Conservation around the Millennium (Hungarian National Museum, 2001)
Pages - 99
• The outsole was nailed to the last in the medial axis at two or three places. • A sewing channel was made on the interior surface with deepening a channel into the leather. • The cut out and stitched elements of the inner part were drawn on the last with the inside out and they were adjusted to the edges of the sole (if the vamp was ornamented, it was trimmed or embroidered after it was cut out). • The upper was sewn to the sole all around until the heel with two needles, so that one needle was first stitched into the edge of the upper and the other into the channel in the leather of the sole to the middle of the depth (hidden stitch). This is why the sewing cannot be seen on the outer surface of the sole. • If the insole leather was not glued, it was sewn together with the upper, after the stiff shank-piece had been inserted under it. This was a round or oblong-shaped stiff piece of leather. • A rounded triangular leather counter was sewn into heel section of the upper, usually with hidden binding stitch. • At the back of the shank, the leather that covered the heel was inserted between the leathers of the upper and the sole before sewing was continued. • When sewing was completed all around, the shoe was turned back. • The wooden heel was fitted to the outsole, and the (probably slightly wet) covering leather was smoothed over the wooden heel and it was stitched along the edges with two needles to the sole leather that leaned against the frontal part of the heel. The drying leather tightens firmly on the wooden heel.11 • The sole of the heel was fixed to the bottom of the heel with a wooden peg. • The throat of the upper, the wide tongue, the overlapping straps, the side and back stitches were hemmed with decorative narrow silk ribbons. • In the case of low-cut shoes, first a twisted ribbon was fixed to the throat, which was tied in a bow. With pulling the ribbon, the instep could be widened or narrowed to match the size of the foot. RESTORATION Shoes as three dimensional objects, need special treatment, the more so because of the diversity of the raw materials. Due to the different properties of these raw materials (leather, wood, metal, textile) the various restoration techniques must be harmonised. So practical work provided an occasion for the development of combined methods beside the use of traditional treatments.12 Shoe restoration is difficult because the relatively small and closed shape makes handling complicated. This initiated the inventions of new special solutions.13 The shoes found in crypts, which, for a restorer are transitional items between archaeological finds and historical remnants, often seem intact and coherent at the uncovery. When they are cleaned, however, the weakened and ragged thread does not keep together the parts of the shoe, and they fall apart.14 The shoes, that fell to parts during uncovery and have great gaps (as e.g. in coffin no. 111) should not be completed. The fragments have to be conserved and a reconstruction can be made from the information they yield. Three restorers carried out the primary treatment of the finds at the uncovery of the crypt in Vác and their preparation for transport. Local treatment included 99
