Pair of celluloid heels

A pair of wooden heels covered in black coloured celluloid (cellulose nitrate) with paste stone and metal stud decoration, circa 1920s. Likely an unused sample pair, one of the heels is slightly higher than the other but both have missing stones: four from the smaller heel and two from the other example. This provides evidence of how the stones were held in place originally, ie. glued into a pre-drilled hole. Wooden heels could be supplied as plain blanks or first covered and decorated, sold ready to be attached to the shoe. Covering with celluloid involved sheets being cut to the required size and shape, then softened to be workable. The heel would be clamped in a jack and the cover stretched around it, glued in place. The material could be coloured to imitate a variety of natural materials such as tortoiseshell, ivory and mother-of-pearl. Celluloid heel coverings were used towards the end of the Victorian period (the British Xylonite works first started manufacturing celluloid covered boot heels in 1896), but became particularly popular during the 1920s for elaborately decorated women's evening shoes.

stamped: "38" (top of heel)

handwritten: "4655" (top of heel)

AIBDC : 009531