About this lot

Description

The Property of a Deceased Estate, Sold by Order of the Executors A pair of gentleman’s shoes, by repute worn by King Charles I on the day of his execution, Tuesday 30th January 1649 The shoes, supposedly 17th century with low heels and slightly rounded toe, the linen ground now exposed but with remnants of the original black silk overlay, cross over latchets, silk ribbon trim, leather soles, 25.5 cm. Sold with letters and other documentation relating to the shoes’ supposed history and their provenance. The Leathes family who came into possession of the shoes, probably in the 18th century, purchased Dale Head (now Dale Head) near Keswick in 1577, which included Lake Thirlmere (formerly Leatheswater) and they sold the entire property to Manchester Corporation in 1879 so that Thirlmere could become a reservoir to supply water to the city. The majority of the landed classes in Cumberland were Royalists in the Civil War and this would explain why the Leathes would have wanted to acquire alleged memorabilia of ‘Charles the Martyr’. The circumstances and date of the shoes being given to the Stanger-Leathes by one of Charles I’s Pages, as well as the latter’s identity, are unknown. When the later owners of these shoes, The Earls of Lonsdale, sold the contents of Lowther Castle in 1947, they did not appear in the sale catalogue as they apparently were in a locked drawer of a cabinet containing coins and medals. Provenance: By tradition given by one of the late King’s Pages to Thomas Stanger- Leathes of Dale Head Hall, near Keswick, Cumberland, Presented by him to Crosthwaite’s Museum, Keswick (founded 1784), Sold at Rydal Hall, Grasmere when the museum closed in 1870, to the Lowther Family of Lowther Castle; Lowther Castle sale – on the premises – April, May & June 1947; Thereafter with Copper & Adams, By whom sold at Sotheby’s sometime before 1949 where Acquired by Bryan Hall of Barton Turf, Norfolk, His sale at The Old Rectory, Banningham, 22-24th March 2004, Lot 1495 When acquired by the late owner. Exhibited: London, Antique Dealers Fair, 1947 by Copper & Adams Literature: Catalogue of Crosthwaite’s Museum, Printed by Thomas Bailey,1826, p.44; George Bott, interview with Cumberland and Westmorland Herald, 'George Bott recalls Keswick museum Giant’s shoes among the odd and bizarre', Saturday 3rd October, 1998; Eastern Daily Press, 4th June 2004, Collectors Corner, page 5.

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