The Powerhouse Museum is located in Australia, of all places, a country not exactly known for its skill in fine shoemaking. Yet 1942 was the year when Powerhouse acquired a unique collection of footwear gathered from all corners of the Earth by the Box family, renowned shoemakers in England. These holders of seven royal warrants held sway for the whole 19th century until John Lobb Ltd. took over their remnants in the ’40s. Shoe historian and bard of shoe lore, June Swann, catalogued The Joseph Box Collection in 1993 for future generations of shoe nerds everywhere. It’s a long, long way to Sydney but the Keikari reader may indulge in more than 300 examples from the collection at Powerhouse’s website. A few links below lead to the treasure — and the legends are true; 20 or more stitches per inch on the welt.

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‘The Joseph Box shoe company was an important London shoemaking business established in 1808 by a ‘ladies shoemaker’ called James Sly. From 1816 Sly’s apprentice was Robert Dixon Box, the fifteen-year-old son of a bankrupted Quaker attorney. Box became manager of the business when Sly died in 1826, subsequently attaining a reputation for fine shoemaking through participation at international exhibitions and by obtaining Royal Warrants. The business became known as Joseph Box Ltd in 1862 after it was transferred to Robert’s son, Joseph. Like his father, Joseph started in the trade at the age of 15, but retired at the relatively early age of 42 to enable his daughters to enter society. Although he transferred the business to his cousins the Box Kinghams in 1882, Joseph maintained an active interest in shoemaking through collecting. Some of the shoes in the collection feature a remarkable 20 stitches to the centimetre exemplifying the attention to detail and quality of workmanship Joseph Box shoes became renowned for. At the end of the century the business was later taken over by royal shoemakers Gundry & Sons, which was itself taken over by John Lobb Ltd some time after 1953.

The Joseph Box collection provides a unique insight into footwear history, demonstrating how changes in contemporary attitudes, needs and etiquette directly affected shoe design. It also reveals the fine skills of shoemakers as well as the impact of scientific developments and technological innovations on the materials and construction methods.’

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=135865&img=152367

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/collection=Joseph_Box