I find this miniature shoe quite extraordinary, unusual for being crafted of leather rather than wood, with no sign that it ever had a lid to function as a snuff box, and with a level of detail that suggest it may have been made as a salesman sample, with a numbered label on that bottom that might reinforce that notion (?) If not, a very very finely crafted whimsy! The leather is very hard, feeling almost like wood, but is decorated with fantastic hand-tooled patterns (I assume tooled, though looking almost as if drawn with black ink.) Bone inlays on the upper, and on the sole and heel too. Really a marvelous, unique lthing I think, which I would guess dates to the mid 19th century or so.
5" long x 2" tall x 1 1/4" wide and in very good antique condition, stable and sturdy and beautiful. Some minor surface cracking to the leather (detail photos shot at 2-3x maginification) and two very small eye shaped holes in the outer layer of the leather (not going all the way through) near the heel which I believe likely once housed additional small bone inlays; I don't believe these detract at all.
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