Design
mid 20th century (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This is a shoe design by Florence Campbell, a Jewish-German immigrant who moved to England in the 1940s. She was skilled in German penwork, a popular pastime for young women in Germany in which intricate patterns are created with pen and ink, and began transferring her designs to a range of decorative objects including shoes, bags, compacts and cigarette cases. She developed an unusual decorative technique by which minuscule glass beads were applied to painted decoration, creating a glistening, textured effect. After years of freelance work, selling her designs to various London stores, she took a role with the handbag manufacturer H. Wald & Co., designing and executing beaded designs for their signature 'Waldybags'. She also worked for the shoe manufacturer Rayne in the 1950s, and may have designed this shoe for them.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Drawing in pencil, coloured pen and adhesive paint decorated with minuscule glass beads |
| Brief description | Various designs for painted shoes by Florence Campbell, Great Britain, mid 20th century |
| Physical description | A sheet of paper with 13 designs for painted women's shoes. The designs all show the curved toe of the shoe and are painted with coloured pen and adhesive paint and decorated with miniscule beads. Each design is numbered and annotated with information about the colours to be used. In one example an aspect of the floral decoration has been enlarged and reproduced beneath it. There is also a pencil sketch of a floral decoration on the upper left corner of the page. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Given by Mrs M. Wood |
| Subject depicted | |
| Association | |
| Summary | This is a shoe design by Florence Campbell, a Jewish-German immigrant who moved to England in the 1940s. She was skilled in German penwork, a popular pastime for young women in Germany in which intricate patterns are created with pen and ink, and began transferring her designs to a range of decorative objects including shoes, bags, compacts and cigarette cases. She developed an unusual decorative technique by which minuscule glass beads were applied to painted decoration, creating a glistening, textured effect. After years of freelance work, selling her designs to various London stores, she took a role with the handbag manufacturer H. Wald & Co., designing and executing beaded designs for their signature 'Waldybags'. She also worked for the shoe manufacturer Rayne in the 1950s, and may have designed this shoe for them. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.7-2014 |
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| Record created | November 19, 2013 |
| Record URL |
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