Shoemaking
Description:... "Shoemaking is a subject about which most people are blissfully ignorant although with a little encouragement, they will complain about the shoes they wear. Before the 1920s, however, everyone knew the local cobbler, a worthy representative of the 'gentle craft', who repaired shoes and made them look like new for a few pence. Thsi Album tells the story of shoemaking from the days of the isolated shoemaker, who made a shoe right through, to the groups of men who worked with apprentices in the larger towns and served the customer direct. It shows the growth of mass production in the seventeenth century, with a recognisable factory system na d warehouses in the city. In 1725 Defoe dressed his typical Englishman in shoes from Northampton, a town which became synonymous with shoemaking. Finally the book shows the late development of mechaisation in the 1850s and the rigidity it imposed. Today there is a hint of a return to the more civilised way of working of former times."--Back cover
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