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This is the shoe for dances and dress up and it is often elaborately decorated. They are your basic pump, but note the heel. Almost all of the ladies shoes of the period have this style of heel. The toe can be boxy or pointed but the heel should always have the curve front and back. The exception is the Escarpin or ballet slipper. Strictly for the ball room they were worn as slip-ons or laced like a ballerina.
Shoe colors noted in 1861 were black, white, mauve, violet, green, blue, red, "cuir" and "Havana" color (? tan and cigar brown ?) Colors often matched clothes but some women liked a shock of color under somber dress. Very stylish women would also wear "clocked" stockings with their dress shoes. "Clock work" was a fancy pattern embroidered or woven into the stocking.
Original drawings by Bridget Carson