Pattens again!

I am fascinated almost to the point of obsession regarding pattens. I wrote about them here and here. And below is another pair!

 

From the website where I found these:

"Pattens were worn to lift the shoe out of the dirt and damp. Being somewhat heavy and clumsy, they were mainly used by working-class or country women.
These pattens, however, have pointed toes to fit a fashionable woman's shoe and a depression at the back where a small heel could sit. The shoe would have been fastened into the patten by means of ribbon-laced latchets. All this, and the fact that the latchets are covered in velvet, suggests that the patterns were worn by someone of considerable wealth."

UPDATE:
PATTENS ARE BACK!

They probably never went out of style. But when this came scrolling across my dash I was happier than a puppy with two tails. Not that I'd ever wear these, but it seems that everything old is new again. As it says in Ecclesiastes 1:9:

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Iris Van Herpen Ready To Wear Spring Summer 2016 Paris / NOWFASHION.com

Thom Browne Ready To Wear Spring Summer 2016 New York / NOWFASHION.com

Pattens -- Fancy ones this time!

Remember when I wrote about pattens? Today we wear overshoes or boots, but in the middle ages and forward, people wore pattens to keep their feet dry or out of the mud. Look at these 18th century beauties! 

 

Aren't these just delicious? I'm not sure how well they kept one's shoes tidy in deep mud, but the thought of a dainty lady wearing these to protect her new shoes is fascinating, isn't it? The pattens are as pretty as the shoe!

Artifacts from the Mary Rose

In my last post, I wrote about Carracks--the type of ships that Jacques Cartier sailed in when exploring what is now the area of Newfoundland.

I also mentioned the ship, the Mary Rose, which sank on July 15, 1545 and was discovered and resurrected from the depths in 1982.

This post highlights some of the artifacts from this ship. Its discovery gives modern historians the clearest revelations of day to day Medieval life ever studied. From shoes, to musical instruments, many things can be learned from this incredible find. I am using these artifacts to help me in my research of my book on Jacques Cartier.

A collection of daggers. It's amazing how preserved the hilts are.

 

 Lantern (above) and candle holder (below lantern). When you realize how much the Tudors relied on fire to see at night it's amazing that more fires didn't occur aboard rocking ships.

 

A comb and its leather pouch. If you look really close at the right hand side of the fine toothed comb in the first pic above you'll see a 500 year old nit!

 

Leather bucket.

 Wooden bucket.

Wooden tankard. Sailors were rationed a gallon of beer a day. 

Carpentry tools. Imagine trying to build a ship or home with tools like these.

Rigging blocks and their pulleys. Even some of the rope is preserved. Amazing.

 This is part of an anchor rope. Check out this video to see how huge it is. For those who are landlocked (like me here in Indiana) it's hard to visualize these things in real life. This video was a revelation!

It's been amazing fun researching this book. Now I'm back in the cave putting all the pieces together on paper! When you read the book, you just might see some of the interesting artifacts mentioned here.