Images(2)

Shoe Buckles

Date1790-1795

OriginEngland, London

MediumSterling silver, ferrous metals

DimensionsLength: 2 ½ inches, Width, 2 1/8 inches

Credit LineGift of the Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA

Object number2023-239,A&B

DescriptionAn arched silver shoe buckle with an incomplete set of hallmarks (standard mark, duty mark, and makers mark only) The open worked buckle is made of silver with an small rectangle with rounded corners set within and larger one conjoined with small ovals. The chapes are made of steel with a distinctive tear drop shape on the tines found on other Kirkham buckles
Label TextMen and women fashionably wore shoe buckles from about the 1660s to the end of the 18th century. This buckle dates to the early 1790s. It was given by Elizabeth Anne Valentine Grey (1822-1919) to the Valentine Museum in 1905. She was born to late to have worn these buckles but they may have belonged to her father, Mann Satterwhite Valentine I (1786-1865). Her brother was the founder of the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia.
MarkingsIncomplete set of hallmarks (standard mark, duty mark, and makers mark only "TK")
ProvenanceBefore 1905, Elizabeth Anne Valentine Grey [1822-1919] (Richmond, VA); 1905 given The Valentine Museum (Richmond, VA); 2023-present, given to The Colonial Williamsburg (Williamsburg, VA)