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18th Century Pattens

The Linkspages at Larsdatter.com

Additional Resources

Foul-Weather Footwear: Pattens, Recreating (and Wearing) a Pair of 18thc Pattens, and So Who Wore Round-Ring Pattens in the 18th Century?

Metal Pattens, Awkward Protection for 18th and 19th Century Shoes

Pattens in the 18th Century – a sensible way of keeping dresses off the filthy streets

Patten rings found in the Thames by Lara Maiklem, and more patten rings found in the United Kingdom and recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme

Last updated: Dec 11, 2024

Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language defines a “patten” as

A ſhoe of wood with an iron ring, worn under the common ſhoe by women.

The V&A provides some additional context:

Pattens were worn to lift the shoe out of the dirt and damp. Being somewhat heavy and clumsy, they were mainly used by working-class or country women.

A patten is also depicted on the trade card of Leah Richier, Last & Patten-Maker, c. 1786, who “Makes & Sells all Sorts of Lasts Pattins Shoetrees & Boottrees Wholesale & Retail at Reasonable Rates Where Merchants Country Chapmen & others may be Supplyd to Their Satisfaction, Likewise any Person may be Fited with a Last Shoetree or Patten to their Foot or Shoe.”

Pehr Kalm remarks on the use of pattens in 1748 in his Account of His Visit to England:

English women generally have the character of keeping floors, steps, and such things very clean. They are not particularly pleased if anyone comes in with dirty shoes, and soils their clean floors, but he ought first to rub his shoes and feet very clean, if he would be at peace with them in other things. Hence it is that outside every door there stands a fixed iron, on which the men scrape the mould, and other dirt off their shoes before they step in. The women leave in the passage their pattins, this is, a kind of wooden shoes which stand on a high iron ring. Into these wooden shoes they thrust their ordinary leather, or stuff, shoes (when they go out) and so go by that means quite free from all dirt into the room. In the hall or passage, and afterwards at every door, though there were ever so many one within the other, there lies a mat, or something else, to still more carefully rub the soil off the shoes, so that it is never, in short, sufficiently rubbed off.

Several of the depictions of women wearing pattens (also linked below) are of maids who are using mops.

Extant examples of 18th century pattens

  • Fitting & Proper has a pair of pattens, c. 1700-1800, “wooden soles riveted to wrought iron platforms with straps of brown leather lined with off-white wool”
  • 17th/18th century flat-soled patten
  • London Museum A15678, a leather and iron patten, c. 1701-1720
  • A broken piece of a patten found in an old stone house in England
  • Met 2009.300.1485a, b, a pair of European pattens
  • DHM (the lower two examples; the upper one is medieval)
  • London Museum A3635, “patten with wooden sole, two black leather straps and curved metal ring base,” 1710-1720
  • V&A T.43&A-1932, a pair of pattens made in Great Britain in the 1720s to 1730s; “These pattens … have pointed toes to fit a fashionable woman’s shoe and a depression at the back where a small heel could sit. The shoe would have been fastened into the patten by means of ribbon-laced latchets. All this, and the fact that the latchets are covered in velvet, suggests that the patterns were worn by someone of considerable wealth.”
  • London Museum 88.61/33, the iron from a patten recovered from the Thames, probably made c. 1725-1765
  • Manchester 1922.1795, c. 1750-1790; “Black leather with oval iron stands, pink silk ribbon bows, pointed toes.”
  • SONS 2739, Connecticut, late 18th century
  • Met 2009.300.1640a, b, a pair of pattens made in America in the late 18th century
  • Two pairs of pattens from the late 18th or 19th century
  • MFA 44.571a-b, French, early 19th century; “Dark brown leather straps buckle over instep; leather quarters. Square toe. Wood sole mounted on iron ring.”
  • PMA 1903-68, United States, early 19th century

Depictions of women wearing pattens