Book Shoes
Empire State Building
New York
Circa 1931-35
Antique 6-Eyelet “Spade Sole” Cap-Toe Half Brogue Oxford
Euro 850

This is a jobber shoe made for Book Shoes, one of the original super-luxury stores occupying the ground floor retail spaces of the then newly built Empire State Building. This shoe is entirely original with its Spade-shaped Goodyear welted sole sculpted over a steel shank, sewn with contrasting twine and with original O’Sullivan’s rubber heel.

Size Details:

Shoe Condition:

New and unworn. The tops are as new, the leather unmarked and soft and supple as new, astonishing for a shoe that is three-quarters of a century old. These are a wearable museum piece, one of the treasures of American shoemaking, a collector's item of the highest order.
The heels of this generation, when rubber, were most often provided by the O'Sullivan Rubber Company, the late 19th century invention of a printer, Humphrey O'Sullivan, intended to provide better traction in his print shop. O'sullivan eventually patented the idea and supplied rubber heels to shoe manufacturers across America.