more expensive exotic hide version. I'll let you fondle my McHales and see what you think.

A cuppa would be great. I have a nice loose leaf black from the Malaysian Cameron Highlands you should try. Colonialism at its finest!

 

[Jiqea]

Spurred on by your challenge, I extended my search into the late 70's and early 80's. The 3rd ad below is from 1978 and mentions grain leather, while the first two are from 1983 (Edmonton journal) and 100% show the shoe in question but make no mention of the leather type. One would think if it was made with leather from exotic leather they would have mentioned it. We may need to resort to DNA testing!

 

[Paul902]

For those of you who do not frequent the Canadian vintage thread, here is a pair of Macfarlane RCMP 1/4 Wellingtons, replete with spur boxes, that I am cleaning up and shipping out to a friend. @Jiqea thinks they are early 1950s and he is never wrong! We think that because the sock liners show "The Macfarlane Shoe" whereas in 1956 Macfarlane merged with Lefaivre and we then see both names on the sock liners.

 

[Oshare]

What's up with the heel? Why is it so incised?

View attachment 1324508

Yeah, I see that fairly often on old shoes. It might be interesting to post that in the shoe repair thread and see if one of the resident cobblers can shed some light on it, but my guess is that the cork bed in the heel has basically been flattened paper-thin from pavement pounding, and so the heel basically just caved in.

Probably the only way to really fix that is a full re-craft, including replacement of the welt.

 

[friendlygoz]

AE shark Nassaus for church today.

 

[Nealjpage]

Two things to rant about:

1) I found a good AE Bridgeton in one of the bins at Goodwill As-Is. I stress "a". As in the right shoe. The left one was no where to be found. I am choosing to believe that it was donated by a one-legged man.

2) I am a new eBay seller. I have listed 5 items, and sold two of them. However, eBay is limiting my listings for each category (i.e. mens dress shoes) to an unknown number for an undermined amount of time. So these three other pairs I have to list have to languish until, I guess, eBay feels like I can sell them.

Rant over. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

[Raimar]

https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/84696268

https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/84620890

 

[Raimar]

https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/84698902

 

[suitforcourt]

Shell to start off the week. I bought a few fairly cheap, labelled as horse hair brushes. I believe they are pig hair because they are much stiffer than my confirmed horse hair brushes. A few minutes last night brushing brought these to glory. Wishing you all a great week ahead.

 

[woofmang]

Shell to start off the week. I bought a few fairly cheap, labelled as horse hair brushes. I believe they are pig hair because they are much stiffer than my confirmed horse hair brushes. A few minutes last night brushing brought these to glory. Wishing you all a great week ahead. View attachment 1325218 View attachment 1325219

Totally agree on the pig bristle brush for shell; it works much better than horsehair.

 

[drewzter]

Purchased these elegant bad boys recently and I am aware they are crockett and jones and what tannery box calf they used, but I wonder around what year they were made.

X-post but I feel these will be appreciated here.

 

[Nobleprofessor]

I have the same shoe in black, and I thought they were some type of embossed calf, but I could be wrong on that. My pair were made in Canada at the McHale factory in the mid 70's. The McHale factory was the only one in Canada to ever make Florsheim, and this medallion pattern shows up on quite a few of their shoes. I am reasonably certain this is what you have,

View attachment 1324481 View attachment 1324482 View attachment 1324483

This makes much more sense. It looked like a lovely shoe, but it didn’t look like it was from the 50s or the American Florsheim factory to me.

@Nobleprofessor, great shoes! I think they are exotic leather, but not camel. I just sold a pair of Dack's camel (marked as such) today and the grain is deeper, with fewer fine lines, as seen below.

View attachment 1324584 View attachment 1324585

I've previously sold Canadian Florshiems like you've found, and I have a similar pair for myself by McHale.
Florsheim:
View attachment 1324586
McHale:
View attachment 1324587


@Jiqea, having seen these in the flesh, as it were, I disagree that that are embossed calf. I think the brown shows this easier than the black, so we'll let you off the hook this time.

I gather that you are not impressed with my embossed hypotheses You might be right on that one, but I remember doing some research on them last year and determining that they were impressively embossed. Attached are two adverts from 1976 and I believe they show the same shoe, with one referring to them as Coventry grain and the second calling it Antelope grain. I should also note that the Tuscany was the only full brogue long wing that Florsheim advertised in Canada in the 1970's. However in absence of a less grainy image I cede the field to you. Of course this means I get first pick of the shoes the next time we are out thrifting!!!

View attachment 1324718 View attachment 1324719

Like a cheap piece of leather, I stand corrected. Here are two images from 1974 adverts showing the correct "faux" style of long wing brogue. These were cheaper shoes, and although the images below show a scotch grain option, I think it is unlikely that expensive exotic leathers would have been used on a lower priced shoe. Tea tomorrow? View attachment 1324752 View attachment 1324753

Spurred on by your challenge, I extended my search into the late 70's and early 80's. The 3rd ad below is from 1978 and mentions grain leather, while the first two are from 1983 (Edmonton journal) and 100% show the shoe in question but make no mention of the leather type. One would think if it was made with leather from exotic leather they would have mentioned it. We may need to resort to DNA testing!

View attachment 1324817 View attachment 1324818 View attachment 1324821

Whoa! I ignited a little bit of a fire. But, on the plus side, anything that causes a good discussion of the history of Florsheim is always a good thing! It expands our knowledge and appreciation of the brand.

After seeing all the posts and ads, I think the ad from @Jiqea is probably the right one. Some kind of cool grained leather that looks exotic but is simply very interestingly pattern calf.

My original guess about 1950’s was just a guess and I based it on the fact that these looked much different than other Florsheim from 60’s and 70’s. Either way, they are very cool in my mind.

I’ll try to take more detailed pictures because they are much too small for me and I will likely sell or trade them. They are (I think) size 9. I can’t read the lettering inside. But, they are a little smaller than the NOS 9.5 Florsheim Varsity. The Kow Hoo Shell Cordovan Tassel Loafers are the same size. I suspect they came from the same person.

On another historical Florsheim note, my choice for today is one I deem to be very special.

These are made to order suede LWB. They are one of my very favorite pair of all my shoes! I have never seen another pair in person and have only seen a handful of Vintage Suede Florsheim online. I can accurately date them — thanks to Vcleat. The Vcleat is flush with outside and the date code indicates these are from 1967.