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Vintage Spectator Shoes



To get the ball rolling, here are some of mine: they're all vintage '30s and '40s.

-- Marc


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5,927
Location
Sydney Australia
Nunn-Bush 1930s
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nunnbush1930sspecsmd1.jpg


1930s B&W
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The famous AE for Henry Gretel 1992 Olympic specs
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Foot Joy B&Ws
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Florsheims
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Spanish B&Ws
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5,927
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Sydney Australia
Some Nice New Spectator Pix

Altans
1940s co-respondents.. see you in court?
1940s specs
1950s Florsheim Two Tones
J&Ms 1930s

Waist?...you want waist?...I got waist
Meshmammas
Nettletons
French Shriner
Vintage AEs
 

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5,927
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Some Nice New Spectator Pix

endicottjohnsonspecs florsheim specs

joseph corcoran specs


lord douglas specs = on a par with Chevalier quality?

osullivans ventilated spex wild boar ventilated

Enjoy!
 

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5,927
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Sydney Australia
A new pair of UK Specs

dundeedavie said:
i really fancy a pair of shoes made from something endangered ...i have ostrich and kangaroo already

Mate those hopping things are not endangered we eat their meat over here.



By the way here is a nice UK pair form the 20s -30s:

 

RetroRich

New in Town
Messages
32
Location
Essex Badlands,London
3 pairs of Co-respondants i've been struggling to wear this anglo-aquatic summer..if it rains any more,i'm gonna cover them in scales & stick fins on them!!

Crockett & Jones Navy/White apron-front Gibsons.

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Trickers Tan/White cap-toe Oxfords.

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Stuart Chocolate/White Oxford Brogues.

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Warbaby

One Too Many
Messages
1,549
Location
The Wilds of Vancouver Island
Thought y'all might find some amusement in this exerpt on spectators or co-respondents from Michael Quinion's World Wide Words newsletter. It's from a longer article on the British Government's efforts to simplify legal language.

---

"Even if government proposals stamp out "co-respondent" from the
legal system, it will be retained in "co-respondent shoes", those
two-tone horrors that for most men went out with the lounge lizards
of the 1930s (they're also called spectator shoes). A G MacDonell
wrote in How Like an Angel in 1934 about "Those singularly
repulsive shoes of black and white which are called co-respondents
(quite wrongly called, incidentally, for co-respondents at least
get or give some fun and these shoes do neither)." In view of the
male bias of the term, it is notable that one of the most famous
wearers of the shoes was the divorced Wallis Simpson, whose love
affair with Edward VIII caused his abdication in 1936.

The shoes are said to have got that name because they were often
left outside hotel rooms, ostensibly to be cleaned, as an easily
identifiable signal that hanky-panky should be assumed to be taking
place within. This was because the only permitted cause for divorce
at the time was adultery by one partner. For a couple to arrange a
divorce in an amicable way, one member - it was commonly the man -
had to be caught in flagrante with another woman. A minor industry
grew up in which housemaids in hotels augmented their meagre wages
by giving evidence of having found the supposedly adulterous couple
in bed together. This origin for the shoes' name could just be a
tale, of course. The true source may be just that in the 1930s they
were the fashionable wear of a spivvy male type, which the Belfast
Telegraph described in a piece of April 2007 about the cad: "Once
you could tell him from 20 yards away by his Tattersall check
waistcoat. Or the co-respondent shoes. Or his driving gloves. No
gentleman would be seen dead wearing any of them, and the thing
about the cad is that he lacks the instincts of a gentleman."

Though fundamental changes in divorce law has long since abolished
this mucky and degrading business, the term has survived. Indeed, I
am told that co-respondent shoes are making a comeback. Their name
will provide a continuing link to a part of British social history
thankfully now over."

(World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2008. All rights
reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewords.org.
You may reproduce this newsletter in whole or part in free online
newsletters, newsgroups or mailing lists provided that you include
the copyright notice above.}
 

=Clipper=

One of the Regulars
Messages
126
Location
Redlands, CA
Great thread!

I'm going to attempt at bringing these back to life this week and will post pictures of my progress. Just bought these early this year. I was told these were from the 30's. I had them re-soled and bought new laces. More later...

spectatorshr0.jpg


=Adrian=
 

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=Clipper= said:
Great thread!

I'm going to attempt at bringing these back to life this week and will post pictures of my progress. Just bought these early this year. I was told these were from the 30's. I had them re-soled and bought new laces. More later...

spectatorshr0.jpg


=Adrian=


Adrian I fooled around with a pair of 1940s bucks on brown shoes that had not been touched for 20 years and was sorry. Apart from removing the dust on the buckskin don't play around too much with the white part and leave the Patina. The brown part looks like it needs a bit of Lexol or leather conditioner.
 

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A couple of beauties from OFAS

French Shriner and Urner with fabulous "spade soles":



Alden Specs:Unusual scalloped side treatment



ET Wright Specs c1940s spade soles



McCafees:

 

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