boot pair

Pair of boots in sealskin (legs have lost hair), decorated with cotton embroidery in green, blue, red and purple, sole in suede-like hide, tan colour, toes pleated, red thread around tongue/sole seam. 'Made by Mrs Lane, a half-caste, for Sir William Macgregor in 1906.' Two slip catalogue entries (7+4 and 7+1) share same ABDUA number. Inscription: Paper label: Boots embroidered with floral design Port Burwell Labrador Bequested by Sir W. Macgregor

Macgregor, William Sir

Early: 1906 Late: 1906

Macgregor, William Sir

hide seal.skin caribou.skin cotton thread

H: 420 mm L(sole): 250 mm L(leg): 355 mm H:

North.America Canada Labrador NorthEast Port.Burwell

The Inuit of Arctic America needed warm, snowproof and windproof clothing to live and work in the sub-zero temperatures that prevail there. For this they used the skins of the animals they hunted for food, such as seal, caribou, whale, walrus, bear, birds and fish. They used sinew for thread. It was important to have good boots, these were cut out, in three pieces, and sewn by the women, who had to spend much time chewing the edges of the pieces of hide before it was sewn together to make it soft enough to pierce with a needle. This is a pair of boots made of seal-skin, from which the hair has now gone. They are sewn together with sinew and embroidered with floral designs in bright-coloured purple, blue, green and red cotton thread. There was an edging of red thread at the seam where the sole joins the tongue and the sole is pleated very finely at the toe to fit it to the tongue and to make space for the foot. The cotton thread was probably traded from Europeans, but the technique of making them is Inuit. The boots were made in 1906 by Mrs Lane, who was half Inuit, for William Macgregor at Port Burwell, Labrador, Canada. These boots were the most effective type of footwear in the Arctic, being flexible and giving the wearer good purchase on slippery ice, as well as being warmer than any European boots of the period. Boot-making was an art and Inuit women invested many hours in preparing skins and sinew, cutting out and in chewing the hide, even young girls and very old women could do this task.