1 2 Buckle My Shoe Mp3 Download
Carmen Martinez
Am I the only person that encounters this? I realize that I'm not as flexible as I used to be, but damn. I have a couple of pairs of shoes that have these super-tight buckles on the outside of my ankle. I have to contort myself to reach them and it has actually caused pain remaining in that position for the length of time to put the damn shoes on.
On the other hand, if the buckle were on the inside of my foot, I could quite easily cross my leg and put the shoe on. Why isn't this the default? Anther reason: when I was younger and more flexible, I would sit with crossed legs on the floor comfortably, unless I wore sandles. The buckle would dig into my ankle. If it were on the inside of my foot, I wouldn't notice it.
Founded under the name NPS by five men in the village of Wollaston, Northamptonshire, known for its shoe industry, Solovair originally outfitted the British Army and later became the shoe that defined counterculture England through the 1990s.
Last night I had an unexpectedly fruitful hunt at a farm here in eastern Massachusetts. I hope the shoe buckle, mangled, but complete, will admit me to the 1700s club. I know nothing besides what it is and hope we have an expert on these things here. It's on the small side, and the frame is pretty thin, so perhaps it's for a lady or a child?
I expect the material is brass, but surely the pin is steel? If so, I'm surprised it survived. Any info is appreciated!
I'd say you're safely in the 1700's club with that buckle. Nice finds! ? Can't find one like it (it's very simple) in the buckle book, but it's definitely cast, not stamped. Pretty early 18th century.
A listing had appeared on EBay for a pair, not of shoe, but of knee (or breeches) buckles. They fastened up the loose bottom of your short breeches and were much less valuable than shoe buckles of the same period, but here again, had there been some confusion over the hallmarks?
He then very kindly sold me some buckles with the BB mark and like you we also collaborated on buying these buckles of interest. I let him win the auction, he recorded the buckles on his database and kindly sold them to me?.
\u201CWatch out\u201D Mum said, as we were manning the stand at yet another busy Sunday Antiques fair in the heart of London, back in the mists of time. A slightly eccentric figure was directly approaching the stand, heading towards us and our cabinets with intent. He was almost Professorial in looks, were it not for the large, homemade, placard he was wearing, fashioned from string and cardboard, hanging about his neck, which no one could fail to miss (well, that of course was the point). It bore the legend, emphatically and boldly applied in dark black marker pen \u201CI BUY BUCKLES\u201D. That was to be the first ever time I was to meet my buckle guru.
Years and friendship followed and I, always reluctant in the extreme to socialise with anyone, was gently coaxed to visit him and his wife for the odd day. Lunch would be provided and we would talk all things silver and indeed all things buckle. My interest in the very niche field of silver buckles had always been centred around any odd provincial makers or marks, but my buckle guru\u2019s knowledge and researches went far, far deeper than that.
Visit after visit (I was happy to return and more surprisingly they were happy to invite me) I just listened, listened and listened. Sensibly keeping my mouth shut. At first it was curiosity and politeness to charming hosts, but as with all things, if you listen to a real expert on their subject, talking passionately and informatively about it for long enough, you get suckered in. Probably by my third visit it was too late to turn back and the buckle-bug had bitten me, though I didn\u2019t know it at the time.
I\u2019d already learnt in that very short but intensive while, to look at different styles and periods of buckles, to appreciate the work of particular makers and to realise that nothing, well almost nothing, had been written on the subject.
One small tome existed, written many years ago by a now famous television \u201CArt Detective\u201D whilst he was still at school. That I was told was \u201Ca good attempt\u201D but also that \u201Cover fifty percent of it was rubbish\u201D. Beyond that only a brief, but reliable, paperback guide from Northamptonshire Museum Services existed (due to the towns famous association with Shoe making and their local Museum\u2019s buckle collection). My buckle guru had bought the last few of copies of it when they were remaindered for 50p each and then let me have one for a tenner! His genteel demeanour fooled many but he was sharper than a razor. Still no good book can ever cost too much, and this was still a bargain at ten pounds.
I gradually came to realise the general lack of interest in and rather stagnant market of, silver buckles, was in no small part due to the efforts of my mentor. When he did find a competitor collector (it must be said, a rare beast indeed) he would befriend them, advise them and ultimately \u201Cnobble them\u201D (his own words). I hadn\u2019t been any kind of a threat in that vein, though I was always able to help in identifying odd marks which weren\u2019t his main area of study. When I eventually confessed a burgeoning interest in buying the odd buckle myself, I thought it would have been in very poor taste to go up against him after all the knowledge he had shared with me. So after tentative negotiations I arrived at a niche little area of buckles to satisfy my interest and wants which in no way conflicted with his. But we also agreed that if any provincial buckles turned up I would probably still at least try to buy them and that it would be the case of \u201Clet the best man win\u201D and we were both fine with that, a mutually agreed \u201Cnobbling\u201D of one another.
It was probably only a year or two later that I saw a pair of fine large Georgian silver shoe buckles catalogued as \u201CBirmingham, indistinct marks\u201D in an auction in Yorkshire. I knew the saleroom well and had visited many times. An old converted cinema, with a cafe next door that served gigantic sausage, bacon and egg cobs for just a couple of pounds. I thought they might be something interesting, not Birmingham at all, though I was also attracted to them by their size and also by the prospect of the sausage, bacon and egg cob I would enjoy if I had to go up and collect them.
Buckles, pairs of shoe buckles, were made in all sizes, though some were ridiculously large (often called \u201CArtois\u201D buckles, named after Louis XVI\u2019s brother, the Comte D\u2019Artois who sported frankly enormous buckles in the British Court whilst serving as Ambassador). My buckle guru explained more than once, in a disheartened tone, that these giant buckles, because of their weighty bullion value, rarely survived. They were Courtly objects of fashion and fashions quickly changed. Imagine going to Court to be seen in last Season\u2019s buckles?! Could there be a greater disgrace? So, often, these whoppers were exchanged with Goldsmiths, the value of the silver or gold put against the price of something newer, better and of the very latest style.
This was why spotting a large marked, possibly \u201Cnot Birmingham\u201D pair in the wild was an event simply too tempting to resist. Unspoken, both I and my mentor bid for the large buckles, neither of us daring to confess to the other that we\u2019d spotted them. I later found out he hadn\u2019t been quite sure of what the marks on the buckles were (apart from being certain that they weren\u2019t Birmingham), which is probably why I, quite unexpectedly, ended up the victor.
On my next visit I did the decent thing and took the buckles along with me to show him, to add to his database and put another small brick into the \u201Cknowledge wall\u201D. I disclosed that whilst they did bear anchor marks (the Birmingham town mark and understandable cause of the Auctioneer\u2019s confusion) they were in fact Scottish and Scottish Provincial at that.
In the intervening years I\u2019d seen a lot of buckles, more buckles I suspect than almost anybody else on Earth, except for the buckle-master himself. There were, I can tell you now, desperately few Scottish ones. A few pairs from Edinburgh or Glasgow would turn up, very occasionally. Beyond that Scottish Provincial pairs were insanely rare. If any could be described as \u201Ccommon\u201D (none were) then the title might go to Aberdeen, largely thanks to the efforts of John Leslie and second place maybe to Dundee, maybe. The pair, the large pair I had bought were within the territory of a hen\u2019s tooth, William Hannay of Paisley, an anchor also being a Paisley town mark. They were admired and I was congratulated on the find. Only one other Paisley pair were on his database and he had looked in almost every private and institutional collection around the globe. I had found an honest to goodness gem and years of buckle knowledge having been generously poured in through my eager eyes and ears was finally bearing fruit. Was this then my reward, my \u201Cdestined\u201D find from the Antiques Gods? Well no, just perhaps a bit of luck and the benefit of really looking.
I didn\u2019t know it at the time but it would only be a good eight or nine years later that the story eventually found its end. In that time the visits continued, the looking continued, the joy of Antiques continued, until the day I again saw a description of a \u201Cpossibly Birmingham\u201D pair of buckles, though this time they were very, very small.
It had been the policy that I would get my hands (and perhaps something else) chopped off if I went to bid for any buckles on EBay and I was happy to leave my buckle guru to it. However this time I realised these were probably, possibly, Paisley, despite the bad pictures on the listing, so it wouldn\u2019t strictly be breaking our accord of many years. At least that\u2019s what I told myself.
df19127ead